Capturing frames from an external source

• US 9,142,254 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2011
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: McGavran, David, Young, Paul E., Guerrera, Enzo
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Tony N
• Application Number:
  US13/082,525
• Publication Number:
  US 20130166626A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,628 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for designating a memory region for receiving image frames from an image frame server, the image frames are from a first sequence of image frames. Each image frame in the first sequence of image frames is associated with a time position on a first timeline. A needed image frame is selected, the needed image frame associated with a second time position on a second timeline. The second time position is mapped on the second timeline to a first time position on the first timeline. The image frame server is requested to provide an image frame from the first sequence of image frames at the first time position on the first timeline.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to control sharing of image frames between first and second timelines, the method comprising:

sending a request for the designation of a memory region configured to receive image frames of a sequence of image frames from an image frame server, the memory region being different from memory regions containing the first and second timelines, each of the image frames in the sequence is associated with a time position on the first timeline associated with the image frame server;

determining that one or more image frames of the sequence of image frames are to be used at a particular time position on the second timeline that is different from the first timeline;

subsequent to sending the request for the designation of a memory region, sending a request for the image frame server to copy the one or more image frames into the memory region; and

receiving the one or more image frames from the memory region.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a response indicating a location of the memory region.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising mapping the particular time position on the second timeline to a time position of the one or more image frames on the first timeline.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising using the one or more image frames to generate a composite frame included in a second sequence of image frames.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 where the second timeline is related to the second sequence of image frames.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the memory region can be accessed by a plurality of applications.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, where:

the computer-implemented method of claim 1 is performed in a separate process space from the image frame server.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the sequence of image frames is obtained from a compositing application.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the request for the designation of a memory region to a proxy process.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

the image frame server and the client execute on different computing devices.

10. A computer-implemented method to control sharing of image frames between first and second timelines, the method comprising:

accepting a request from a client, the request identifying a first sequence of image frames, each image frame in the first sequence of image frames being associated with a time position on the first timeline;

responsive to the accepting, designating a memory region accessible by the client into which an image frame server can place one or more image frames from the first sequence of image frames, the memory region being different from memory regions containing the first and second timelines;

launching the image frame server if the image frame server is not executing; and

subsequent to the designating, establishing a communication link between the client and the image frame server that is usable by the client to request an image frame from the image frame server and obtain the requested image frame from the designated memory region for use in the second timeline.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, where:

the image frame server comprises an interactive application that allows a user to modify the first sequence of image frames.

12. The computer-implemented of claim 10, where:

the image frame server comprises a non-interactive application.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising:

launching a second image frame server capable of serving the one or more image frames if the image frame server terminates.

15. A system to control sharing of image frames between first and second timelines, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one more computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

sending a request for the designation of a memory region configured to receive image frames of a sequence of image frames, the memory region being different from memory regions containing the first and second timelines, each of the image frames in the sequence is associated with the time position on a first timeline;

determining that one or more image frames of the sequence of image frames are to be used at a particular time position on the second timeline different from the first timeline; and

subsequent to sending the request for the designation of a memory region, sending a request for an image frame server to copy the one or more image frames into the memory region, the request identifying the sequence of image frames.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the image frame server is further configured to provide the first sequence of image frames to the client process through the memory region.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the client process is further configured to receive the particular image frame from the memory region.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the first timeline is associated with the image frame server.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising a proxy configured to receive the request from the client process.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the proxy is further configured to identify the image frame server and provide information to one or more of the client process or the image frame server to allow the client process and the image frame server to communicate with each other.

21. The system of claim 20, where:

the proxy is configured to launch a new image frame server if the image frame server becomes unavailable.

22. The system of claim 20, where:

the proxy is configured to launch the image frame server if the image frame server is not executing.

23. A computer-implemented method to control sharing of image frames between first and second timelines, the method comprising:

sending, by a computing device, a request for the designation of a memory region on figured to receive image frames of a sequence of image frames from an image frame server, the memory region being different from memory regions containing the first and second timelines, each of the image frames in the sequence is associated with a time position on the first timeline associated with the image frame server;

determining, by the computing device, that one or more image frames of the sequence of image frames are to be used at a particular time position on the second timeline that is different from the first timeline; and

subsequent to sending the request for the designation of a memory region, requesting, by the computing device, that the image frame server provide the one or more image frames.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, further comprising:

mapping the particular time position on the second timeline to a time position of the one or more image frames on the first timeline.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, further comprising:

generating, using the one or more frames, one or more composite frames included in a second sequence of image frames.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, to perform further comprising:

obtaining the one or more image frames from the memory region.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, further comprising:

obtaining the sequence of image frames from a compositing application.

28. A system to control sharing of image frames between first and second timelines, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, causes the one more processors to perform operations comprising;

accepting a request from a client, the request identifying a first sequence of image frames, each image frame in the first sequence of image frames being associated with a time position on the first timeline;

responsive to the accepting, designating a memory region accessible by the client into which an image frame server can place one or more image frames from the first sequence of image frames, the memory region being different from memory regions containing the first and second timelines;

launching the image frame server if the image frame server is not executing; and

subsequent to the designating, establishing a communication link between the client and the image frame server that is usable by the client to request an image frame from the image frame server and obtain the requested image frame from the designated memory region for use in the second timeline.

29. The system of claim 28, where:

the image frame server comprises an interactive application that allows a user to modify the first sequence of image frames.

30. The system of claim 28, where:

the image frame server comprises a non-interactive application.

31. The system of claim 28, operable to cause the data processing apparatus to perform further operations comprising:

launching a second image frame server capable of serving the one or more image frames if the image frame server terminates.