Lens Database

It would be desirable to have a common lens database of accumulated knowledge on distortion, chromatic aberration, response curve.

An aim is to use stitching to feed an huge camera/lens database for distortion correction, vignetting correction, chromatic abberation, etc. Then, it will be possible to reuse this database to correct single pictures too.

There are two ways to generate such a database:
Collect high quality photographs centrally, manually calibrate them and assemble a database that matches parameters with image EXIF data - This is how the PTLens database was collected.
Use the fact that stitching software (eg hugin, but there are other tools using the same lens correction model) effectively calibrates lenses every time a project is stitched - This information could be collected, validated and averaged centrally to automate the creation of a lens database.

The second technique could be divided into several subparts which are independent.
First part theory :
Distortion parameters accumulation: what measure is important, what can be such a measure reproduced, what criterion should be use in a stitch to be sure that the optimized parameters are good for the database.
Chromatic aberration: find a reproducible way to measure it. Study the variation of the CA with zoom parameters (Is it arying with aperture? Or with focal length? )
Response curve: this parameter is less dependent on the lens, it's more sensor / maker related.

Second part: statistic accumulation
Design a standard format to store every parameter,
Create and manage a central repository of lens database.