Rekha R. Thomas

Timothy Duff, Jack Kendrick, Rekha R. Thomas

Multiview ideals arise from the geometry of image formation in pinhole cameras, and universal multiview ideals are their analogs for unknown cameras. We prove that a natural collection of polynomials form a universal Gröbner basis for both types of ideals using a criterion introduced by Huang and Larson, and include a proof of their criterion in our setting. Symmetry reduction and induction enable the method to be deployed on an infinite family of ideals. We also give an explicit description of the matroids on which the methodology depends, in the context of multiview ideals.

Andrew Pryhuber, Rainer Sinn, Rekha R. Thomas

A fundamental question in computer vision is whether a set of point pairs is the image of a scene that lies in front of two cameras. Such a scene and the cameras together are known as a chiral reconstruction of the point pairs. In this paper we provide a complete classification of k point pairs for which a chiral reconstruction exists. The existence of chiral reconstructions is equivalent to the non-emptiness of certain semialgebraic sets. For up to three point pairs, we prove that a chiral reconstruction always exists while the set of five or more point pairs that do not have a chiral reconstruction is Zariski-dense. We show that for five generic point pairs, the chiral region is bounded by line segments in a Schläfli double six on a cubic surface with 27 real lines. Four point pairs have a chiral reconstruction unless they belong to two non-generic combinatorial types, in which case they may or may not.

Sameer Agarwal, Andrew Pryhuber, Rainer Sinn et al.

We introduce the chiral domain of an arrangement of cameras $\mathcal{A} = \{A_1,\dots, A_m\}$ which is the subset of $\mathbb{P}^3$ visible in $\mathcal{A}$. It generalizes the classical definition of chirality to include all of $\mathbb{P}^3$ and offers a unifying framework for studying multiview chirality. We give an algebraic description of the chiral domain which allows us to define and describe a chiral version of Triggs' joint image. We then use the chiral domain to re-derive and extend prior results on chirality due to Hartley.

Sameer Agarwal, Hon-Leung Lee, Bernd Sturmfels et al.

This paper considers the foundational question of the existence of a fundamental (resp. essential) matrix given $m$ point correspondences in two views. We present a complete answer for the existence of fundamental matrices for any value of $m$. Using examples we disprove the widely held beliefs that fundamental matrices always exist whenever $m \leq 7$. At the same time, we prove that they exist unconditionally when $m \leq 5$. Under a mild genericity condition, we show that an essential matrix always exists when $m \leq 4$. We also characterize the six and seven point configurations in two views for which all matrices satisfying the epipolar constraint have rank at most one.

Sameer Agarwal, Hon-leung Lee, Bernd Sturmfels et al.

Given a set of point correspondences in two images, the existence of a fundamental matrix is a necessary condition for the points to be the images of a 3-dimensional scene imaged with two pinhole cameras. If the camera calibration is known then one requires the existence of an essential matrix. We present an efficient algorithm, using exact linear algebra, for testing the existence of a fundamental matrix. The input is any number of point correspondences. For essential matrices, we characterize the solvability of the Demazure polynomials. In both scenarios, we determine which linear subspaces intersect a fixed set defined by non-linear polynomials. The conditions we derive are polynomials stated purely in terms of image coordinates. They represent a new class of two-view invariants, free of fundamental (resp.~essential)~matrices.