Project Objectives

We see three main developments in the imaging applications of the future, in the PANORAMA project they are referred to as:

Ultra Wide Imaging

• Multiple imaging sourcesand images from different angles
• Multi modalities
• Inter-camera calibration
• Algorithms to merge many views to a panorama or 3D representation

Content Aware Imaging

• What: More intelligent image acquisition about what data to acquire (e.g. automatic ROI)
• How: and how to optimally image the material of interest by analyzing the video content.

Context Aware Imaging

• Cameras become aware of higher-level user needs and the existence of other cameras
• Jointly optimized imaging in multi-camera systems.
• Combine multiple video streams in a more useful and drastically simplified representation.

The Building Blocks

As can be seen in the diagram below, imaging systems of the future will consist of several "Discrete Intelligent Imaging Components." For example, object segmentation is a basic building block of many intermediate and low level image analysis methods. It will be used in an X-ray system to locate anatomical regions of interest and to direct X-ray radiation to that location. In broadcast applications, it can find people's faces and optimize Image Quality for those faces. In a multi-camera setup these imaging parameters will be optimized to provide a consistent display of faces or other regions of interest.

These solutions require the development of imaging sensors with higher resolutions and new pixel architectures. Furthermore, integrated high performance computing hardware will be needed to allow for the real time image processing and system control.

For more information on how the project is organized to achieve these goals: PANORAMA Work Packages.