Patent attributes
A method and apparatus for identifying the orientation of an image in a spherical format. A spherical format is created of an image obtained by a camera, the spherical format comprising a notional sphere that has a centre corresponding to the position from which the image was obtained by the camera. A first surface represented in the image had a first orientation and was at a first distance from the camera when the image was obtained. A plurality of lines are obtained in the spherical format, each line defined by two endpoints in spherical coordinates, wherein each line intersects with at least one other line. For each of a plurality of rotational definitions of the sphere, the spherical coordinates of the endpoints are transformed into a Cartesian coordinate system relative to the rotational definition, thereby creating rotated lines, and a cumulative deviation, from a predetermined angle, is determined of angles between intersecting rotated lines. A preferred rotational definition is identified as the rotational definition that has the smallest cumulative deviation, and it can be used to adjust calculations carried out with respect to spherical coordinates within the spherical format.
