Panoramic maker engine for a low profile system

A method for generating a panoramic image, comprising:

• receiving a first image;
• projecting the first image onto a cylinder to warp the first image;
• dividing the first image into a first portion and a second portion;
• rotating the first portion of the first image;
• saving the rotated first portion of the first image in a nonvolatile memory;
• receiving a second image;
• projecting the second image onto the cylinder to warp the second image;
• dividing the second image into a third portion and a fourth portion;
• matching an overlapping region between the second portion of the first image and the third portion of the second image;
• stitching the second portion of the first image and the third portion of the second image to form a first stitched image;
• rotating the first stitched image;
• and
• saving the first stitched image in the nonvolatile memory;
• wherein said projecting the first image onto a cylinder and said projecting the second image onto the cylinder comprises calculating coordinates of points on the cylinder as follows:
• x
• ′
• =
• f
• ⁢
• ⁢
• arctan
• ⁢
• ⁢
• x
• f
• ;
• and
• y
• ′
• =
• y
• ⁢
• ⁢
• sec
• ⁢
• ⁢
• x
• ′
• f
• ;
• wherein x′ and y′ are the coordinates of each point on the cylinder, x and y are the coordinates of each points on the first image and the second image, and f is the focus length of the camera.

A method for generating a panoramic image, comprising:

• receiving a first image;
• dividing the first image into a first portion and a second portion;
• rotating the first portion of the first image;
• saving the rotated first portion of the first image in a nonvolatile memory;
• receiving a second image;
• dividing the second image into a third portion and a fourth portion;
• matching an overlapping region between the second portion of the first image and the third portion of the second image;
• stitching the second portion of the first image and the third portion of the second image to form a first stitched image, comprising:
• determining a minimum color difference path in the overlapping region, comprising:
• determining a color difference map of the overlapping region;
• and
• determining a path that has a lowest sum of color differences of pixels from the color difference map;
• filling a first side of the minimum color difference path with color values from the first image;
• and
• filling a second side of the minimum color difference path with color values from the second image;
• rotating the first stitched image;
• and
• saving the first stitched image in the nonvolatile memory.