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Alternate derivation: algebraic

To describe the relationship between R, $\ensuremath{{\bf t}} $, A1, and A2 more exactly, and to connect the above equations with those found in [6], we offer the following algebraic derivation.

Recall that a point $\ensuremath{{\bf M}} $ produces an image $\ensuremath{{\bf m}} $ through the equation $\ensuremath{{\bf m}} = \ensuremath{{\tilde P}}\ensuremath{{\bf M}} $. Without loss of generality, we can assume that $\ensuremath{{\bf M}} $ is given with respect to the first camera's coordinate frame to yield the following two imaging equations:

\begin{eqnarray*}\lambda_1 \ensuremath{{\bf m}} _1 & = & A_1 \left[\matrix{\ensu...
...matrix{R & \ensuremath{{\bf t}} } \right] \ensuremath{{\bf M}} ,
\end{eqnarray*}


where $\lambda_1$ and $\lambda_2$ are scale factors, $\ensuremath{{\bf I}} $ is the $3 \times 3$ identity matrix and $\ensuremath{{\bf0}} $ is the $3 \times 1$ null vector. By letting $\ensuremath{{\bf M}} = \left[\matrix{\ensuremath{{\bf\hat M}} ^T & 1}\right]^T$ ( $\ensuremath{{\bf\hat M}} $ is $3 \times 1$), we achieve the following relation:

    \begin{eqnarray*}\lambda_2 \ensuremath{{\bf m}} _2 & = & A_2 \left[\matrix{R & \...
...da_1 R A_1^{-1} \ensuremath{{\bf m}} _1 + \ensuremath{{\bf t}} .
\end{eqnarray*}(8) (9)


Geometrically, this equation says that the vector on the left is a linear combination of the two vectors on the right. Therefore, they are all coplanar, and the vector $\ensuremath{{\bf v}} = \ensuremath{{\bf t}}\times R A_1^{-1} \ensuremath{{\bf m}} _1$is perpendicular to that plane:

\begin{eqnarray*}\lambda_2 (A_2^{-1} \ensuremath{{\bf m}} _2)^T \ensuremath{{\bf...
...math{{\bf t}}\times R) A_1^{-1})\ensuremath{{\bf m}} _1 & = & 0,
\end{eqnarray*}


which is identical to (6).

Similarly, the vector $\ensuremath{{\bf w}} = A_2 \ensuremath{{\bf t}}\times A_2 R A_1^{-1} \ensuremath{{\bf m}} _1$is perpendicular to the vectors in (8):

\begin{eqnarray*}\lambda_2 \ensuremath{{\bf m}} _2^T \ensuremath{{\bf w}} & = & ...
...h{{\bf t}}\times A_2 R A_1^{-1})\ensuremath{{\bf m}} _1 & = & 0.
\end{eqnarray*}


This is a surprising result because it gives us a new and equivalent expression for F:

\begin{displaymath}F =[A_2 \ensuremath{{\bf t}} ]_x A_2 R A_1^{-1},
\end{displaymath} (10)

which shows that F can be written as the product of an anti-symmetric matrix $[A_2 \ensuremath{{\bf t}} ]_x$ and an invertible matrix A2 R A1-1 [4].


next up previous
Next: Alternate derivation: from the Up: Essential and fundamental matrices Previous: Essential and fundamental matrices
Stanley Birchfield
1998-04-23