METHODS AND AN APPARATUS FOR ENCODING A 360-DEGREE VIDEO WITH INFORMATION ABOUT A VIEWPORT OR A SPATIAL REGION AND A RESPECTIVE QUALITY THEREOF

• US 20190313021A1
• Filed: 06/17/2019
• Published: 10/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2016
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: HANNUKSELA, Miska
• Application Number:
  US16/443,296
• Publication Number:
  US 20190313021A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/00 Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/597 specially adapted for multi-view video sequence encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234363 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for clients with a lower screen resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/816 involving special video data, e.g 3D video
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0127 by changing the field or frame frequency of the incoming video signal, e.g. frame rate converter

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer readable medium are provided for facilitating encoding of media content. In the context of a method, information is included in a manifest of available media content. The method also indicates in the manifest one of the following: a viewport or a spatial region. The method further indicates in the manifest at least one value indicative of a respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

including, in a container file, information of an available media content of a track of the container file, the available media content being 360-degree video;

indicating in the container file one of the following;

a viewport or a spatial region, wherein the viewport or the spatial region is a part of the 360-degree video represented by the track, and wherein, in the case of the viewport, the viewport is indicated with two angles on a spherical coordinate system, a horizontal field of view and a vertical field of view and wherein, in the case of the spatial region, the spatial region is indicated with a position, a width and a height; and

indicating in the container file at least one value indicative of a respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one value indicative of the respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region is a quality ranking indicating an order of picture or video quality.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

organizing the container file to conform to the ISO base media file format;

indicating the viewport or the spatial and the at least one value in a box within a sample entry of the track.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

organizing the container file to conform to the ISO base media file format;

indicating the viewport or the spatial and the at least one value in a sample group description entry of the track or in a sample of a timed metadata track associated with the track.

5. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

indicating in the container file whether the viewport is monoscopic, contains a left view or a right view of the available media content that is stereoscopic, or contains both the left view and the right view of the available media content that is stereoscopic.

6. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

indicating in the container file a second viewport covering the remaining field of view of the 360-degree video not covered by the viewport;

indicating in the container file a second at least one value indicative of a respective quality of the second viewport.

7. A method comprising parsing, from a container file, information of an available media content of a track of the container file, the available media content being 360-degree video, the method comprising:

parsing, from the container file one of the following;

a viewport or a spatial region, wherein the viewport or the spatial region is a part of the 360-degree video represented by the track, wherein, in the case of the viewport, two angles on a spherical coordinate system, a horizontal field of view and a vertical field of view are parsed, and wherein, in the case of the spatial region, a position, a width and a height are parsed;

parsing, from the container file, at least one value indicative of the respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region;

determining that the viewport or the spatial region is suitable for displaying; and

selecting, for displaying, the track among tracks of the container file based on the at least one value indicative of the respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the at least one value indicative of the respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region is a quality_ranking indicating an order of picture or video quality.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the container file to conforms to the ISO base media file format;

and the method further comprises parsing the viewport or the spatial and the at least one value in a box within a sample entry of the track.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the container file to conforms to the ISO base media file format;

and the method further comprises parsing the viewport or the spatial and the at least one value in a sample group description entry of the track or in a sample of a timed metadata track associated with the track.

11. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

parsing from the container file whether the viewport is monoscopic, contains a left view or a right view of the available media content that is stereoscopic, or contains both the left view and the right view of the available media content that is stereoscopic.

12. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

parsing from the container file a second viewport covering the remaining field of view of the 360-degree video not covered by the viewport;

parsing from the container file a second at least one value indicative of a respective quality of the second viewport.

13. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and a memory including computer program code, the memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

include, in a container file, information of an available media content of a track of the container file, the available media content being 360-degree video;

indicate in the container file one of the following;

a viewport or a spatial region, wherein the viewport or the spatial region is a part of the 360-degree video represented by the track and wherein, in the case of the viewport, the viewport is indicated with two angles on a spherical coordinate system, a horizontal field of view and a vertical field of view and wherein, in the case of the spatial region, the spatial region is indicated with a position, a width and a height; and

indicate in the container file at least one value indicative of a respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein at least one value indicative of the respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region is a quality_ranking indicating an order of picture or video quality.

