Computing camera focal length by zooming a single point

In this paper we present a novel simple procedure to compute the focal length of a camera. The method is based on zooming in and out only a single point. The same approach allows computing the principal point when only two points are available on a pair of images surveyed with a different focal length. Experimental results show that the method is as accurate as classical full calibration methods. Moreover, its application to augmented reality produces more accurate results than those obtained when the simple pin-hole model is considered. (c) 2006 Pattern Recognition Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.