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Epipolar geometry describes the projective relationship between two camera views. A scene point away from the camera baseline and the two camera centers determine an epipolar plane. Its intersections with the image planes are corresponding epipolar lines. Knowing one image point therefore constrains its partner to a line rather than the whole second image.^[ref]

With image points in homogeneous coordinates, a fundamental matrix $F$ expresses the constraintFor an ideal horizontally rectified pair this reduces to equality of image-row coordinates, while horizontal displacement remains free and carries stereo disparity. A line constraint does not determine depth: many scene points along one viewing ray satisfy the geometry. Correct stereo correspondence selects a partner, and camera calibration then supports metric stereoscopic triangulation.

An epipolar line is the image-plane trace of an epipolar plane. Given one point in the first camera image, the partner of that scene point must lie on the corresponding epipolar line in the other view. A fundamental matrix maps the first point to coefficients of that line.^[ref]

For example, let $q_L=(100,50,1{)}^{\mathsf{T}}$ andThen $F{q}_L=(0,-1,50{)}^{\mathsf{T}}$, so a candidate $q_R=(u,v,1{)}^{\mathsf{T}}$ satisfies $-v+50=0$. The partner can have different horizontal coordinate $u$, but must lie on row 50 in this ideal model. Intersecting candidate matches with this line reduces the search; it does not resolve repeated textures or guarantee that a visible partner exists.

The fundamental matrix $F$ encodes the epipolar geometry of two distinct camera centers using image homogeneous coordinates. For matching image points $x_L,x_R$, the ideal constraint isThus $F{x}_L$ is an epipolar line in the right image, while $F^{\mathsf{T}}{x}_R$ is an epipolar line in the left image. A nondegenerate fundamental matrix has matrix rank two and is defined only up to nonzero scale.^[ref]

For an ideal horizontally aligned stereo pair with matched image coordinate origins, one possible scale convention isPutting $x_L=(20,50,1{)}^{\mathsf{T}}$ gives $F{x}_L=(0,-1,50{)}^{\mathsf{T}}$, so the right point must satisfy $v_R=50$. Its horizontal coordinate remains free: the constraint reduces the search to a line but does not determine stereo disparity or depth. Repeated texture can still make stereo correspondence ambiguous.

With camera calibration matrices $K_L,K_R$ and relative pose $(R,t)$ under the convention $X_R=R{X}_L+t$, the relation is $F=K_R^{-\mathsf{T}}[t{]}_{\times }R{K}_L^{-1}$, where $[t{]}_{\times }v=t\times v$. Translation direction affects the geometry, but multiplying $t$ by a scalar only rescales $F$: the fundamental matrix alone cannot establish a metric camera baseline. Pure rotation has $t=0$ and requires a different geometric description.^[ref]