Apparatus and Method for Panoramic Video Imaging with Mobile Computing Devices

• US 20120262540A1
• Filed: 04/17/2012
• Published: 10/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: EyeSee360, Inc.
• Original Assignee: EyeSee360, Inc.
• Inventors: Rondinelli, Michael, Glasgow, Chang
• Application Number:
  US13/448,673
• Publication Number:
  US 20120262540A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/36
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 13/06 Panoramic objectives; So-called "sky lenses" including panoramic objectives having reflecting surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/10 with curved faces
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/12 with means for supporting objectives, supplementary lenses, filters, masks, or turrets
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/14 interchangeably
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/565 Optical accessories, e.g. converters for close-up photography, tele-convertors, wide-angle convertors
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 37/00 Panoramic or wide-screen photography; Photographing extended surfaces, e.g. for surveying; Photographing internal surfaces, e.g. of pipe
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/55 Optical parts specially adapted for electronic image sensors; Mounting thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/62 Control of parameters via user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/631 Graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for controlling image capture or setting capture parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/695 Control of camera direction for changing a field of view, e.g. pan, tilt or based on tracking of objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture

Abstract

An apparatus includes a housing, a concave panoramic reflector, a support structure configured to hold the concave panoramic reflector in a fixed position with respect to the housing, and a mounting device for positioning the housing in a fixed orientation with respect to a computing device such that light reflected by the concave panoramic reflector is directed to a light sensor in the computing device.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a housing;

a concave panoramic reflector;

a support structure configured to hold the concave panoramic reflector in a fixed position with respect to the housing; and

a mounting device for positioning the housing in a fixed orientation with respect to a computing device such that light reflected by the concave panoramic reflector is directed to a light sensor in the computing device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a portion of the concave panoramic reflector is positioned outside of the housing and displaced from an end of the housing in an axial direction to form an opening between an edge of the concave panoramic reflector and the end of the housing.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the shape of the concave panoramic reflector defines a vertical field of view.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a mirror positioned to reflect light from the concave panoramic reflector to the light sensor.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the mirror is sized to encompass a field of view of a camera in the computing device.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the housing has a substantially frustoconical shape.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the support structure comprises:

a transparent member positioned in the housing in a plane perpendicular to an axis of the housing; and

a central opening configured to accept a post coupled to the concave panoramic reflector.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the mounting device comprises:

a case for the mobile computing device, wherein the case is configured to couple to the housing.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the case includes an oblong opening configured to make an interference fit with a substantially oblong protrusion on the housing.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the case includes a keyed opening configured to receive a keyed protrusion on the housing.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the case includes a bayonet opening configured to receive a protrusion on the housing.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the case includes a magnet configured to couple to a magnet on the housing.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the case includes an alignment well configured to receive an alignment bump on the housing.

14. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the case includes an opening configured to receive a winged protrusion on the housing.

15. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the case includes a plurality of openings configured to receive pins on the housing.

16. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the case includes a lip configured to grip the bevel along an outside edge of a screen on the mobile computing device.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the lip holds a back face of the case in tension against a back of the mobile computing device.

18. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the case includes two parts that slid onto the mobile computing device.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the two parts are joined by a pair of parallel, angled surfaces, forming an interference fit when the two parts are slid onto the mobile computing device and then pressed together.

20. The apparatus of claim 8, the case includes an opening configured to receive a protrusion on the housing and allowing the protrusion to slide into a position adjacent to a camera opening.

21. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the concave panoramic reflector has a shape defined by one of the following equations:

22. A method comprising:

receiving panoramic image data in a computing device;

viewing a region of the panoramic image in real time; and

changing the viewed region in response to user input and/or an orientation of the computing device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the user input includes touch based pan, tilt, and/or zoom.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein an initial point of contact from a user'"'"'s touch is mapped to a pan/tilt coordinate, and pan/tilt adjustments are computed during dragging to keep a pan/tilt coordinate under a user'"'"'s finger.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the orientation of the computing device is used to implement pan, tilt, and/or orientation based roll correction.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the user input and orientation are treated additively.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein for touch based zoom, two points of contact from a user touch are mapped to pan/tilt coordinates, from which an angle measure is computed to represent the angle between the two contacting fingers.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein a field of view simulating zoom is adjusted as the user pinches in or out to match dynamically changing finger positions to an initial angle measure.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein pinching in the two points of contact produces a zoom out effect.

30. The method of claim 22, wherein an orientation based pan is derived from compass data provided by a compass sensor in the computing device.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein live compass data is compared to recorded compass data in cases where recorded compass data is available.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein an arbitrary North value is mapped onto a recorded media.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein gyroscope data is mapped to an arbitrary North value to provided simulated compass input.

34. The method of claim 30, wherein gyroscope data is synchronized to compass positions periodically or as a one-time initial offset.

35. The method of claim 22, wherein a different portion of the panoramic image is shown as determined by a change in compass orientation data with respect to initial position compass data.

