A
distortion corrected panoramic vision
system and method provides a visually correct composite image acquired through wide angle
optics and projected onto a viewing surface. The
system uses
image acquisition devices to capture a scene up to 360° or 4π steradians broad. An
image processor corrects for luminance or
chrominance non-uniformity and applies a spatial transform to each
image frame. The spatial transform is convolved by concatenating the viewing transform, acquisition geometry and
optical distortion transform, and display geometry and optical transform. The
distortion corrections are applied separately for red, green, and blue components to eliminate lateral color aberrations of the
optics. A display
system is then used to display the resulting composite image on a
display device which is then projected through the
projection optics and onto a viewing surface. The resulting image is visibly
distortion free and matches the characteristics of the viewing surface.