Method and apparatus for generating panoramic images

An apparatus for generating a panoramic image from a set of consecutive image frames, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one memory comprising a buffer, the at least one memory comprising computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform:
• receive the set of consecutive image frames;
• extract a portion of a first image frame from among the set of consecutive image frames to configure an intermediate panoramic image;
• augment the intermediate panoramic image by stitching image frame portions to the intermediate panoramic image, each image frame portion selected from a respective individual image frame in a subset of image frames comprising consecutive image frames from a second image frame to a penultimate image frame from among the set of consecutive image frames, the each image frame portion selected based on a sharpness measure and an overlap measure associated with the respective individual image frame, the overlap measure defined by an overlap criterion related to an amount of overlap and determined based on a comparison of the respective individual image frame with a current state of the intermediate panoramic image, wherein image frame portions having a varying amount of overlap that satisfy the overlap criterion are stored until the amount of overlap for one of the image frame portions is outside of a range of the overlap criterion, then selecting an image frame portion for stitching to the intermediate panoramic image based on the sharpness measure and discarding the image frame portions stored prior to storage of the selected image frame portion, and continuing with the comparison until a last image frame is reached;
• and
• stitch a portion of the last image frame from among the set of consecutive image frames to the augmented intermediate panoramic image to configure the panoramic image.

An apparatus for generating a panoramic image from a set of consecutive image frames, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one memory comprising a buffer, the at least one memory comprising computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform:
• receive the set of consecutive image frames;
• extract a portion of a first image frame from among the set of consecutive image frames to configure an intermediate panoramic image;
• augment the intermediate panoramic image by stitching image frame portions to the intermediate panoramic image, each image frame portion selected from a respective individual image frame in a subset of image frames comprising consecutive image frames from a second image frame to a penultimate image frame from among the set of consecutive image frames, the image frame portions selected by sequentially performing for the consecutive image frames in the subset of image frames:
• determining an extent of disparity between an image frame in the subset of image frames and a current state of the intermediate panoramic image;
• storing at least a part of the image frame as an image frame portion in the buffer if the extent of disparity satisfies a predefined disparity criterion, wherein one or more image frame portions from image frames satisfying the predefined disparity criterion are stored in the buffer until a subsequent image frame not satisfying the predefined disparity criterion is encountered;
• identifying one image frame portion associated with a highest sharpness measure from among the one or more image frame portions stored in the buffer based on sharpness measures associated with respective image frames corresponding to the one or more image frame portions;
• stitching the one image frame portion to the intermediate panoramic image, wherein the current state of the intermediate panoramic image is updated upon stitching of the one image frame portion to the intermediate panoramic image;
• and
• repeating the operations of determining, storing, identifying and stitching for remaining image frames from among the subset of image frames;
• and
• stitch a portion of a last image frame from among the set of consecutive image frames to the augmented intermediate panoramic image to configure the panoramic image.