Recovering metric and affine

properties from images

Affine preserves:
Parallelism
Parallel length ratios

Similarity preserves:
Angles
Length ratios
Will show:
Projective distortion can be removed once image of line at
infinity is specified
Affine distortion removed once image of circular points is specified
Then the remaining distortion is only similarity

The line at infinity

For an affine transformation line at infinity maps onto line at infinity

A
0

A
t
1

l H AT l

0

0 l
1

The line at infinity l is a fixed line under a projective

transformation H if and only if H is an affinity
A point on line at infinity is mapped to ANOTHER point on the line at infinity, not
necessarily the same point

Note: not fixed pointwise

Affine properties from images

projection

rectification

Euclidean plane
Two step process:
1.Find l the image of line
at infinity in plane 2
2. Transform l to its
canonical position
(0,0,1) T by plugging into
HPA and applying it to
the entire image to get a
rectified image
3. Make affine measurements
on the rectified image

H PA

1 0 0
0 1 0 H A
l1 l2 l3

l l1 l2

l3 , l3 0
T

v1
l1

l3

l2

v2

v 2 l3 l 4
v1 l1 l 2

l4

l v1 v 2
c

The circular points

Two points on l_inf: Every circle intersects l_inf at circular points
circular points

Circle:

x12 + x22 + dx1 x3 + ex2 x3 + fx32 = 0

Line at infinity

x3 0

x12 + x22 = 0
I 1, i,0

J 1,-i,0

The circular points

Circular points are fixed under any similarity transformation

1

I i
0

s cos
I H S I s sin

J i
0

s sin
s cos
0

Canonical coordinates
of circular points

tx 1
1

i
t y i se i I
0
1 0

The circular points I, J are fixed points under the projective

transformation H iff H is a similarity

Identifying circular points allows recovery of similarity properties i.e. angles

ratios of lengths

Conic dual to the circular

points
C* IJ T JI T

1 0 0

*
C 0 1 0
0 0 0

C* H S C* H TS
The dual conic C*is fixed conic under the
projective transformation H iff H is a similarity
Note:C*
has 4DOF (3x3 homogeneous; symmetric, determinant is zero)

l is the nullvector

Angles

l l1 , l2 , l3

Euclidean Geometry: cos

2
1

Projective: cos

m m1 , m2 , m3

l1m1 l2 m2

l22 m12 m22

not invariant under

projective transformation

l T C* m
T

C* l m T C* m

The above equation is invariant under projective transformation can be applied

after projective transformation of the plane.

l T C* m 0 (orthogonal)

Once C is identified in the projective plane, then Euclidean angles

may be measured by equation (1)

Length ratios

d (b, c) sin

d (a, c) sin

Metric properties from

images
C ' H H H C H H H
*

H P H A H S C* H TS H P H A
H P H A C H P H A
*

KK T
T
v K

K T v
T
v v

Upshot: projective (v) and affine (K) components directly determined from the image
of C*
Once C* is identified on the projective plane then projective distortion may be
rectified up to a similarity
*
C
Can show that the rectifying transformation is obtained by applying SVD to
'

1 0 0
C* ' U 0 1 0 U T
0 0 0

HU

Apply U to the pixels in the projective plane to rectify the image up to a Similarity

Recovering up to a similarity from Projective

SVD Decompose C* ' to get U

Perspective
transformation

Rectifying
Transformation: U

C*

C* '

Euclidean

Projectively
Distorted
Image
Similarity transformation

Rectified image

Recovering up to a similarity
from Affine

affine
transformation
C*

Euclidean

Rectifying
Transformation: U

C* '
Affinely
Distorted
Image
Similarity transformation

Rectified image

Metric from affine

l1

l2

l3

KK

m1

0
m2 0
0

m
3

l1m1, l1m2 l2 m1, l2 m2 k

2
11

Affine

k , k11k12 , k
2
12

rectified

2 T
22

Metric from projective

l1

l2

l3

KK

T
v
K

m1

K v
m2 0
T
v v

m
3
T

l1m1,0.5 l1m2 l2 m1 , l2 m2 ,0.5 l1m3 l3m1 ,0.5 l2 m3 l3m2 , l3m3 c 0

Projective 3D geometry

Singular Value
Decomposition
A mn U mm mn VnTn
1 0
0
2

mn

1 2 n 0

0
0

0 0

UT U I
VTV I

A U1 1 V1T U 2 2 V2T U n n VnT

U
VT X

Singular Value
Decomposition

U
V
Homogeneous least-squares
min AX subject to X 1

Span and null-space

S L U 1 U 2 ; N L U 3 U 4
S R V1V2 ; N R V3 V4

solution X Vn

1 0
0
2

0
0

0 0
0 0
0 0

0 0

Closest rank r approximation

~
~ T
A U
U V

~
diag 1 , 2 , , r , 0r 1,,
,, 0n

Pseudo inverse

A V U T diag 11 , 21 ,, r1 , 0 ,, 0

Projective 3D Geometry
Points, lines, planes and
quadrics

Transformations

, and

3D points
3D point
X , Y , Z T in R3
X X 1 , X 2 , X 3 , X 4 in P3
T

X1 X 2 X 3
X
,
,
,1
X4 X4 X4

X , Y , Z , 1

projective transformation

X' H X (4x4-1=15 dof)

