Apparatus for synthesizing three-dimensional images to visualize surroundings of vehicle and method thereof

Abstract

The present invention relates to three-dimensional visualization of the surrounding images of a vehicle, and comprises the steps of: enabling a plurality of wide angle cameras provided at a vehicle to receive a plurality of photographed images for reference patterns formed on the ground; extracting feature points from the photographed reference patterns and estimating a relative location and an installation angle of each camera using the known physical location information of the extracted feature points; obtaining optical parameters comprising an optical center of a lens for correcting lens distortion using the photographed images and mapping each image on a surface of a Gaussian sphere using the obtained optical center; changing an angle and distance such that the Gaussian sphere and the real reference patterns correspond to each other using the relative location and the installation angle of the estimated camera and arranging the images in a three-dimensional virtual space; and obtaining a three-dimensional single image by mapping each image arranged in the three-dimensional virtual space to an inner surface of the three-dimensional sphere corresponding to one large sphere.