One of the five basic optical aberrations is Distortion. Whether the Distortion aberration has a positive or negative sign determines whether it is described as “Pincushion” or “Barrel” distortion. The origin of the term “Barrel” distortion is obvious—the image of a square object produced by an optical system with negative distortion resembles a classic “barrel” shape. But one with a positive coefficient produces a shape that is not that of the pincushions of my acquaintance. What kinds of pincushions inspired the name of this characteristic aberration, and who came up with it?
An efficient Architecture for Barrel Distortion Correction in Surveillance camera images