Spatial optical distortion correction in an FPGA

Due to the complexities of the image processing algorithms, correcting spatial distortion of optical images quickly and efficiently is a major challenge. This paper describes an efficient pipelined parallel architecture for optical distortion correction in imaging systems using a low cost FPGA device. The proposed architecture produces a fast, almost realtime solution for the correction of image distortion implemented using VHDL HDL with a single Xilinx FPGA XCS31000-4 device. The experimental results show that the barrel and pincushion distortion can be corrected with a very low residual error. The system architecture can be applied to other imaging processing algorithms in optical systems. © 2006 IEEE.