Swarm imaging

• US 8,498,497 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2006
• Issued: 07/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Panabaker, Ruston John David, Horvitz, Eric, Klein, Johannes, Baribault, Gregory, Zhao, Feng
• Primary Examiner(s): Chu, Randolph I
• Application Number:
  US11/561,378
• Publication Number:
  US 20080118184A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,447 Days
• Field of Search: 382/284, 345629-641, 348584-601
• US Class Current: 382/284
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3876 Recombination of partial images to recreate the original image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3214 of a date
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3215 of a time or duration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3253 Position information, e.g. geographical position at time of capture, GPS data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided for collecting data and generating synthesized data from the collected data. For example, a request for an image may be received from a requestor and at least one data capture device may be identified as capable of providing at least a portion of the requested image. A request may be sent to identified data capture devices to obtain an image corresponding to the requested image. Multiple images may be received from the data capture devices and may further be connected or stitched together to provide a panoramic, 3-dimensional image of requested subject matter.

Claims

1. A method of generating a composite image of a subject from a first image and a second image, the method comprising:

receiving, by a service component operating on a computing device, a request for the composite image of the subject;

selecting, by the service component in response to the receiving the request, a first device from a plurality of devices, the selecting the first device based on stored device information that indicates that the first device is configured to provide at least a first portion of the requested composite image, the first portion corresponding to the first image of the subject, wherein data storage includes the stored device information for each of the plurality of devices including for the first device and the second device, and wherein each stored device information comprises a DeviceID that identifies a corresponding device, and a geographic location of the corresponding device, and other characteristics of the corresponding device, and wherein the geographic location of each device in each corresponding stored device information is updated by a device tracker;

selecting, by the service component in response to the receiving the request, a second device from the plurality of devices, the selecting the second device based on the stored device information that indicates that the second device is configured to provide at least a second portion of the requested composite image, the second portion corresponding to the second image of the subject;

transmitting, in response to the selecting the first device, a first request to the first device for the first image of the subject;

transmitting, in response to the selecting the second device, a second request to the second device for the second image of the subject;

receiving, in response to the first request, the first image of the subject from the first device and, in response to the second request, the second image of the subject from the second device; and

synthesizing, in response to the receiving the first image of the subject and the second image of the subject, the requested composite image of the subject based on the first image of the subject and second image of the subject.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the request for the composite image of the subject comprises:

receiving a plurality of requests from a plurality of requestors, each of the requestors having a priority value.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising selecting a request from the plurality of requestors based on the priority value of each requestor, wherein the selected request is the request.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the selecting the first device comprises determining a location of the first device based on the location in the stored device information corresponding to the first device.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the selecting the first device comprises selecting the first device if the location of the first device is within a predetermined distance of the subject.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

receiving location information for the first device;

storing the location information for the first device, wherein the stored location information is a portion of the stored device information of the first device; and

selecting the first device by comparing the location of at least one other device with the location of the first device.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the first request includes one or more instructions specifying how to capture the first image of the subject.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the one or more instructions specifying how to capture the first image of the subject includes an instruction to move the first device.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the instruction to move the first device indicates a direction for the first device to point to capture the first image of the subject.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the received first image of the subject is from a different viewing angle than the received second image of the subject.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the composite image of the subject is a 3-dimensional image of the subject.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the composite image of the subject includes the first image of the subject stitched together with the second image of the subject.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the request includes a desired price for the composite image of the subject.

13. A computer-readable medium, excluding signal- and carrier wave-type media, having computer executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a computing device to perform a method of providing composite image of a subject to a requestor, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of requests for the composite image of the subject from a plurality of requestors, wherein each of the requestors has a corresponding priority value;

selecting a requestor from the plurality of requestors based on the corresponding priority values;

selecting a first data capture device from a plurality of data capture devices based on stored device information that indicates that the first data capture device is configured to provide at least a first portion of the requested composite image, the first portion corresponding to a first image of the subject, wherein data storage includes the stored device information for each of the plurality of data capture devices including for the first data capture device, and wherein each stored device information comprises a DeviceID that identifies a corresponding data capture device, and a geographic location of the corresponding data capture device, and other characteristics of the corresponding data capture device, and wherein the geographic location of each data capture device in each corresponding stored device information is updated by a device tracker;

generating instructions for the first data capture device that specify how to capture the first image of the subject;

transmitting to the first data capture device a first request for the first image of the subject, and transmitting to the first data capture device the generated instructions for the first data capture device that specify how to capture the first image of the subject;

selecting a second data capture device from the plurality of data capture devices based on the stored device information that indicates that the second data capture device is configured to provide at least a second portion of the requested composite image, the second portion corresponding to the second image of the subject;

generating instructions for the second data capture device that specify how to capture the second image of the subject;

transmitting to the second data capture device a second request for the second image of the subject, and transmitting to the second data capture device the generated instructions for the second data capture device that specify how to capture the second image of the subject;

receiving the first image of the subject from the first data capture device and the second image of the subject from the second data capture device;

synthesizing the requested composite image of the subject based on the first image of the subject and second image of the subject; and

transmitting the synthesized composite image of the subject to the selected requestor.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 13, the method further comprising transmitting instructions from the selected requestor to the first data capture device.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 13 wherein the composite image of the subject is navigable.

16. A system for generating a composite image of a subject, the system comprising:

a computing device;

an input of the computing device configured for receiving a request from a requestor for the composite image of the subject;

a data store configured for storing device information for each of a plurality of data capture devices, wherein each stored device information comprises a DeviceID that identifies a corresponding data capture device, and a geographic location of the corresponding data capture device, and other characteristics of the corresponding data capture device;

a device tracker configured for updating the geographic location of each data capture device in each corresponding stored device information;

an image capturing component configured for specifying at least two data capture devices of the plurality of data capture devices based on the stored device information, wherein the stored device information of a first data capture device of the at least two data capture devices indicates that the first data capture device is configured for providing at least a first portion of the requested composite image, the first portion corresponding to a first image of at least a portion of the subject, and wherein the stored device information of a second data capture device of the at least two data capture devices indicate that the second data capture device is configured for providing at least a second portion of the requested composite image, the second portion corresponding to a second image of at least a portion of the subject;

an output component configured for transmitting a first request for the first image to the first data capture device and a second request for the second image to the second data capture device;

an image input component configured for receiving the first image from the first data capture device and the second image form the second data capture device; and

an image synthesizer configured for synthesizing the requested composite image of the subject based on the first image and second image.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the composite image of the subject is a panoramic 3-dimensional image.