A complete forward projection algorithm through cylindrical and spherical refractive windows
Abstract
Cylindrical or spherical windows often appear in experiments and real applications. Measuring through those windows requires projecting 3D points to pixels, which is different to compute due to refraction. A point may have multiple projected images but cannot be efficiently determine with the existing projection algorithms. Using the ray's conserved momenta, we reduce this projection to closed-form equations with a concave structure. As a result, we can successfully determine whether a 3D point has a single projection or multiple and compute those locations. In simulations, with one single search, we can recover images that iterative methods miss even with many restarts. A wand calibration based on it can reach the precision limit set by image noise, enabling accurate 3D particle tracking in a swirling flow through cylinder windows. This algorithm shows how to predict visibility and multiple images through curved windows, shedding light for 3D pipe flow measurements, accurate underwater reconstruction, and many real applications.
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BibTeX
@misc{zhong2026complete,
title = {{A complete forward projection algorithm through cylindrical and spherical refractive windows}},
author = {Shijie Zhong and Shiyong Tan and Xiaosi Zhang and Yanying Li and Rui Ni},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.17413},
eprint = {2610.17413},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.17413},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A complete forward projection algorithm through cylindrical and spherical refractive windows
AU - Shijie Zhong
AU - Shiyong Tan
AU - Xiaosi Zhang
AU - Yanying Li
AU - Rui Ni
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.17413
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.17413
AB - Cylindrical or spherical windows often appear in experiments and real applications. Measuring through those windows requires projecting 3D points to pixels, which is different to compute due to refraction. A point may have multiple projected images but cannot be efficiently determine with the existing projection algorithms. Using the ray's conserved momenta, we reduce this projection to closed-form equations with a concave structure. As a result, we can successfully determine whether a 3D point has a single projection or multiple and compute those locations. In simulations, with one single search, we can recover images that iterative methods miss even with many restarts. A wand calibration based on it can reach the precision limit set by image noise, enabling accurate 3D particle tracking in a swirling flow through cylinder windows. This algorithm shows how to predict visibility and multiple images through curved windows, shedding light for 3D pipe flow measurements, accurate underwater reconstruction, and many real applications.
ER -