Direction estimation using visual odometry

Abstract: This Master thesis tackles the problem of measuring objects’ directions from a motionless observation point. A new method based on a single rotating camera requiring the knowledge of only two (or more) landmarks’ direction is proposed. In a first phase, multi-view geometry is used to estimate camera rotations and key elements’ direction from a set of overlapping images. Then in a second phase, the direction of any object can be estimated by resectioning the camera associated to a picture showing this object. A detailed description of the algorithmic chain is given, along with test results on both synthetic data and real images taken with an infrared camera.