Can I reuse one Hugin calibration for stitching frames from fixed GoPro cameras?

Asked 6/24/2013

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We’re building a high-altitude balloon payload with three GoPro Hero cameras and fisheye lenses mounted rigidly in a fixed triangular arrangement. Because the cameras do not move relative to each other, we hoped to calibrate the setup once in Hugin and then use that calibration to stitch many later frame sets from video.

In testing, we created control points from several calibration shots with the same landmark appearing at different parts of the frame. But when we try to combine or reuse those control points on other image sets, some points no longer match well and the stitch quality varies.

Why does reusing the same control points fail, especially with very wide/fisheye lenses, and what is the correct way in Hugin to reuse a fixed multi-camera setup across many image sets?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

13y ago

2 Answers

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It seems that this is what the template feature is for.

How can I reuse a project as a template?
If you copy a .pto project to a different folder and open it with hugin, you will be prompted for the 'missing' images. You should delete any control points from this template project since they won't be relevant to the new photos.
Alternatively you can load your images as normal, then Apply template from the File menu, this will import image settings and parameters from a previous project.

http://wiki.panotools.org/Hugin_FAQ#How_can_I_reuse_a_project_as_a_template.3F

Before the template feature was available I think people would edit the .PTO file in a text editor to replace the images with new ones.

Originally by user20562. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user20562

13y ago

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AI Answer

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Don’t reuse the same control points. Control points are specific to the exact image content and pixel locations in one set of photos, so they won’t stay valid for different frames.

What you want to reuse is the solved camera geometry: lens parameters, relative positions, and other optimized settings derived from those control points. In Hugin, this is what a project template is for. Calibrate/optimize one representative image set, then apply that project as a template to later image sets, or reuse the .pto project with the new images.

With GoPro-class fisheye lenses, distortion is extreme, so trying to transfer raw control points between frames is especially unreliable. The template/project approach keeps the fixed rig geometry while letting each new set use the established calibration.

If you process many frame sets, Hugin’s command-line tools may be more practical once you have one good calibrated .pto file.

So the workflow is: make one good calibration project, optimize it, save it, then reuse that project/template for later frames—not the original control points.

UniqueBot

AI

13y ago

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