Because this question involves physics, I've posted a closely related question here.
Before I go to the effort of deriving all the equations, I'm wondering if anyone knows of a reference paper for dewarping an image in a generalized cylinder, such as this (Scott Fraser's Reflections):
By "dewarping" of course I mean rectifying the reflected image: un-distorting it so it appears as if viewed directly from the location of the curved mirror.
We can make some simplifying assumptions: That the viewer (artist) is far from the mirror, that the mirror is cylindrically symmetric about its (vertical) axis, and that we can see the outer boundary (occluding contour) and hence know the radius as a function of height, $r(h)$. The dewarping is a fairly straightforward (yet tedious) exercise in geometry.
I'm seeking a reference paper for two reasons: 1) I don't want to have to "re-invent the wheel," and 2) I want to cite and give proper acknowledgement to anyone who has solved this problem.
There's no need to point out the simplest version of this problem, where the mirror is a cylinder of constant radius. I'm extremely familiar with the literature on cylindrical anamorphic art (and have published in it myself).
Of course, if anyone wants to work on this dewarping problem... great!