Five-point relative orientation based on forward intersection

The algorithm of five- point relative orientation is a classical problem for photogrammetry and computer vision. The polynomial is used by the traditional method of five- point relative pose, which causes the polysemia. Therefore, a new method of five-point relative orientation based on the forward intersection is presented, the coplanar equations with forward intersection constraints are set up, whose optimization function is derived, and the least square generalized inverse method is employed to achieve relative orientation parameters with five homologous points. This method has been demonstrated by 8 groups of experiments which use nonmetric camera Nikon D80, the relative three dimensional (3D) model successfully only with 5 homologous points of two images with different view angles, and the standard uncertainty of measured errors for the two given rules (0.92 m) is 0.28±0.24 mm. Compared with the existing five-point algorithm, this method can ensure the intersections for the five homologous rays without polysemia, its accuracy and robustness is good, and has practical value.