X 4 0

Planes
3D plane

Transformation
X' H X
' H -T

1 X 2Y 3 Z 4 0
1 X 1 2 X 2 3 X 3 4 X 4 0

TX 0
Euclidean representation
~
T
n . X d 0 n 1 , 2 , 3
4 d

~
T
X X ,Y , Z
X4 1

d/ n

Dual: points planes, lines lines

Planes from points

Solve from X1T 0, X T2 0 and X 3T 0

X1T
T
X2 0
X 3T

(solve

as right nullspace of

X1T
T
X2
X 3T

Or implicitly from coplanarity condition

X 1 X 1 1 X 2 1 X 3 1
X X X X
2
1
2
3 2
det X X1X 2 X 32 0 2
0
X 3 X1 3 X 2 3 X 3 3

X
X
X
X
1 4
2 4
3 4
4

X 1 D234 X 2 D134 X 3 D124 X 4 D123 0

T
D234 , D134 , D124 , D123

Points from planes

Solve X from 1T X 0, T2 X 0 and 3T X 0

1T
T
2 X 0
3T

(solve

1T
X as right nullspace of T2
3T

Representing a plane by its span

X Mx

M X1X 2 X 3

T M 0
M is 4x3 matrix. Columns of M are null space of T
X is a point on plane
x ( a point on projective plane P2 ) parameterizes
points on the plane
M is not unique

Lines

Line is either joint of two points or intersection of two planes

Representing a line by its span: two
vectors A, B for two space points
(4dof)
T
T

A
W T
2x4 B

Dual representation: P and Q are planes; line

is span of row space of W *

Example: X-axis:

P
W T
2x4
Q
T

Span of W*T is the pencil of

Planes P Q with the
line as axis
T

W * W T = WW * = 0 22

0 0 0 1
W

1
0
0
0

join of (0,0,0) and (1,0,0) points

z=0

Span of W is the pencil

of points A B
on the line
Span of the 2D right
null space of W is the
pencil of the planes
with the line as axis

0 0 1 0
W

0
1
0
0

Intersection of y=0 and

Points, lines and planes

Plane defined by the join of the point X and line W is
obtained from the null space of M:

W
M T
X

M 0

Point X defined by the intersection of line W with

plane
is the null space of M

W*
M T

W*

MX 0

Quadrics and dual quadrics

Quadratic surface in P3 defined by:
(Q : 4x4 symmetric matrix)
X T QX 0

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

9 d.o.f.
in general 9 points define quadric
det Q=0 degenerate quadric
(plane quadric)=conic
C M T QM
transformation Q' H -T QH -1

: X Mx

Dual Quadric: defines equation on planes: tangent planes to

the point quadric Q satisfy:

T Q* 0
1.
2.

relation to quadric Q Q (non-degenerate)

transformation Q'* HQ*H T
*

-1

Quadric classification
Rank

Sign
.
4
2

Diagonal

Equation

(1,1,1,1)
(1,1,1,-1)

X2+ Y2+ Z2+1=0

X2+ Y2+ Z2=1

(1,1,-1,-1)

X2+ Y2= Z2+1

Hyperboloid (1S)

3
1

(1,1,1,0)
(1,1,-1,0)

X2+ Y2+ Z2=0

X2+ Y2= Z2

Single point
Cone

2
0

(1,1,0,0)
(1,-1,0,0)

X2+ Y2= 0
X2= Y2

Single line
Two planes

(1,0,0,0)

X2=0

Single plane

Realization
No real points
Sphere

Quadric classification

Projectively equivalent to sphere:

sphere

ellipsoid

hyperboloid of paraboloid
two sheets

Ruled quadrics:
hyperboloids
of one sheet

Degenerate ruled quadrics:

cone

two planes

Hierarchy of
transformations
group
transform
distortion
t

invariants properties

Projective
15dof

A
vT

Affine
12dof

A t
0 T 1

Similarity
7dof

s R t
0T 1

The absolute conic

Euclidean
6dof

R t
0 T 1

Volume

Intersection and tangency

Parallellism of planes,
Volume ratios, centroids,
The plane at infinity

The plane at infinity

A T 0
H

A
t
1

T
A

0

0
0

1

The plane at infinity is a fixed plane under a

projective transformation H iff H is an affinity
1.
2.
3.
4.

canonical position 0,0,0,1

T
contains directions
D X 1 , X 2 , X 3 ,0
two planes are parallel line of intersection in
line // line (or plane) point of intersection in
T

The absolute conic

The absolute conic is a (point) conic on .
In a metric frame:

X 12 X 22 X 32
X4

The absolute conic is a fixed conic under the projective

transformation H iff H is a similarity
1.
2.
3.

is only fixed as a set, not pointwise

Circle intersect in two points
All Spheres intersect in

The absolute conic

d d
Euclidean:
cos
d d d d

d d
cos

Projective:
d d d d
T
1

T
1 1

T
1

T
1

d1T d 2 0

T
2

T
2

(orthogonality=conjugacy)

d1 and d2 are lines

The absolute dual quadric

Absolute dual Quadric = All planes tangent to

I
Q T
0
*

0
0

The absolute conic Q* is a fixed conic under the

projective transformation H iff H is a similarity
1.
2.
3.

8 dof
plane at infinity is the nullvector of
Angles:
1T Q* 2

cos

Q*

Q Q
T
1

T
2