The space of all stereo images

A theory of stereo image formation is presented that enables a complete classification of all possible stereo views, including non-perspective varieties. Towards this end, the notion of epipolar geometry is generalized to apply to multiperspective images. It is shown that any stereo pair must consist of rays lying on one of three varieties of quadric surfaces. A unified representation is developed to model all classes of stereo views, based on the concept of a quadric view. The benefits include a unified treatment of projection and triangulation operations for all stereo views. The framework is applied to derive new types of stereo image representations with unusual and useful properties.