This book features representative work in the design of panoramic image capturing systems, the theory involved in the imaging process, and applications that use panoramic images. The intended audience is anyone who wishes to become familiar with panoramic vision and its latest research work. The contents of this book allow the reader to understand the more technical aspects of panoramic vision, such as sensor design and imaging techniques. Researchers, instructors, and students will especially find this book useful.

The authors of this book provide the first review of haptic optical tweezers, a new technique which brings together force feedback teleoperation and optical tweezers.

This technique allows users to explore the microworld by sensing and exerting piconewton-scale forces with trapped microspheres. The design of optical tweezers for high-quality haptic feedback is challenging, given the requirements for very high sensitivity and dynamic stability. The concept, design process and specification of optical tweezers reviewed throughout this book focus on those intended for haptic teleoperation. The authors provide two new specific designs as well as the current state of the art. Furthermore, the remaining important issues are identified for further developments. Haptic optical tweezers will soon become an invaluable tool for force feedback micromanipulation of biological samples and nano- and micro-assembly parts.

The authors of this book provide the first review of haptic optical tweezers, a new technique which brings together force feedback teleoperation and optical tweezers.

This technique allows users to explore the microworld by sensing and exerting piconewton-scale forces with trapped microspheres. The design of optical tweezers for high-quality haptic feedback is challenging, given the requirements for very high sensitivity and dynamic stability. The concept, design process and specification of optical tweezers reviewed throughout this book focus on those intended for haptic teleoperation. The authors provide two new specific designs as well as the current state of the art. Furthermore, the remaining important issues are identified for further developments. Haptic optical tweezers will soon become an invaluable tool for force feedback micromanipulation of biological samples and nano- and micro-assembly parts.

Current cameras are poor imitations of the human eye and close descen­ dants in their design of ideas and a technology that are more than a century old. People in computer vision have traditionally used off-the-shelf cameras that were not meant for the uses they were intended for by these researchers: off-the-shelf cameras are designed to capture images to be printed on paper or looked at on a television screen, not for guiding robots or making 3D models of the environment or even surveilling a large area where very large field of views, high geometric and photometric accuracies are necessary. Quite a significant part of the efforts in computer vision has been targeted at overcoming algorithmically these problems. The authors of this book convince us that it is possible to abandon the traditional route of using standard cameras and to follow the path of designing new cameras explicitly for solving the tasks at hand in computer vision applications. This leads to different design concepts and allows to alleviate many of the difficulties encountered in the processing of the images taken with the "traditional" cameras.

Current cameras are poor imitations of the human eye and close descen­ dants in their design of ideas and a technology that are more than a century old. People in computer vision have traditionally used off-the-shelf cameras that were not meant for the uses they were intended for by these researchers: off-the-shelf cameras are designed to capture images to be printed on paper or looked at on a television screen, not for guiding robots or making 3D models of the environment or even surveilling a large area where very large field of views, high geometric and photometric accuracies are necessary. Quite a significant part of the efforts in computer vision has been targeted at overcoming algorithmically these problems. The authors of this book convince us that it is possible to abandon the traditional route of using standard cameras and to follow the path of designing new cameras explicitly for solving the tasks at hand in computer vision applications. This leads to different design concepts and allows to alleviate many of the difficulties encountered in the processing of the images taken with the "traditional" cameras.

This book features representative work in the design of panoramic image capturing systems, the theory involved in the imaging process, and applications that use panoramic images. The intended audience is anyone who wishes to become familiar with panoramic vision and its latest research work. The contents of this book allow the reader to understand the more technical aspects of panoramic vision, such as sensor design and imaging techniques. Researchers, instructors, and students will especially find this book useful.

The authors of this book provide the first review of haptic optical tweezers, a new technique which brings together force feedback teleoperation and optical tweezers.

This technique allows users to explore the microworld by sensing and exerting piconewton-scale forces with trapped microspheres. The design of optical tweezers for high-quality haptic feedback is challenging, given the requirements for very high sensitivity and dynamic stability. The concept, design process and specification of optical tweezers reviewed throughout this book focus on those intended for haptic teleoperation. The authors provide two new specific designs as well as the current state of the art. Furthermore, the remaining important issues are identified for further developments. Haptic optical tweezers will soon become an invaluable tool for force feedback micromanipulation of biological samples and nano- and micro-assembly parts.

The authors of this book provide the first review of haptic optical tweezers, a new technique which brings together force feedback teleoperation and optical tweezers.

This technique allows users to explore the microworld by sensing and exerting piconewton-scale forces with trapped microspheres. The design of optical tweezers for high-quality haptic feedback is challenging, given the requirements for very high sensitivity and dynamic stability. The concept, design process and specification of optical tweezers reviewed throughout this book focus on those intended for haptic teleoperation. The authors provide two new specific designs as well as the current state of the art. Furthermore, the remaining important issues are identified for further developments. Haptic optical tweezers will soon become an invaluable tool for force feedback micromanipulation of biological samples and nano- and micro-assembly parts.

Current cameras are poor imitations of the human eye and close descen­ dants in their design of ideas and a technology that are more than a century old. People in computer vision have traditionally used off-the-shelf cameras that were not meant for the uses they were intended for by these researchers: off-the-shelf cameras are designed to capture images to be printed on paper or looked at on a television screen, not for guiding robots or making 3D models of the environment or even surveilling a large area where very large field of views, high geometric and photometric accuracies are necessary. Quite a significant part of the efforts in computer vision has been targeted at overcoming algorithmically these problems. The authors of this book convince us that it is possible to abandon the traditional route of using standard cameras and to follow the path of designing new cameras explicitly for solving the tasks at hand in computer vision applications. This leads to different design concepts and allows to alleviate many of the difficulties encountered in the processing of the images taken with the "traditional" cameras.

Current cameras are poor imitations of the human eye and close descen­ dants in their design of ideas and a technology that are more than a century old. People in computer vision have traditionally used off-the-shelf cameras that were not meant for the uses they were intended for by these researchers: off-the-shelf cameras are designed to capture images to be printed on paper or looked at on a television screen, not for guiding robots or making 3D models of the environment or even surveilling a large area where very large field of views, high geometric and photometric accuracies are necessary. Quite a significant part of the efforts in computer vision has been targeted at overcoming algorithmically these problems. The authors of this book convince us that it is possible to abandon the traditional route of using standard cameras and to follow the path of designing new cameras explicitly for solving the tasks at hand in computer vision applications. This leads to different design concepts and allows to alleviate many of the difficulties encountered in the processing of the images taken with the "traditional" cameras.