[X] My Assistant

[Nirgal]

Hi all,

I first thought that the problem of uneven horizons in navcam stitches must have been discussed a lot previously but to my surprise the forum search in the Tech&Imagery-board with key-word "horizon" did not yield that much relevant results ...
So far, for autostich one "solution" seems to be to try-and-error estimate the correct "greek" orientation
parameters (phi,psi,..) However I would like to know if there is a better and more deterministic way.
I also played with PTGui/hugin and manual control points on the horizon but this seemed even more cumbersome than getting the right orientation in autostitch.
The other problem ar the "edges"/"bumps" along the horizon exactly at the transition zones between individual panorama frames ...
Now I am not that an expert in the stitching part of the image processing (jut use Autostitch which does a sufficiently good job, except for the horizon-problem ) so the question goes to the real "stitching Gurus (->Nico, Tman and others ??) how to cope with the horizon :-)
Any recommendation for other pano programs that do better with flattening the horizon ?
One idea qould be to use some JPL Metadata about the actual rover orientation.
I understand that Micheal's MMB program does something like this but was unable to exploit this
horizon-information for deriving orientation parameters for external panorama programs.
Also, does anyone know if there is already a specification of the lens geometry of the MER navcam
available in the form to be usable for a panorama program like hugin etc. ? this would certainly also help
to yield undistorted horizons ...

Maybe this thread could serve as a collection of useful tips & hints specifically with respect to the
"horizon problem"

[slinted]

Good thread!

I've been using PTAssembler since the beginning of the missions, and I've been fairly happy with how it handles pancam images. Its integration with autopano and enblend are particularly handy. But I've never been happy with how it handles navcams, mainly because of the lens distortion.

Optimizing the lens characteristics (the a, b and c parameters of panotools and its various front ends) does an awful job of actually characterizing the lens. It usually settles into some strange distortion of the images which just happens to line up the control points, but which is clearly not the actual lens characteristics. So...for those out there using PTGui, Hugin or PTAssembler: Which a, b, c have you found which work the best for navcam?