Creating panoramas using python (image stitching)

To create a panorama in python we can multiple images taken with overlapping fields of view and stich them into a wider panorama. In fact, this method will work for stitching images in any direction and does not have to be panoramas.

Firstly, Image stitching is the process of combining multiple images with overlapping fields of view to create a single larger image, also known as a panorama. The overlapping field of view should be roughly 40% of the total image, less will work if there are obvious features in the image.

Field of view overlap between 2 images

Algrothim overview

Python’s OpenCV implementation uses an algorithm proposed by Matthew Brown and David G. Low to preform image stitching with minimal user intervention. At a high level the implimentation has 3 steps:

Image registration — the algrothim uses the Scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) method on the input images to find features on the image. the features are then fed into the RANSAC (Random Sample Consensus) method to estimate the geometric transformation between the images.

Image warping — the geometric transformation estimates are then used to transform the input images and align them to their final position.

Blending — the algorithm then uses the multi band blending method to create a…