SWARM IMAGING

• US 20080118184A1
• Filed: 11/17/2006
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Zhao, Feng, Klein, Johannes, Horvitz, Eric, Baribault, Gregory, Panabaker, Ruston John David
• Granted Patent: US 8,498,497 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3876 Recombination of partial images to recreate the original image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3214 of a date
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3215 of a time or duration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided for collecting data and generating synthesized data from the collected data. For example, a request for an image may be received from a requestor and at least one data capture device may be identified as capable of providing at least a portion of the requested image. A request may be sent to identified data capture devices to obtain an image corresponding to the requested image. Multiple images may be received from the data capture devices and may further be connected or stitched together to provide a panoramic, 3-dimensional image of requested subject matter.

Claims

1. A method of generating an image of a subject, the method comprising:

receiving a request for an image of the subject;

identifying a plurality of devices for providing the image based on the request;

transmitting a device request to the identified devices for the image;

receiving a plurality of images of the subject from the identified devices; and

synthesizing the requested image based on the plurality of images received.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of receiving a request includes receiving a plurality of requests from a plurality of requestors, each of the requestors having a priority value.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising selecting a requestor from the plurality of requestors based on corresponding priority values, wherein the device request includes the request from the selected requester.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of identifying comprises:

determining a location of a device for providing the image;

selecting the device based on the location.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the step of selecting includes selecting the device if the device location is within a predetermined distance of the subject.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

receiving location information for the devices of the plurality of devices; and

storing the location information,

wherein the step of selecting the device includes comparing stored location information with corresponding determined location information of the device.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of identifying comprises:

determining a capability of a device for providing the image;

selecting the device based on the capability.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the capability includes a photo-imaging capability.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting includes transmitting instructions for obtaining the image to the identified devices.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the instructions for obtaining the image includes one of instructions on orientation of the device and movement of the device.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the instructions on orientation of the device includes an indication of a direction in which to point the device and instructions on movement of the device includes an indication of one of a direction and direction to move the device.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the received plurality of images of the subject includes one of images of different portions of the subject, images of different views of the subject, images of different angles of the subject, images of different magnifications of the subject, images of different components of the subject, and images of different aspects of subject matter co-located with the subject.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of synthesizing comprises building a 3-dimensional model of the subject with the plurality of images received.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of synthesizing includes stitching the plurality of images together.

15. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon for performing a method of providing an image of a subject to a requestor, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of requests for images from a plurality of requestors, wherein each of the requestors has a corresponding priority value;

selecting a requestor from the plurality of requestors based on the corresponding priority values;

identifying a plurality of data capture devices for providing an image requested by the selected requestor;

generate instructions for capturing the image;

transmitting a request for the image and the generated instructions for capturing the image to the plurality of identified data capture devices;

receiving an image from each of the identified data capture devices;

connecting each received image together to obtain a synthesized image, the synthesized image being a panoramic, 3-dimensional image comprising each received image; and

transmitting the synthesized image to the selected requestor.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising computer executable instructions stored thereon for receiving a value from the selected requestor, wherein the step of identifying a plurality of data capture devices includes:

receiving a value from each of the data capture devices;

comparing each received value from each of the data capture devices with the value received from the selected requestor;

selecting data capture devices in the plurality of data capture devices if the corresponding received value from the data capture device is less than or equal to the received value from the selected requestor.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15 further comprising computer executable instructions stored thereon for transmitting instructions from the selected requestor to the data capture devices.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15 wherein the synthesized image is navigable.

19. A system for generating a synthesized image or model of a real-world subject, the system comprising:

an input for receiving a request for a synthesized image from a requestor;

a device identifier for identifying at least one data capture device for providing an image associated with the requested synthesized image;

an output component for transmitting a request for an image corresponding to the requested synthesized image to the at least one data capture device;

an image input component for receiving a plurality of images from the at least one data capture device; and

an image synthesizer for stitching the plurality of images together to form the requested synthesized image.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the synthesized image is a panoramic 3-dimensional image of the real-world subject.