ptopengui bcb -> wxWindows port

[Pablo d'Angelo]

Hi!
On Wed, 23 Apr 2003, Bruno Postle wrote:

> On Wed 23-Apr-2003 at 07:01:06 +0200, Frédéric wrote:
> >
> > PS: I've just found another project, but now dead: Ptx. See at:
> >
> >    http://www.nongnu.org/xpt
>
> That's the project that started this mailing list.  We just got
> mixed-up between ptx and xpt :-).
>
> > The author said that we can use his code. There are nice ideas in
> > the GUI, like preview images in each step.

Well the wrapping etc stuff is not coded yet (at least its not in the
CVS). the screenshots are just a design study, right?

>
> I think that maybe those mock-ups were a bit ambitious.  Possibly
> they exposed too much of the (very complex) ptools functionality?

Yep, exactly what I think. When I want create a panorama, I'm not
primarily interested how parameter c distorts the image, or want to
tune it. I have calibrated my lens before and set a,b and c once and
for all (maybe there can be multiple settings for different focal
lengths of a lens, since a,b,c (and I guess d and e too) change with
the focal length. Maybe we could use the lens data from the PTLens
application, and automatically select the right set of parameters (for
example by interpolation, but I have to look at the moment first).

I'm not sure if somebody of you has used other stitchers before, but
probably you have.

I tried the tool that came with my Canon A40 digicam
(photostitch). while it is not nearly as powerful as PT, it is indeed
very simple to use. These are the principal steps:

1. add the images (and specify lens if youre not using an jpeg with
EXIF header)

2. select the rough order of the images (in matrix form).

3. press the stitch button.

4. crop the panorama to get the image you want.

5. save the image

Acutally when I just want to stitch two or four "normal" pictures
together, and do not care about the highest quality, I'd rather use
photostich and get a stitched pic in < 1 min (their stitcher is also
quite fast), instead of spending a lot more time with some PT gui
frontend.

for panorama tools I can think of the following:

1. add the images. have the program look at EXIF data, or specify an
   lens by hand, image distortion parameters a,b,c (and d,e if the
   image comes straight from the digicam) are loaded from a known
   database, if the entry is there.

   if multiple images use the same lens, they should be automatically
   linked. (thats the main purpose of linking variables, I guess).

   btw. does anyone know where the shear distortion (f,g in newer
   PanoTools) is useful, where does the error it tries to correct come
   from?

2. crop the image (optional, I never needed this so far).

3. select an "anchor" image, and set its position (like in
   PTAssembler). this position should not be moved by the optimizer.
   This is very useful, especially since I take many pics free hand,
   and they usually have some rotation and are not shot completely
   level.

   a similar effect could probably be done by setting the right control
   points in X or Y mode. might be better because the optimizer can
   deal with such data from multiple images, while only one anchor
   image can be set.

3. select control points (unfortunately needed I guess), but as much
   help as possible should be offered. This is the point where I
   really want to go a step further than the other GUI's. 

4. optimize. maybe add an auto-optimize mode that tries to optimize
   multiple parameters step by step.

5. preview with current parameters.

6. set output panorama parameters (if we can display the panorama or a preview
   inside the gui, we might be able to give the user the ability to
   select a crop region for the final image etc.)

As a general rule I'd like have as little buttons on the gui as
possible. for example I never understood the Add button for control
points. Just click into both images and you got a control point.
I have to think about control lines a bit more before I write about
them.

I want to hide the PT project file as well. (maybe there should be an
option to edit it before optimizing/stitching, but probably only in an
"advanced" mode).

good night,
  Pablo
--
http://wurm.wohnheim.uni-ulm.de/~redman/
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