Linear clutter removal from urban panoramas

Panoramic images capture cityscapes of dense urban structures by mapping multiple images from different viewpoints into a single composite image. One challenge to their construction is that objects that lie at different depth are often not stitched correctly in the panorama. The problem is especially troublesome for objects occupying large horizontal spans, such as telephone wires, crossing multiple photos in the stitching process. Thin lines, such as power lines, are common in urban scenes but are usually not selected for registration due to their small image footprint. Hence stitched panoramas of urban environments often include "dented" or "broken" wires. This paper presents an automatic scheme for detecting and removing such thin linear structures from panoramic images. Our results show significant visual clutter reduction from municipal imagery while keeping the original structure of the scene and visual perception of the imagery intact.