Stereoscopic (3D) panorama creation on handheld device

A portable camera-enabled device capable of in-camera generation of a panorama image, comprising:

• a lens;
• an image sensor optically coupled to the lens;
• a processor communicably coupled to the image sensor;
• and
• the processor to perform stereoscopic panorama image generation operations comprising:
• acquiring multiple at least partially overlapping image frames of a scene from the lens and image sensor of the portable imaging device panned across the scene;
• extracting a first set of image pieces from a first subset of the multiple at least partially overlapping image frames, each image piece of the first set of image pieces being from a distinct frame of the first subset of the multiple at least partially overlapping image frames than each other image piece of the first set of image pieces;
• constructing a first panoramic image from the first set of image pieces;
• extracting a second set of image pieces from a second subset of the multiple at least partially overlapping image frames, each image piece of the second set of image pieces being from a distinct frame of the second subset of the multiple at least partially overlapping image frames than each other image piece of the second set of image pieces, the first subset of the multiple at least partially overlapping image frames being distinct from the second subset of the multiple at least partially overlapping image frames;
• constructing a second panoramic image from the second set of image pieces;
• determining displacements between an image piece of the first set of image pieces and a corresponding image piece of the second set of image pieces;
• forming, based at least in part on the displacements, a stereoscopic panorama image using the first panoramic image and the second panoramic image;
• and
• storing, transmitting or displaying the stereoscopic panorama image, or combinations thereof.