36. The method of claim 22, wherein orientation based tilt is derived from accelerometer data.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein a gravity vector is determined relative to the computing device.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein an angle of the gravity vector in relation to the computing device along the computing device'"'"'s display plane matches a tilt angle of the device.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein tilt data is mapped against tilt data in a recorded media.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein an arbitrary horizon value is mapped onto a recorded media.

41. The method of claim 22, wherein a portion of the image to be viewed is determined by a change in vertical orientation data with respect to initial position data.

42. The method of claim 22, wherein touch based input is combined with orientation input, with the touch based input added to the orientation input as an offset.

43. The method of claim 22, wherein gyroscope data is mapped to an arbitrary horizon value to provided a simulated gravity vector input.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein gyroscope data is synchronized to a gravity vector periodically or as a one-time initial offset.

45. The method of claim 22, wherein automatic roll correction is computed as the angle between the computing device'"'"'s vertical display axis and a gravity vector from the computing device'"'"'s accelerometer.

46. The method of claim 22, wherein the display shows a tilted portion of the panoramic image captured by a combination of a camera and a panoramic optical device.

47. The method of claim 22, wherein the region of the image to be viewed is determined by the change in vertical orientation data with respect to an initial gravity vector.

48. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

detecting and tracking motion of subjects of interest and displaying region follows the subjects of interest.

49. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

providing multiple viewing perspectives of a single live event from multiple computing devices.

50. The method of claim 49, further comprising:

displaying image data from the multiple computing devices at either a current time or a previous time.

51. An apparatus comprising:

a panoramic optical device configured to reflect light to a camera;

a computing device for processing image data from the camera to produce rendered images; and

a display for showing at least a portion of the rendered images, wherein the displayed images are changed in response to user input and/or an orientation of the computing device.

52. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the user input includes touch based pan, tilt, and/or zoom.

53. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein an initial point of contact from a user'"'"'s touch is mapped to a pan/tilt coordinate, and pan/tilt adjustments are computed during dragging to keep the pan/tilt coordinate under a user'"'"'s finger.

54. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the orientation of the computing device is used to implement pan, tilt, and/or orientation based roll correction.

55. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the user input and orientation input are treated additively.

56. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein for touch based zoom, two points of contact from a user touch are mapped to pan/tilt coordinates, from which an angle measure is computed to represent the angle between the two contacting fingers.

57. The apparatus of claim 56, wherein a field of view simulating zoom is adjusted as the user pinches in or out to match the dynamically changing finger positions to the initial angle measure.

58. The apparatus of claim 56, wherein pinching in the two points of contact produces a zoom out effect.

59. The apparatus of claim 56, further comprising:

a compass sensor in the computing device, wherein an orientation based pan is derived from compass data.

60. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein live compass data is compared to recorded compass data.

61. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein an arbitrary North value is mapped onto recorded media.

62. The apparatus of claim 59, further comprising:

a gyroscope, wherein gyroscope data is mapped to an arbitrary North value to provided simulated compass input.

63. The apparatus of claim 59, wherein gyroscope data is synchronized to compass positions periodically or as a one-time initial offset.

64. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein a different portion of the rendered image is shown as determined by the change in compass orientation data with respect to the initial position compass data.

65. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein orientation based tilt is derived from accelerometer data.

66. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein a gravity vector is determined relative to the computing device.

67. The apparatus of claim 66, wherein an angle of the gravity vector in relation to the computing device along the computing device'"'"'s display plane matches a tilt angle of the device.

68. The apparatus of claim 66, wherein tilt data is mapped against tilt data in a recorded media.

69. The apparatus of claim 66, wherein an arbitrary horizon value is mapped onto a recorded media.

70. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein a portion of the image to be shown is determined by a change in vertical orientation data with respect to initial position compass data.

71. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein touch based input is combined with orientation input, with the touch input added to the orientation input as an offset.

72. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein gyroscope data is mapped to an arbitrary horizon value to provided a simulated gravity vector input.

73. The apparatus of claim 72, wherein gyroscope data is synchronized to the gravity vector periodically or as a one-time initial offset.

74. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein automatic roll correction is computed as the angle between the computing device'"'"'s vertical display axis and a gravity vector from an accelerometer in the computing device.

75. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the display shows a tilted portion of the panoramic image captured by a combination of a camera and a panoramic optical device.

76. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the portion of the image to be shown is determined by the change in vertical orientation data with respect to the initial gravity vector.

77. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein gyroscope data is mapped to an arbitrary up value to provided simulated gravity vector input.

78. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein gyroscope data is synchronized to a gravity vector periodically or as a one-time initial offset.

79. The apparatus of claim 51, wherein the computing device detects and tracks motion of subjects of interest and displays regions following the subjects of interest.

80. The apparatus of claim 51, further comprising:

providing multiple viewing perspectives of a single live event from multiple computing devices.

81. The apparatus of claim 80, further comprising:

displaying image data from the multiple computing devices at either a current time or a previous time.