Geospatial multiviewer

• US 9,076,259 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2011
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Imagine Communications Limited (Gores Broadcast Holdings LLC)
• Original Assignee: Imagine Communications Limited (Gores Broadcast Holdings LLC)
• Inventors: Hourie, Craig, Sulte, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung, Kee M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Du, Haixia
• Application Number:
  US13/232,559
• Publication Number:
  US 20130063489A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,392 Days
• Field of Search: 345/473
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 17/05 Geographic models
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging

Abstract

A geospatial multiviewer can include a geospatial application that provides geospatial data responsive to a user input, the geospatial data corresponding to a representation of at least one geographical region. A request engine is configured to provide a search query for requesting content from at least one data source. The search query is based at least in part on the geospatial data from the geospatial application. A graphics pipeline is configured to dynamically generate at least one transformation for adjusting objects in an output presentation in response to the user input. The output presentation is rendered based on the at least one transformation. The objects in the output presentation comprise received content and the representation of at least one geographical region.

Claims

1. A geospatial multiviewer comprising:

a geospatial application that provides geospatial data in response to a user input, the geospatial data corresponding to a representation of at least one geographical region;

a request engine configured to provide a search query for requesting content from a plurality of data sources, wherein the plurality of data sources comprise a plurality of video sources to provide a plurality of video streams, the search query being based at least in part on the geospatial data from the geospatial application; and

a graphics pipeline configured to dynamically generate at least one transformation for adjusting objects in an output presentation in response to the user input, the output presentation being rendered based on the at least one transformation, the objects in the output presentation comprising a region object representing at least one geographical region and selected video objects corresponding to a subset of the plurality of video streams selected in response to the search query, wherein at least one of the selected video objects comprises a respective video stream of the subset of the plurality of video streams, the graphics pipeline further configured to overlay the selected video objects directly over respective portions of the region object in the output presentation, wherein a respective portion of the region object over which each of the selected video objects is overlaid corresponds to a geographical location represented in content of a respective video stream of the subset of the plurality of video streams.

2. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein the graphics pipeline further comprises:

an animation engine configured to calculate a respective transformation based at least in part on the received content for at least a substantial portion of a plurality of frames for controlling at least a relative orientation and scaling of the objects in the output presentation in response to the user input; and

a renderer configured to render the output presentation for each of the plurality of frames based on the transformation calculated for each respective frame.

3. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 2, wherein the graphics pipeline further comprises a compositor programmed to provide rendering instructions and selected content to the renderer, the compositor generating the rendering instructions based on the at least one transformation to control position and relationships of the objects rendered in each frame of the output presentation.

4. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 3, wherein the selected content provided by the compositor to the renderer for each frame excludes at least one of the representation of the at least one geographical region and video content, the video content and the representation of the at least one geographical region being provided to the renderer via a different, separate path, wherein the representation of the at least one geographical region comprises a geographical map.

5. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 2, wherein the renderer is configured to provide the output presentation as successive frames having a predetermined frame rate.

6. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 5, wherein the predetermined frame rate comprises a broadcast video frame rate.

7. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one decoder configured to decode received content and provide decoded content; and

an asynchronous transfer engine configured to receive the representation of the at least one geographical region provided by the geospatial application and the decoded content, the asynchronous transfer engine transferring the representation of the at least one geographical region and the decoded content to graphics memory to facilitate rendering of the output presentation.

8. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 7, further comprising a renderer configured to render the output presentation for each of the plurality of frames based on the transformation generated for each respective frame, the renderer including the graphics memory, the asynchronous transfer engine being configured to transfer the representation of the at least one geographical region and the decoded content directly to corresponding locations in the graphics memory of the renderer.

9. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 7, wherein the decoded content comprises at least one stream of decoded video content.

10. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 7, wherein the representation of the at least one geographical region and the decoded content are provided to the asynchronous transfer engine at different rates.

11. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 7, wherein the graphics pipeline further comprises a compositor programmed to provide rendering instructions and selected content to the renderer, the compositor generating the rendering instructions based on the at least one transformation to control location and relationships of the objects rendered in each frame of the output presentation, the selected content that is provided by the compositor excluding the representation of the at least one geographical region and the decoded content.

12. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein a response to the requested content includes a location identifier for at least one of the plurality of data sources determined to be relevant to the search query, the request engine employing the location identifier to retrieve corresponding content from the at least one of the plurality of data sources, wherein the at least one of the plurality of data sources includes the video source.

13. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein the received content further comprises geospatial metadata that provides a geospatial reference for the received content, the graphics pipeline employing the geospatial metadata to control a relative placement of an object corresponding to the video stream captured by the camera with respect to the representation of the at least one geographical region.

14. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein the search query comprises geospatial descriptors from the geospatial application corresponding to a user-defined frame of reference for at least one geographical region.

15. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein the user input is received from at least one of a local user via a user input device and a remote user through a network.

16. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 14, further comprising a streaming engine that is configured to stream an encoded version of the output presentation to at least one remote user over a network.

17. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein the video content provided by the video source further comprises another video stream.

18. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein the objects in the output presentation further comprising a content window object for the video stream, the graphics pipeline being further configured to position the video object within the content window object in the output presentation and overlay the content window object directly over the portion of the region object that corresponds to the geospatial location represented in the content of the video stream.

19. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 1, wherein the representation of the at least one geographical region corresponds to one of a 2-Dimension (2-D) geographical map representation of the at least one geographical region or a 3-Dimension (3-D) geographical map representation of the at least one geographical region.

20. A geospatial multiviewer comprising:

a geospatial application that provides geospatial data in response to a user input, the geospatial data corresponding to a representation of at least one geographical region;

a request engine configured to send a search query for requesting content from a plurality of data sources, wherein the plurality of data sources comprise a plurality of video sources to provide a plurality of video streams, the search query being based at least in part on the geospatial data from the geospatial application;

an asynchronous transfer engine configured to receive the representation of the at least one geographical region provided by the geospatial application and received content response to the search query, the asynchronous transfer engine routing the representation of the at least one geographical region and the received content to graphics memory to facilitate rendering a given frame of the output presentation; and

a graphics pipeline configured to dynamically generate at least one transformation for adjusting at least one selected video object comprising a video stream of a subset of the plurality of video streams in the output presentation based on the user input and a priority level of the selected video stream, the given frame of the output presentation being rendered based on at least one corresponding transformation and based on the received content selected in response to the search query and the representation of at least one geographical region stored in the graphics memory, the graphics pipeline further configured to overlay the at least one selected video object directly over a respective portion of the at least one geographical region for the given frame of the output presentation that corresponds to a geographical location represented in content of the video stream.

21. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 20, wherein the graphics pipeline further comprises:

a compositor programmed to provide rendering instructions and selected content to a renderer, the compositor generating the rendering instructions based on the at least one transformation to control location and relationships of the objects rendered in each frame of the output presentation, the renderer comprising the graphics memory,

the selected content that is provided by the compositor excluding the representation of the at least one geographical region and the received content that is provided to the graphics memory by the asynchronous transfer engine.

22. The geospatial multiviewer of claim 20, wherein the received content further comprises geospatial metadata that provides a geospatial reference for the received content, the graphics pipeline employing the geospatial metadata to control, for each given frame of the output presentation, an orientation of the video object in the output presentation at which a corresponding content window displaying the video stream captured by the camera is presented relative to the representation of the at least one geographical region.

23. A computer-implemented method for providing geospatial information, comprising:

receiving at least one user input;

providing geospatial data in response to a user input, the geospatial data corresponding to a representation of at least one geographical region that is generated by a geospatial application running on a processor;

sending a search request for content to a plurality of data sources, wherein the plurality of data sources comprise a plurality of video sources to provide a plurality of video streams, the search request including a search query based at least in part on the geospatial data;

receiving content from the plurality of data sources;

generating at least one transformation in response to the user input for controlling a relationship among objects rendered in an output presentation, wherein the objects in the output representation comprising a region object representing the at least one geographical region and selected video objects corresponding to a subset of the plurality of video streams selected in response to the search query, wherein at least one of the selected video objects comprises a respective video stream of the subset of the plurality of video streams; and

rendering a frame of the output representation based on at least one transformation, the received content selected in response to the search query and the representation of at least one geographical region, such that the selected video objects directly overlay respective portions of the region object in the frame of the output presentation, wherein a respective portion of the region object over which each of the selected video objects is overlaid corresponds to a geographical location represented in content of a respective video stream of the subset of the plurality of video streams.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising directly transferring to graphics memory at least one of the received content and the representation of at least one geographical region to facilitate the rendering of each frame of the output presentation.