I have two corresponding image points (2D) visualized by the same camera with intrinsic matrix K each coming from different camera poses (R1, t1, R2, t2). If I triangulate the corresponding image points to a 3D point and then reproject it back to the original cameras it only closely matches the original image point in the first camera. Can someone help me understand why? Here is a minimal example showing the issue:
import cv2
import numpy as np
# Set up two cameras near each other
K = np.array([
[718.856 , 0. , 607.1928],
[ 0. , 718.856 , 185.2157],
[ 0. , 0. , 1. ],
])
R1 = np.array([
[1., 0., 0.],
[0., 1., 0.],
[0., 0., 1.]
])
R2 = np.array([
[ 0.99999183 ,-0.00280829 ,-0.00290702],
[ 0.0028008 , 0.99999276, -0.00257697],
[ 0.00291424 , 0.00256881 , 0.99999245]
])
t1 = np.array([[0.], [0.], [0.]])
t2 = np.array([[-0.02182627], [ 0.00733316], [ 0.99973488]])
P1 = np.hstack([R1.T, -R1.T.dot(t1)])
P2 = np.hstack([R2.T, -R2.T.dot(t2)])
P1 = K.dot(P1)
P2 = K.dot(P2)
# Corresponding image points
imagePoint1 = np.array([371.91915894, 221.53485107])
imagePoint2 = np.array([368.26071167, 224.86262512])
# Triangulate
point3D = cv2.triangulatePoints(P1, P2, imagePoint1, imagePoint2).T
point3D = point3D[:, :3] / point3D[:, 3:4]
print(point3D)
# Reproject back into the two cameras
rvec1, _ = cv2.Rodrigues(R1)
rvec2, _ = cv2.Rodrigues(R2)
p1, _ = cv2.projectPoints(point3D, rvec1, t1, K, distCoeffs=None)
p2, _ = cv2.projectPoints(point3D, rvec2, t2, K, distCoeffs=None)
# measure difference between original image point and reporjected image point
reprojection_error1 = np.linalg.norm(imagePoint1 - p1[0, :])
reprojection_error2 = np.linalg.norm(imagePoint2 - p2[0, :])
print(reprojection_error1, reprojection_error2)
The reprojection error in the first camera is always good (< 1px) but the second one is always large.