PanoTherm: Panoramic Thermal Imaging for Object Detection and Tracking

Visible-light cameras are used traditionally in object detection and tracking. Thermal imaging can equally be used for this purpose, however at the cost of additional calibration efforts, expenses, and limitations concerning the field of view. Still, thermal imaging is advantageous in various scenarios and basically the only plausible technology to apply in harsh outdoor environments, in which the use of standard RGB cameras is prohibitive due to low-light conditions or in complete darkness. While panoramic imaging using visible light cameras is becoming more popular for advanced photography or action recording, limited work has been done on developing panoramic thermal cameras. In this work, we present the first panoramic thermal camera targeting the constant 360◦ monitoring of the environment. We describe the calibration and stitching process in detail and demonstrate how to use the camera in a vehicular scenario. Finally, we give an example of the detection and tracking of objects and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of thermal imaging for this purpose.