Fisheye lens cameras are a great addition to surveillance systems due to their ability to capture extremely wide angles (typically in the ballpark of 180 degrees) which would otherwise require multiple conventional cameras to achieve.
With the Universal Fisheye Dewarping feature in Nx Witness operators can instantly and automatically dewarp fisheye images using any combination of wall or ceiling mounts and 90, 180, or 360 degree views. Additionally, Fisheye cameras of high enough resolution can act in place of traditional PTZ cameras – allowing PTZ tours, multi views using Zoom Windows, and more!
While a great tool, the wide-angle nature of fisheye lenses makes producing an image from that lens within a finite area, i.e. on a computer screen, a challenging task. Fitting a wide field of view into an image with a limited area gives the image a distorted look, with the center of the image being slightly more magnified than the edges and the otherwise “straight lines” in the edges of the frame appearing to be curved. Additionally, differences in individual fisheye lens cameras’ focal lengths and specifications (aka “fisheye lens projections”) cause the degree of image distortion, or warping, to vary from camera to camera.
Nx Witness v4.2 enhances the precision of fisheye dewarping by giving operators the ability to select the best dewarping projection – Equisolid, Equidistant, or Stereographic – on an individual camera basis.
Check out the video below for a demonstration of new fisheye lens dewarping options in Nx Witness v4.2.