Image processing on an omni-directional view using a spherical hexagonal pyramid: vanishing points extraction and hexagonal chain coding

Abstract

The authors have proposed a new data structure for an omni-directional view. That is a spherical hexagonal pyramid which has pyramid- and tree-type structures. Such structures manipulate hierarchical and multi-resolution representations of data and it seems useful for mobile robots and manipulators in an assembling task. Because these robots and manipulators have to observe various directions and to utilize image processing for achieving their purposes. This paper describes two methods for observing environment and objects with the aim of confirming of efficiency of this data structure. One is to extract great circles and vanishing points. The information is used for estimating some coordinate systems in an artificial world. And the other is to recognize objects by use of hexagonal chain codes.