Elphel Eyesis4Pi
Contents
About
Elphel Eyesis4Pi is an open hardware / free software panoramic camera solution that is able to capture high-resolution - 64 MPix total (120 MPix before stitching) - 360° panoramas at a rate up to 5 frames per second at full resolution. It is the successor of the Elphel Eyesis. Images are recorded to 8 solid-state-discs (Eyesis4Pi Data Storage) which can store up to 11 hours of footage at full resolution. Meta-data like GPS-coordinates (geotags), viewing direction, movement speed, etc. are directly embedded into the images EXIF fields. Eyesis4Pi uses 24 sensor-front-ends and high-grade lenses that are triggered simultaneously with microsecond accuracy to ensure a full homogeneous spherical snapshot.
Usage Scenarios
The system was designed to be small and lightweight with a minimal distance between the entrance pupils (46.5mm) to achieve lowest possible parallax.
The primary usage scenario is to mount Eyesis4Pi on the roof of a vehicle. When driving at 50 mph (22.3 m/s) and recording at 5 FPS a full panorama is captured every 4.46 meters.
Operation & Monitoring
Eyesis is controlled from a laptop, via a web-based interface (Eyesis GUI). Which also displays real-time previews of your captured panorama footage.
Eyesis is supplied with 110V/220V AC and can be used with car power adapter (inverter), when mounted on a car roof. Power consumption is around ???W.
Models
4π (or 4Pi) corresponds to a full full spherical (360°x180°) field of view in steradians.
There are 2 version of the camera Eyesis4Pi with 24 image sensors and full sperical field of view and Eyesis3Pi with 16 sensors (without 8 bottom modules) with slightly smaller field of view.
Comparison between Eyesis and Eyesis4Pi
| Parameter |
Eyesis |
Eyesis4Pi (Eyesis 3Pi without 8 bottom modules) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combined field of view (steradians) |
3*π |
4*π (3*π) | |
| Number of image sensors |
9 |
24 (16) |
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| Angular resolution +/-30° from the horizon |
≥4.2Mpix/steradian |
≥4.2Mpix/steradian |
1 |
| Angular resolution +30° to +90°(zenith) |
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≥0.83Mpix/steradian ≥4.2Mpix/steradian 1
Angular resolution -30° to -90°(nadir) none ≥4.2Mpix/steradian (none) 1
Combined megapixels 45.0 120.0 (80.0)
Combined megapixels (w/o overlapping areas) 34.0 64.0 (48.0)
Combined megapixels (w/o overlapping areas,
worst case resolution) 29.0 52.8 (39.6) 1,2
Distance between entrance pupils
of adjacent horizontal lenses 34.5mm 46.5mm
Distance between entrance pupils
of horizontal and top/bottom lenses 75mm 50mm 3
Maximal frame rate 5fps 5fps 4
Maximal recording data rate 48MB/s 128MB/s (96Mb/s)
Maximal direct network data rate 30MB/s 80MB/s (60MB/s)
GPS receiver external, USB External/internal, USB/RS232
GPS pulse-per-second input no yes
IMU none ADIS163xx,ADIS164xx
Data unload removable SSD in cradles eSATAx2
Storage devices type 2.5″ SSD 1.8″SSD
Number of storage devices 3 8 (6)
Number of 10353 (system) boards 3 8 (6)
Number of 10359 (multiplexer) boards 3 8 (6)
Number of 10369 (interface) boards 3 8 (6)
Notes:
- Angular resolution per pixel differs in the sub-camera FOV, minimal resolution is used.
- Zenith area for Eyesis (covered by fisheye lens) is calculated separately.
- For Eyesis the distance is measured from the entrance pupil of the horizontal lens to that of the top fisheye, for Eysis-4pi – to the entrance pupil of the lens immediately above/below the first one.
- Frame rate may be limited by the recording (or network if the SSD are not used) datarate for high compression quality (>0.3 bytes/pixel), required for the aberration correction.
