Virtual Camera Ray Tracing for Fish-eye Lens Distortion and Calibration

The fish eye camera model is the basis of the geometric distortion models used in Automotive, which permit more advanced renderings of the worldview, such as the Harmonized Top View and the 3D Bowl View. The virtual camera tutorial aims to cover the fundamentals of the fish eye camera model, detailing the mathematical concepts, and demonstrating how cameras are calibrated using point-edge detection and non-linear optimization.

The tutorial aims to cover all concepts of geometric distortion modelling, calibration and correction, in a pedagogical manner. A particular emphasis is placed on quaternion mathematics and the 6 degrees of freedom. The theory of quaternions is developed from first principles for an engineering perspective. These mathematical concepts are then committed to code (python/tkinter) which will be available to attendees as an open source repository.

The combination of lecture slides, notes and code, serves as both a teaching-learning aid for newcomers to the Automotive field, and as a research and development platform for experienced engineers.