Interactive design of multi-perspective images for visualizing urban landscapes

Abstract

Multiperspective images are a useful way to visualize extended, roughly planar scenes such as landscapes or city blocks. However, constructing effective multiperspective images is something of an art. We describe an interactive system for creating multiperspective images composed of serially blended cross-slits images. Beginning with a sideways-looking video of the scene as might be captured from a moving vehicle, we allow the user to interactively specify a set of cross-slits cameras, possibly with gaps between them. In each camera, one of the slits is defined to be the camera path, which is typically horizontal, and the user is left to choose the second slit, which is typically vertical. The system then generates intermediate views between these cameras using a novel interpolation scheme, thereby producing a multiperspective image with no seams. The user can also choose the picture surface in space onto which viewing rays are projected, thereby establishing a parameterization for the image. We show how the choice of this surface can be used to create interesting visual effects. We demonstrate our system by constructing multiperspective images that summarize city blocks, including corners, blocks with deep plazas and other challenging urban situations.