System for digitally capturing and recording panoramic movies

• US 6,323,858 B1
• Filed: 06/23/1999
• Issued: 11/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Immersive Licensing, Inc.
• Original Assignee: iMove Inc. (Digital Domain Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Park, Michael C., Gilbert, Scott, Ripley, G. David, Kaiman, David J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Mark
• Assistant Examiner(s): Padmanabhan, Mano
• Application Number:
  US09/338,790
• Time in Patent Office: 888 Days
• Field of Search: 345/419, 345/418, 348/36, 348/39, 348/38, 348/159, 348/218, 348/42, 348/47
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/63 by using electronic viewfinders
• 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 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8047 using transform coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/806 with processing of the sound signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8211 the additional signal being a sound signal H04N9/835 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 the additional signal being at least another television signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8233 the additional signal being a character code signal

Abstract

The present invention provides a very flexible, digital system for capturing and storing panoramic images using progressive scan (that is, non interlaced) technology. The system includes a digital image input device and an associated control computer. Since the image capture device is digital it can be easily and flexibly controlled by software in the control computer. The image input device has six lenses positioned on the six faces of a cube. While the image input system can have other lens configurations, the use of six lenses in a cubic configuration is optimal for a system that is used to capture a spherical panorama. The six lenses simultaneously focuses different images on six CCDs (Charge Coupled Devices). The image input device also includes an embedded controller, and data compression circuitry. The embedded controller controls the exposure time of the CCDs (i.e. the effective aperture and effective shutter speed) and reads image data from the CCDs. The image data read from the CCDs is compressed, multiplexed, and sent to the control computer. The control computer stores the images in frames, each of which have one image from each of the six lenses. Each frame includes six images that were simultaneously recorded and any associated information, such as audio tracks, textual information, or environmental information such as GPS (Global Position System) data or artificial horizon data. The control computer includes a user interface which allows a user to specify control information such as frame rate, compression ratio, gain, etc. The control computer sends control information to the embedded controller which in turn controls the CCDs and the compression circuitry. The images can be sent from the control computer to a real time viewer so that a user can determine if the correct images are being captured. The images stored at the control computer are later seamed into panoramas and made into panoramic movies.

Claims

1. A digital image capture system which includes,

a digital image capture unit which simultaneously captures a plurality of overlapping digital images utilizing a non-interleaved progressive scan,

a control computer,

a control link and a data capture link between said control computer and said image capture unit whereby a digital image from said image capture unit can be transferred to said control computer and said control computer can send control signals to said digital image capture unit.

2. An digital image capture system including a digital image capture unit and a control computer:

said digital image capture unit including,

a plurality of lenses pointed in different directions,

an image sensor associated with each of said lenses,

image compression circuits for compressing the output of said image sensors an embedded controller for controlling said image sensors to capture progressive scan images,

said control computer including user input means and image storage means, and a connection between said control computer and said embedded controller for transferring said user input to said embedded controller.

3. A digital image capture system which includes,

a digital image capture unit which simultaneously captures a plurality of overlapping digital images utilizing a non-interleaved progressive scan,

said digital image capture unit included a plurality of individual cameras and an embedded controller, each of said individual cameras including a lens system and an individual CCD array, an entire CCD array being associated with each lens, said embedded controlled controlling said individual cameras to simultaneously acquire said overlapping digital images, whereby the simultaneously acquired images can be seamed into a panorama representing a panoramic image at a particular point in time,

a control computer,

a control link and a data capture link between said control computer and said image capture unit whereby a digital image from said image capture unit can be transferred to said control computer and said control computer can send control signals to said digital image capture unit.

4. A digital image capture system for capturing a series of panoramic images, including a digital image capture unit and a control computer:

said digital image capture unit including,

a plurality of lenses pointed in different directions,

an entire physically separate image sensor associated with each of said lenses, image compression circuits for compressing the output of said image sensors an embedded controller for controlling said image sensors to sequentially and simultaneously capture overlapping individual progressive scan images, which can be seamed into a series of panoramic images which form a panoramic movie,

said control computer including user input means, image storage means, and

a connection between said control computer and said embedded controller for transferring said images to said control computer and said user input to said embedded controller.