Congruences and concurrent lines in multi-view geometry (Q2356777)

In photogrammetry or multi-view geometry, a camera is classically modelled as a map from (an open subset of) projective three space to the projective plane whose fibers are lines. This model is based on classical camera devices but, from a geometric and computational viewpoint, mapping onto an image plane may seem artificial. Hence this paper proposes to directly study maps into the Grassmannian of lines from an algebraic viewpoint. In this line-geometric model, the image plane of classical multi-view geometry is replaced by a congruence of lines. In general (if their focal loci are pairwise disjoint), the multi-view variety of \(n\) multiple cameras (line congruences) equals the intersection of the Cartesian product with the variety of \(n\)-tuples of intersecting lines. For the latter's ideal, the authors provide minimal generators and a Gröbner basis. Based on a classification of congruences of order one, they describe the multi-view varieties for rational cameras in detail. These include pinhole and two-slit cameras. For their mixed multi-view ideal a system of minimal generators is provided. The authors also adapt the classical epipolar geometry to a pair of rational cameras. Finally, the authors also discuss some cameras of order greater than two (panoramic and catadioptric cameras) and show how their line-geometry camera model relates to the traditional approach. This paper emphasizes the role of line geometry in multi-view geometry and advantageously combines classical knowledge with modern computational algebraic geometry. Calibration problems are left to future investigations.