GEOSPATIAL MULTIVIEWER

• US 20130063489A1
• Filed: 09/14/2011
• Published: 03/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Imagine Communications Limited (Gores Broadcast Holdings LLC)
• Original Assignee: Imagine Communications Limited (Gores Broadcast Holdings LLC)
• Inventors: HOURIE, CRAIG, Sulte, Steve
• Granted Patent: US 9,076,259 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/643
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging

Abstract

A geospatial multiviewer can include a geospatial application that provides geospatial data responsive to a user input, the geospatial data corresponding to a representation of at least one geographical region. A request engine is configured to provide a search query for requesting content from at least one data source. The search query is based at least in part on the geospatial data from the geospatial application. A graphics pipeline is configured to dynamically generate at least one transformation for adjusting objects in an output presentation in response to the user input. The output presentation is rendered based on the at least one transformation. The objects in the output presentation comprise received content and the representation of at least one geographical region.

Claims

1. A geospatial multiviewer comprising:

a geospatial application that provides geospatial data in response to a user input, the geospatial data corresponding to a representation of at least one geographical region;

a request engine configured to provide a search query for requesting content from at least one data source, the search query being based at least in part on the geospatial data from the geospatial application; and

a graphics pipeline configured to dynamically generate at least one transformation for adjusting objects in an output presentation in response to the user input, the output presentation being rendered based on the at least one transformation, the objects in the output presentation comprising the representation of at least one geographical region and received content responsive to the search query.

2. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein the graphics pipeline further comprises:

an animation engine configured to calculate a respective transformation for at least a substantial portion of a plurality of frames for controlling at least the relative orientation and scaling of the objects in the output presentation in response to the user input; and

a renderer configured to render the output presentation for each of the plurality of frames based on the transformation calculated for each respective frame.

3. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 2, wherein the graphics pipeline further comprises a compositor programmed to provide rendering instructions and selected content to the renderer, the compositor generating the rendering instructions based on the at least one transformation to control position and relationships of the objects rendered in each frame of the output presentation.

4. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 3, wherein the selected content provided by the compositor to the renderer for each frame excludes at least one of the representation of the at least one geographical region and video content, the video content and the representation of the at least one geographical region being provided to the renderer via a different, separate path.

5. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 2, wherein the renderer is configured to provide the output presentation as successive frames having a predetermined frame rate.

6. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 5, wherein the predetermined frame rate comprises a broadcast video frame rate.

7. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one decoder configured to decode received content and provide decoded content; and

an asynchronous transfer engine configured to receive the representation of the at least one geographical region provided by the geospatial application and the decoded content, the asynchronous transfer engine transferring the representation of the at least one geographical region and the decoded content to graphics memory to facilitate rendering of the output presentation.

8. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 7, further comprising a renderer configured to render the output presentation for each of the plurality of frames based on the transformation generated for each respective frame, the renderer including the graphics memory, the asynchronous transfer engine being configured to transfer the representation of the at least one geographical region and the decoded content directly to corresponding locations in the graphics memory of the renderer.

9. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 7, wherein the decoded content comprises at least one stream of decoded video content.

10. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 7, wherein the representation of the at least one geographical region and the decoded content are provided to the asynchronous transfer engine at different rates.

11. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 7, wherein the graphics pipeline further comprises a compositor programmed to provide rendering instructions and selected content to the renderer, the compositor generating the rendering instructions based on the at least one transformation to control location and relationships of the objects rendered in each frame of the output presentation, the selected content that is provided by the compositor excluding the representation of the at least one geographical region and the decoded content.

12. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein a response to the requested content includes a location identifier for each source of content determined to be relevant to the search query, the request engine employing the location identifier to connect to corresponding content from each respective source of content.

13. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein the received content comprises at least one stream of video content, the at least one stream of video content comprising geospatial metadata that provides a geospatial reference for the received content, the graphics pipeline employing the geospatial metadata to control a relative placement of an object corresponding to the at least one stream of video content with respect to the representation of the at least one geographical region.

14. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein the search query comprises geospatial descriptors from the geospatial application corresponding to a user-defined frame of reference for at least one geographical region.

15. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein the user input is received from at least one of a local user via a user input device and a remote user through a network.

16. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 14, further comprising a streaming engine that is configured to stream an encoded version of the output presentation to at least one remote user over a network.

17. A geospatial multiviewer comprising:

a geospatial application that provides geospatial data responsive to a user input, the geospatial data corresponding to a representation of at least one geographical region;

a request engine configured to send a search query for requesting content from at least one data source, the search query being based at least in part on the geospatial data from the geospatial application;

an asynchronous transfer engine configured to receive the representation of the at least one geographical region provided by the geospatial application and received content responsive to the search query, the asynchronous transfer engine routing the representation of the at least one geographical region and the received content to graphics memory to facilitate rendering a given frame of the output presentation; and

a graphics pipeline configured to dynamically generate at least one transformation for adjusting objects in the output presentation in response to the user input, the given frame of the output presentation being rendered for the given frame based on at least one corresponding transformation and based on the received content and the representation of at least one geographical region stored in the graphics memory.

18. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 17, wherein the graphics pipeline further comprises:

a compositor programmed to provide rendering instructions and selected content to a renderer, the compositor generating the rendering instructions based on the at least one transformation to control location and relationships of the objects rendered in each frame of the output presentation, the renderer comprising the graphics memory,

the selected content that is provided by the compositor excluding the representation of the at least one geographical region and the received content that is provided to the graphics memory by the asynchronous transfer engine.

19. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 17, wherein the received content comprises at least one stream of video content, the at least one stream of video content comprising geospatial metadata that provides a geospatial reference for the video content, the graphics pipeline employing the geospatial metadata to control, for each given frame, an orientation of an object in the output presentation at which a corresponding frame of the video content is presented relative to the representation of the at least one geographical region.

20. A computer-implemented method for providing geospatial information, comprising:

receiving at least one user input;

providing geospatial data in response to the user input, the geospatial data corresponding to a representation of at least one geographical region that is generated by a geospatial application running on a processor;

sending a search request for content, the search request including a search query based at least in part on the geospatial data;

generating at least one transformation in response to the user input for controlling a relationship among objects rendered in an output presentation;

receiving content from an identified resource location;

rendering a frame of the output presentation based on the at least one transformation, the received content and the representation of at least one geographical region, such that an object corresponding to the received content in each frame of the output presentation has a geospatially relevant context.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising directly transferring to graphics memory at least one of the received content and the representation of at least one geographical region to facilitate the rendering of each frame of the output presentation.