Outlook

Abstract

The stitching programs presented in the previous chapters only are capable of stitching pictures of the same size and focal length. Additionally, most techniques require that the overlapping areas be manually specified. At the Wilhelm Schickard Institute for Computer Science in the Graphical-Interactive Systems (GRIS) department at the University of Tubingen (Germany), a software is currently being developed that allows the user to stitch pictures with varying focal lengths. The software also is capable of automatically stitching pictures. Overlapping areas are automatically detected, provided that the pictures have a sufficiently high range of contrast. The latter allows the software to detect corresponding points in the individual pictures for the stitching process. Currently, the software application is used to create planar pictures, however capacity for cylindrical and spherical projection of these panoramas is in progress. More information on the status of the software development can be found at: http://www.gris.unituebingen.de/~biber [status: May 12, 2004].