Hugin and panotools

Web Page: http://wiki.panotools.org/SoC_2010_ideas

Mailing List: http://groups.google.com/group/hugin-ptx

Hugin and related tools are the most advanced open source solution to manipulate images beyond the limits of a single camera shot. stitch, stack, blend images, correct their geometric and photometric distortions and produce stunning perspectives.

Assessment criteria

The following are flexible but are factors that we will consider when evaluating applications:

• Previous Open Source Software involvement will be a bonus, but we are also understand that summer of code is a useful introduction to Open Source development methods for students willing to learn.
• Ability to program.  We don't have any entry level positions and will expect students to have the necessary programming proficiency.
• Ability to manage time. Last minute applications are not evidence of good planning.
• Previous Hugin/panotools/photography involvement (not necessarily programming).  We hope to gain contributors from this process and a previous interest is an indication of ongoing interest.
• Our need for the proposed code. Some of the projects on the proposals page are more needed than others, if this isn't clear ask.
• Ability to communicate.  We use the ptx mailing list, the panotools wiki and sourceforge bug trackers, you need to be comfortable with public communication.

Projects

• Bulletproof Makefile Output Library Hugin uses GNU Make to drive the actual panorama creation process, it creates a makefile from the project settings to invoke the several tools that create the panorama. The current makefile output code is not satisfactory. It will be replaced by a reliable library that encapsulates the output of makefiles and handles all makefile-specific issues, especially quoting.
• Interactive Panorama Overview for Hugin Hugin's current fast preview window shows only a preview of the output. The downsides of this is that it's unintuitive for beginners and it constricts every feature to be dependent on the preview of the output. The purpose of this project is to use OpenGL's power for modelling 3D scenes and interactively visualize the intermediate steps of creating a panorama that is the panosphere and the plane in normal and mosaic modes respectively.
• Regression tests for libpano13 This project will add regression tests for libpano13. Current situation: libpano have many responsibilities it is one of the main component of the whole project. Main tasks of the library are: image transformation, optimization. Libpano is consider as a relatively mature and stable library, however its development has been slowed by the lack of regression testing. There is no flying without wings. (French) There is no fast program development without regression tests.
• Towards a full patent-free pipeline for panorama stitching Computer Vision is nowadays broadly studied and form a highly productive area of research, with a lot of various applications. Probably one of the biggest advance in this field was the SIFT descriptor, first introduced by D. Lowe in 1999. Associated to a feature point detector, it's a standard tool for image stitching algorithms. Unfortunately, SIFT is patented in the US. Pablo d'Angelo recently came up with a promising patent-free descriptor, which now needs to be fully integrated in Hugin.