AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF VIDEO AND DIRECTIONAL AUDIO FROM SPHERICAL CONTENT

• US 20160005435A1
• Filed: 07/01/2015
• Published: 01/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GoPro, Inc.
• Original Assignee: GoPro, Inc.
• Inventors: Campbell, Scott Patrick, Jing, Zhinian, MacMillan, Timothy, Newman, David A., Adsumilli, Balineedu Chowdary
• Granted Patent: US 9,570,113 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/3081 used signal is a video-frame or a video-field (P.I.P)
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/806 with processing of the sound signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8211 the additional signal being a sound signal H04N9/835 takes precedence

Abstract

A spherical content capture system captures spherical video and audio content. In one embodiment, captured metadata or video/audio processing is used to identify content relevant to a particular user based on time and location information. The platform can then generate an output video from one or more shared spherical content files relevant to the user. The output video may include a non-spherical reduced field of view such as those commonly associated with conventional camera systems. Particularly, relevant sub-frames having a reduced field of view may be extracted from each frame of spherical video to generate an output video that tracks a particular individual or object of interest. For each sub-frame, a corresponding portion of an audio track is generated that includes a directional audio signal having a directionality based on the selected sub-frame.

Claims

1. A method for generating a video with corresponding audio, comprising:

receiving a spherical video;

receiving a plurality of audio channels representing audio captured concurrently with the spherical video, each of the plurality of audio channels comprising directional audio corresponding to a different direction;

mapping different spatial regions of the spherical video to different audio channels;

for each of a plurality of frames of the spherical video, extracting a sub-frame having a reduced field of view relative to a field of view of the spherical video;

for each of the sub-frames, determining, by a processor, one or more of the spatial regions overlapping the sub-frame and generating a portion of an audio stream from one or more different audio channels corresponding to the one or more spatial regions overlapping the sub-frame; and

outputting the generated video and the audio stream.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the portion of the audio stream comprises:

weighting each of the plurality of audio channels based on an amount of overlap between the spatial regions and the extracted sub-frame; and

combining the weighted plurality of audio channels to generate the portion of the audio stream.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of audio channels corresponds to a direction perpendicular to a face of a tetrahedron.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of audio channels corresponds to a direction perpendicular to a face of a cube.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving video metadata including location data pertaining to a location of a camera capturing the spherical video and timing data pertaining to a time of capture of the spherical video;

receiving user metadata representing a target path, the target path comprising a sequence of time-stamped locations corresponding to a target;

determining the sub-frame as having content relevant to the target path.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the sub-frame as having content relevant to the target path comprises:

determining a direction of the target relative to the camera based on the video metadata and the user metadata; and

selecting the sub-frame based on the direction.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein generating the portion of the audio stream comprises:

weighting each of the plurality of audio channels based on an amount of overlap between the spatial regions and the extracted sub-frame; and

combining the weighted plurality of audio channels to generate the portion of the audio stream.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of audio channels corresponds to a direction perpendicular to a face of a tetrahedron.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of audio channels corresponds to a direction perpendicular to a face of a cube.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, the instructions when executed further causing the one or more processors to perform steps including:

receiving video metadata including location data pertaining to a location of a camera capturing the spherical video and timing data pertaining to a time of capture of the spherical video;

receiving user metadata representing a target path, the target path comprising a sequence of time-stamped locations corresponding to a target;

determining the sub-frame as having content relevant to the target path.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein determining the sub-frame as having content relevant to the target path comprises:

determining a direction of the target relative to the camera based on the video metadata and the user metadata; and

selecting the sub-frame based on the direction.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for generating a video with corresponding audio, the instructions when executed by one or more processors causing the one or more processors to perform steps including:

receiving a spherical video;

receiving a plurality of audio channels representing audio captured concurrently with the spherical video, each of the plurality of audio channels comprising directional audio corresponding to a different direction;

mapping different spatial regions of the spherical video to different audio channels;

for each of a plurality of frames of the spherical video, extracting a sub-frame having a reduced field of view relative to a field of view of the spherical video;

for each of the sub-frames, determining one or more of the spatial regions overlapping the sub-frame and generating a portion of an audio stream from one or more different audio channels corresponding to the one or more spatial regions overlapping the sub-frame; and

outputting the generated video and the audio stream.

13. A media server system for generating a video with corresponding audio, the video server system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform steps including;

receiving a spherical video;

receiving a plurality of audio channels representing audio captured concurrently with the spherical video, each of the plurality of audio channels comprising directional audio corresponding to a different direction;

mapping different spatial regions of the spherical video to different audio channels;

for each of a plurality of frames of the spherical video, extracting a sub-frame having a reduced field of view relative to a field of view of the spherical video;

for each of the sub-frames, determining one or more of the spatial regions overlapping the sub-frame and generating a portion of an audio stream from one or more different audio channels corresponding to the one or more spatial regions overlapping the sub-frame; and

outputting the generated video and the audio stream.

14. The media server system of claim 13, wherein generating the portion of the audio stream comprises:

weighting each of the plurality of audio channels based on an amount of overlap between the spatial regions and the extracted sub-frame; and

combining the weighted plurality of audio channels to generate the portion of the audio stream.

15. The media server system of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of audio channels corresponds to a direction perpendicular to a face of a tetrahedron.

16. The media server system of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of audio channels corresponds to a direction perpendicular to a face of a cube.

17. The media server system of claim 13, the instructions when executed further causing the one or more processors to perform steps including:

receiving video metadata including location data pertaining to a location of a camera capturing the spherical video and timing data pertaining to a time of capture of the spherical video;

receiving user metadata representing a target path, the target path comprising a sequence of time-stamped locations corresponding to a target;

determining the sub-frame as having content relevant to the target path.

18. The media server system of claim 13, wherein determining the sub-frame as having content relevant to the target path comprises:

determining a direction of the target relative to the camera based on the video metadata and the user metadata; and

selecting the sub-frame based on the direction.