Analytical characterization of the feature detectability constraints of resolution, focus, and field-of-view for vision sensor planning

In this paper, we analytically characterize the domain of admissible camera locations, orientations, and optical settings for which features of interest in a scene are in focus, inside the field-of-view, and magnified to a certain specification. A general 3D viewing geometry is considered and the camera lens is modeled by a general thick lens model. The analytical relationships describing the complete viewpoint loci that satisfy the above optical feature detectability constraints of resolution, focus, and field-of-view are obtained. These analytical relationships are used as sensor placement constraints in the MVP model-based vision sensor planning system that we have developed. MVP automatically determines viewpoints that satisfy viewing constraints such as the feature detectability constraints discussed in this paper. © 1994 Academic Press, Inc.