High dynamic range panoramas using a mobile phone

Cameras have become more advanced and miniaturised in the past decade, driven by a growth of smartphone sales. Modern mobile phones can take 360-degree panoramas with specialised applications available on the market. However, when a scene’s brightness varies dramatically with direction, the dynamic range that a digital camera sensor can capture limits the effective dynamic range of the final panorama. A typical smartphone camera will automatically compensate the exposure of the image as the scene is captured. However, during the stitching process when the auto-exposure is corrected, much of the original contrast and dynamic range is lost. If the dynamic range could be preserved, a High Dynamic Range (HDR) panorama could be created, accurately capturing the original light data. Such panoramas have uses in 3D rendering to illuminate scenes. Usually in the creation of HDR panoramas, specialised equipment and techniques are required. For this project, we investigated techniques to create HDR panoramas from mobile phone camera images. We also automated a workflow to simplify the process of creating HDR panoramas from mobile phones, removing the barrier to entry to create HDR panoramas.Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Science