Image processing and display

• US 7,656,403 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2005
• Issued: 02/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DD Micoy Inc.
• Original Assignee: Micoy Corporation (Digital Domain Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Hare, Justin, Grover, Trent N.
• Primary Examiner(s): PAPPAS, PETER
• Application Number:
  US11/128,712
• Publication Number:
  US 20060256113A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,726 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 345/423
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/139 Format conversion, e.g. of frame-rate or size
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/189 Recording image signals; Reproducing recorded image signals

Abstract

Apparatus and systems, as well as methods and articles, may operate to store portions of a spherical image in a storage medium as a pair of triangles included in a convex quadrilateral. The triangles may form a portion of one or more substantially uniformly tessellated spherical surfaces.

Claims

1. An apparatus, including:

an image storage medium having stored thereon image data from a first portion of a spherical image as a pair of triangles included in a convex quadrilateral, wherein the pair of triangles includes a first triangle associated with a left eye view and a second triangle associated with a right eye view, wherein the image data from the pair of triangles is configured and stored on the storage medium as a unitary combination of data accessible as a unit of data usable by a processor to reproduce the first portion of the image associated with the pair of triangles.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further including:

an image capture medium to capture a subset of the first portion including at least one of the pair of triangles.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pair of triangles includes a first triangle associated with a texture map of a first type, and a second triangle associated with a texture map of a second type different from the first type.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pair of triangles is included in a plurality of triangles forming a substantially uniformly tessellated portion of the spherical image.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the pair of triangles are adjacent each other in the substantially uniformly tessellated portion of the spherical image.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further including:

a processor to control repetitive acquisition of other portions of the spherical image and storage of the other portions in the image storage medium.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further including:

a data compression module to receive and to compress information included in the pair of triangles.

8. An apparatus, including:

an image storage medium having stored thereon a first portion of a spherical image as a pair of triangles included in a convex quadrilateral, wherein the pair of triangles includes a first triangle associated with a left eye view and a second triangle associated with a right eye view and is readable by a processor and usable by the processor to reproduce the first portion of the spherical image associated with the pair of triangles.

9. A system, including:

an image storage medium having stored thereon image data from a portion of a spherical image as a pair of triangles included in a convex quadrilateral, wherein the pair of triangles includes a first triangle associated with a left eye view, and a second triangle associated with a right eye view, wherein the image data from the pair of triangles is configured and stored on the storage medium as a unitary combination of data accessible as a unit of data usable to reproduce the portion of the image associated with the pair of triangles; and

a processor operatively coupled to the image storage medium and configured to provide information to display at least a subset of the portion of the spherical image.

10. The system of claim 9, further including:

a display surface to display the at least a subset of the first portion of the spherical image.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the pair of triangles is included in a plurality of triangles forming a substantially uniformly tessellated portion of the spherical image.

12. The system of claim 9, further including:

a polygon culling module to couple to the processor and to determine whether the pair of triangles is included in a virtual camera view.

13. A system, including:

an image storage medium having stored thereon a portion of a spherical image as a pair of triangles included in a convex quadrilateral; and

a processor operatively coupled to the image storage medium and configured to provide information to display at least a subset of the portion of the spherical image, wherein the pair of triangles includes a first triangle associated with a left eye view and a second triangle associated with a right eye view.

14. A method, including:

storing image data from a first portion of a spherical image in a storage medium as a pair of triangles included in a convex quadrilateral, wherein the pair of triangles includes a first triangle associated with a left eye view and a second triangle associated with a right eye view, and wherein the image data from the pair of triangles is configured and stored on the storage medium as a unitary combination of data accessible as a unit of data usable by a processor to reproduce the first portion of the image associated with the pair of triangles.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the pair of triangles includes a first triangle associated with a texture map of a first type and a second triangle associated with a texture map of a second type different from the first type.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the pair of triangles is included in a plurality of triangles forming a substantially uniformly tessellated portion of the spherical image.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the pair of triangles are adjacent each other in the substantially uniformly tessellated portion of the spherical image.

18. The method of claim 14, further including:

acquiring the first portion of the spherical image;

acquiring other portions of the spherical image; and

storing the other portions of the spherical image as subsequent pairs of triangles in the storage medium.

19. The method of claim 14, further including:

accessing the storage medium; and

displaying at least a subset of the portion of the spherical image.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein displaying at least the subset of the portion of the spherical image further includes:

displaying the at least the subset of the portion of the spherical image as a stereoscopic image.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein displaying at least the subset of the portion of the spherical image further includes:

displaying the at least the subset of the portion of the spherical image as part of a moving stereoscopic image.

22. The method of claim 14, further including:

compressing similar information included in the pair of triangles.

23. The method of claim 14, further including:

compressing similar information included between the pair of triangles and a temporally adjacent pair of triangles.

24. The method of claim 14, further including:

culling the pair of triangles from a plurality of other polygons not included in a virtual camera view.

25. A method, including:

storing a first portion of a spherical image in a storage medium as data representing a pair of triangles included in a convex quadrilateral, wherein the pair of triangles includes a first triangle associated with a left eye view and a second triangle associated with a right eye view such that the data is readable by a processor and usable by the processor to reproduce the first portion of the spherical image associated with the pair of triangles.

26. An article including a machine-accessible medium having associated information, wherein the information, when accessed and executed by a machine, results in the machine performing:

storing image data from a first portion of a spherical image in a storage medium as a pair of triangles included in a convex quadrilateral, wherein the pair of triangles includes a first triangle associated with a left eye view and a second triangle associated with a right eye view, and wherein the image data from the pair of triangles is configured and stored on the storage medium as a unitary combination of data accessible as a unit of data usable by the machine to reproduce the first portion of the image associated with the pair of triangles.

27. The article of claim 26, wherein the information, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

acquiring the first portion of the spherical image;

acquiring other portions of the spherical image; and

storing the other portions of the spherical image as subsequent pairs of triangles in the storage medium.

28. The article of claim 26, wherein the information, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

accessing the storage medium; and

displaying at least a subset of the portion of the spherical image.

29. The article of claim 28, wherein displaying at least the subset of the portion of the spherical image further includes:

displaying the at least the subset of the portion of the spherical image as a stereoscopic image.

30. The article of claim 28, wherein displaying at least the subset of the portion of the spherical image further includes:

displaying the at least the subset of the portion of the spherical image as part of a moving stereoscopic image.