Angular distance constraints calibration for outdoor zoom camera

Based on 2-D protractor property of camera, we proposed a flexible calibration method for zoom camera that used outdoors. It only requires the camera to observe control points once for given zooming settings, when there are several control points at infinity and known the angular distances. Under constraints of image points, the angular distance between their re-projecting vectors and the image of absolute conic (IAC), nonlinear optimization is used to solve parameters of IAC. Then IAC can be uniquely decomposed by the Cholesky factorization, and consequently the intrinsic parameters can be obtained. Towards the factors that affect the accuracy of the calibration, theoretical analysis and computer simulation are carried out respectively consequence in qualitative analysis and quantitative result. On the issues of inaccuracy of principal point, the zooming center is selected to improve the accuracy of calibration. Real data demonstrated the effectiveness of the techniques.