15. The apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising computer program code configured to cause the apparatus to:

organize the container file to conform to the ISO base media file format; and

indicate the viewport or the spatial and the at least one value in a box within a sample entry of the track.

16. The apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising computer program code configured to cause the apparatus to:

organize the container file to conform to the ISO base media file format; and

indicate the viewport or the spatial and the at least one value in a sample group description entry of the track or in a sample of a timed metadata track associated with the track.

17. The apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising computer program code configured to cause the apparatus to:

indicate in the container file whether the viewport is monoscopic, contains a left view or a right view of the available media content that is stereoscopic, or contains both the left view and the right view of the available media content that is stereoscopic.

18. The apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising computer program code configured to cause the apparatus to:

indicate in the container file a second viewport covering the remaining field of view of the 360-degree video not covered by the viewport; and

indicate in the container file a second at least one value indicative of a respective quality of the second viewport.

19. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and a memory including computer program code, the memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

parse, from a container file, information of an available media content of a track of the container file, the available media content being 360-degree video;

parse, from the container file one of the following;

a viewport or a spatial region, wherein the viewport or the spatial region is a part of the 360-degree video represented by the track, wherein, in the case of the viewport, two angles on a spherical coordinate system, a horizontal field of view and a vertical field of view are parsed, and wherein, in the case of the spatial region, a position, a width and a height are parsed;

parse, from the container file, at least one value indicative of the respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region;

determine that the viewport or the spatial region is suitable for displaying; and

select, for displaying, the track among tracks of the container file based on the at least one value indicative of the respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region.

20. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the at least one value indicative of the respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region is a quality_ranking indicating an order of picture or video quality.

21. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the container file to conforms to the ISO base media file format;

and the apparatus further comprises computer program code configured to cause the apparatus to parse the viewport or the spatial and the at least one value in a box within a sample entry of the track.

22. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the container file to conforms to the ISO base media file format;

and the apparatus further comprises computer program code configured to cause the apparatus to parse the viewport or the spatial and the at least one value in a sample group description entry of the track or in a sample of a timed metadata track associated with the track.

23. The apparatus according to claim 19, further comprising computer program code configured to cause the apparatus to:

parse from the container file whether the viewport is monoscopic, contains a left view or a right view of the available media content that is stereoscopic, or contains both the left view and the right view of the available media content that is stereoscopic.

24. The apparatus according to claim 19, further comprising computer program code configured to cause the apparatus to:

parse from the container file a second viewport covering the remaining field of view of the 360-degree video not covered by the viewport; and

parse from the container file a second at least one value indicative of a respective quality of the second viewport.

25. A computer program product comprising computer program code configured to, when executed on at least one processor, cause an apparatus or a system to:

include, in a container file, information of an available media content of a track of the container file, the available media content being 360-degree video;

indicate in the container file one of the following;

a viewport or a spatial region, wherein the viewport or the spatial region is a part of the 360-degree video represented by the track, and wherein, in the case of the viewport, the viewport is indicated with two angles on a spherical coordinate system, a horizontal field of view and a vertical field of view and wherein, in the case of the spatial region, the spatial region is indicated with a position, a width and a height; and

indicate in the container file at least one value indicative of a respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region.

26. A computer program product comprising computer program code configured to, when executed on at least one processor, cause an apparatus or a system to:

parse, from a container file, information of an available media content of a track of the container file, the available media content being 360-degree video, the method comprising;

parse, from the container file one of the following;

a viewport or a spatial region, wherein the viewport or the spatial region is a part of the 360-degree video represented by the track, wherein, in the case of the viewport, two angles on a spherical coordinate system, a horizontal field of view and a vertical field of view are parsed, and wherein, in the case of the spatial region, a position, a width and a height are parsed;

parse, from the container file, at least one value indicative of the respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region;

determine that the viewport or the spatial region is suitable for displaying; and

select, for displaying, the track among tracks of the container file based on the at least one value indicative of the respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region.