System and method for providing zooming video

• US 6,396,962 B1
• Filed: 01/29/1999
• Issued: 05/28/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Cunningham, Kathleen, Nehme, Jad, Haffey, Samuel F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehta, Bhavesh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kassa, Yosef
• Application Number:
  US09/239,652
• Time in Patent Office: 1,215 Days
• Field of Search: 382/298,299,295,293,282,255,256 345/611,613,619,622,660,661,666,667 348/240,561,581
• US Class Current: 382/298
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/40 Scaling of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. expanding or contracting

Abstract

A method for transforming a video file provided to a computer into an object in a zooming universe established in such computer, which zooming object may be enlarged and panned by manipulation by a user via a computer input device. At the time a video file is opened in a video player library on such a computer, a zooming engine is enabled on the computer and a zooming universe is enabled therefrom. Frames of the video file being played on the computer video player library are copied to a video object in the zooming universe and displayed there. By manipulation of the parameters of the bounding box enclosing the zooming video object, through use of a computer input device, the user is able to scale and pan the video image in the zooming universe display up (or down) to a desired viewing size and perspective.

Claims

1. A method for providing a desired scaling for images related to a video data stream, said video data stream being arranged as a data file capable of being run on a computer processing device, said method comprising the steps of:

causing an instance of said video data file to be run in a video player library operated on said computer processing device;

providing a zooming engine operable in conjunction with said computer processing device;

causing frames of said video data file running in said video player library to be copied to an object in a zooming universe established by said zooming engine; and

scaling said zooming object to a desired level for said video image.

2. The method of claim 1 including an additional step of panning within a plane of said video image.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said zooming video object is displayed in conjunction with a graphical user interface.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said desired scaling level is selectable by a user during running of said video file on said computer processing device.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said user selectable scaling is input via an interactive input device cooperatively linked with said graphical user interface.

6. The method of claim 3 including an additional step of panning within a plane of a video image displayed in said graphical user interface.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein a location panned within said video image is selectable by a user during running of said video file on said computer processing device.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said user selectable panned location is input via an interactive input device cooperatively linked with said graphical user interface.

9. The method of claim 1 including the further step of causing said frames of said video data file copied to said zooming object to be damaged at a selected repetition rate.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said zooming engine is implemented in JAVA programming language.

11. In a computer system comprising a processing means, a set of computer instructions constituted as an operating system and a display means for providing a visual display of graphical image data operated on by said processing means, a video imaging means operative to cause video images processed by said processing means to be displayed at a desired level of magnification from a base image size, said video imaging means comprising:

a video player software library operating under said operating system; and

a zooming engine means operating in conjunction with said computer system;

wherein a video data stream arranged as a data file is run on said video player software library and frames of said video stream being so run are copied to an object in a zooming universe established by said zooming engine.

12. The computer system of claim 11 further including scaling means for causing said video images to be scaled to a desired level.

13. The computer system of claim 11 further including panning means for panning within a plane of a selected one of said video images.

14. The computer system of claim 11 further including an interactive input means operative to transmit user selection of said desired level of magnification to said video imaging means.

15. The computer system of claim 11 further including means for causing frames of said video stream copied to said zooming object to be damaged at a selected repetition rate.

16. The computer system of claim 11 wherein said zooming engine is implemented in JAVA programming language.

17. A method for providing a desired scaling for images related to a video data stream, said video data stream being arranged as a video data file capable of being run on a computer processing device, said method comprising the steps of:

causing an instance of said video data file to be run in a video player library operated on said computer processing device;

providing a zooming engine operable in conjunction with said computer processing device;

implementing said zooming engine in an object-oriented graphical environment;

causing frames of said video data file running in said video player library to be copied to a zooming object in a zooming universe established by said zooming engine; and

scaling said zooming object to a desired level.

18. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a set of computer instructions constituted as an operating system and a display adapted to provide a visual display of graphical image data operated on by said processor;

a video imaging means operative to cause video images processed by said processor to be displayed at a desired level of magnification from a base image size, said video imaging means including;

a video player software library operating under said operating system; and

a zooming engine means operating in conjunction with said operating system that is adapted for use in an object-oriented graphical environment;

wherein a video data stream arranged as a data file is run on said video player software library and frames of said video data stream being so run are copied to an object in a zooming universe established by said zooming engine means.

19. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a set of computer instructions constituted as an operating system and a display adapted to provide a visual display of graphical image data operated on by said processor;

a video imaging means operative to cause video images processed by said processor to be displayed at a desired level of magnification from a base image size, said video imaging means including;

a video player software library operating under said operating system;

a zooming engine operating in conjunction with said operating system that is adapted for use in an object- oriented graphical environment; and

means for causing frames of a video data stream arranged as a data file copied to a zooming object to be damaged at a selected repetition rate;

wherein said video data stream is run on said video player software library and frames of said video data stream being so run are copied to said zooming object in a zooming universe established by said zooming engine.

20. A computer system comprising:

a processor adapted under control of software to provide an object-oriented graphical environment having a plurality of graphical objects;

a video monitor;

a video driver card operatively connected between said video monitor and said processor to reproduce a field of view of said object-oriented graphical environment provided by said video processor to said monitor;

said software including;

a video player library operative to stream frames of video data to one of said graphical objects within said object-oriented graphical environment; and

a zooming engine adapted to create a zooming characteristic within said object-oriented graphical environment;

said zooming engine being adapted to scale said field of view of said object-oriented environment according to said zooming engine characteristic.