Uncalibrated Factorization Using a Variable Symmetric Affine Camera

In order to reconstruct 3-D Euclidean shape by the Tomasi-Kanade factorization, one needs to specify an affine camera model such as orthographic, weak perspective, and paraperspective. We present a new method that does not require any such specific models. We show that a minimal requirement for an affine camera to mimic perspective projection leads to a unique camera model, which we call a symmetric affine camera, which has two free functions. We determine their values from input images by linear computation and demonstrate by experiments that an appropriate camera model is automatically selected.