Abstract: A method and apparatus for measuring a distance to an object, by a device having at least two cameras, is described. One or more first images including the object are acquired by a first camera of the device and one or more first reference images are acquired by a second camera of the device, while the device is in a first position. One or more second images including the object and one or more second reference images are acquired by cameras of the device, while the device is in a second position, different from the first position. Based on the first and second reference images, information on the displacement of at least one camera of the device between the first and second position is determined. The distance from the device to the object is calculated based on the first and second images and the determined information on the displacement.

Abstract: Various embodiments provide systems, methods, devices, and instructions for performing simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) that involve initializing a SLAM process using images from as few as two different poses of a camera within a physical environment. Some embodiments may achieve this by disregarding errors in matching corresponding features depicted in image frames captured by an image sensor of a mobile computing device, and by updating the SLAM process in a way that causes the minimization process to converge to global minima rather than fall into a local minimum.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for measuring a distance to an object using a device (100) having at least two cameras (104, 106) is described. One or more first images including the object are acquired by a first camera of the device and one or more first reference images are acquired by a second camera of the device, while the device is in a first position. One or more second images including the object and one or more second reference images are acquired by cameras of the device, while the device is in a second position, different from the first position. Based on the first and second reference images, information of the displacement of at least one camera of the device between the first and second positions are determined. The distance from the device to the object is calculated based on the first and second images including the object and the determined information on the displacement of the at least one camera.