AbstractThis paper contains two parts. In the first part an automatic processing pipeline is presented that analyses an image sequence and automatically extracts camera motion, calibration and scene geometry. The system combines state‐of‐the‐art algorithms developed in computer vision, computer graphics and photogrammetry. The approach consists of two stages. Salient features are extracted and tracked throughout the sequence to compute the camera motion and calibration and the 3D structure of the observed features. Then a dense estimate of the surface geometry of the observed scene is computed using stereo matching. The second part of the paper discusses how this information can be used for visualization. Traditionally, a textured 3D model is constructed from the computed information and used to render new images. Alternatively, it is also possible to avoid the need for an explicit 3D model and to obtain new views directly by combining the appropriate pixels from recorded views. It is interesting to note that even when there is an ambiguity on the reconstructed geometry, correct new images can often still be generated. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.