Perspective display systems and methods

• US 9,167,289 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2010
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Stinson, Willis D. III, Chang, Rob C.
• Primary Examiner(s): HANCE, ROBERT J
• Application Number:
  US12/874,862
• Publication Number:
  US 20120060177A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,874 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/012 Head tracking input arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/111 Transformation of image signals corresponding to virtual viewpoints, e.g. spatial image interpolation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/117 the virtual viewpoint locations being selected by the viewers or determined by viewer tracking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/279 the virtual viewpoint locations being selected by the viewers or determined by tracking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44 Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream or rendering scenes according to encoded video stream scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45

Abstract

Exemplary perspective display systems and methods are disclosed herein. An exemplary method includes a perspective display system acquiring visual data representative of a camera view of a user space associated with a display screen, determining, based on the visual data, a position of a user within the user space, identifying, based on the position of the user, a viewable region of an image, and displaying, on the display screen, the viewable region of the image, the displayed viewable region of the image representing a perspective view of the image based on the position of the user. In certain examples, the method further includes the perspective display system detecting a movement of the user to another position within the user space and updating the display on the display screen in real time in accordance with the movement to display another viewable region of the image on the display screen.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

calibrating, by a perspective display system, a geometric model of an image array, a virtual aperture defined by a single display screen of a single display device, and a user space associated with the single display screen of the single display device, the calibrating comprising virtually positioning the image array at a constant distance behind the virtual aperture based on a predefined distance from the single display screen at which the entire image array is to be viewable, from the user space, through the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device;

acquiring, by a perspective display system, visual data representative of a camera view of the user space associated with the single display screen of the single display device;

determining, by the perspective display system based on the visual data, a position of a first user within the user space and a position of a second user within the user space, wherein

the determining of the position of the first user comprises;

detecting a predefined tracking initiation gesture performed by the first user; and

locking onto and tracking, based on the predefined tracking initiation gesture, a physical feature of the first user within the user space during a first time period; and

the determining of the position of the second user comprises;

detecting an additional predefined tracking initiation gesture performed by the second user; and

locking onto and tracking, based on the additional predefined tracking initiation gesture, a physical feature of the second user within the user space during a second time period, the second time period different from the first time period;

receiving, by the perspective display system, a request to view one of a plurality of channels that provide user-selected content to the first user and the second user via the perspective display system, the one of the plurality of channels including at least one image;

identifying, by the perspective display system based on a relationship between the position of the first user, the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device, and the at least one image represented by the image array positioned at the constant virtual distance behind the virtual aperture in accordance with the calibrated geometric model, a first viewable region of the at least one image;

identifying, by the perspective display system based on a relationship between the position of the second user, the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device, and the at least one image represented by the image array positioned at the constant virtual distance behind the virtual aperture in accordance with the calibrated geometric model, a second viewable region of the at least one image;

generating, by the perspective display system, one of a display of the first viewable region of the at least one image and a display of the second viewable region of the at least one image; and

displaying, by the perspective display system, the one of the generated display of the first viewable region of the at least one image and the generated display of the second viewable region of the at least one image on the single display screen of the single display device, the first viewable region of the at least one image representing a first perspective view of the at least one image based on the relationship between the position of the first user and the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device, and the second viewable region of the at least one image representing a second perspective view of the at least one image based on the relationship between the position of the second user and the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by the perspective display system while locked onto and tracking the physical feature of the first user, a movement of the first user to another position within the user space; and

updating, by the perspective display system, the display on the single display screen of the single display device in real time in accordance with the movement to display another viewable region of the at least one image on the single display screen of the single display device, the another viewable region of the at least one image representing another perspective view of the at least one image based on the another position of the first user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the updating comprises displaying at least one of a panning, a tilting, and a zooming from the first viewable region of the at least one image to the another viewable region of the at least one image on the single display screen of the single display device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one image comprises a real-time live video image.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving, by the perspective display system in real time, a video feed carrying the real-time live video image, wherein the real-time live video image comprises end-user-generated content captured by at least one video camera.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the real-time live video image comprises a panoramic video image.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the real-time live video image comprises a three-dimensional real-time live video image.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the physical feature of the first user comprises at least one eye of the first user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the position of the first user further comprises determining three-dimensional coordinates of the physical feature of the first user within the user space based on the visual data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the first viewable region of the at least one image based on the relationship between the position of the first user, the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device, and the at least one image represented by the image array positioned at the constant virtual distance behind the virtual aperture in accordance with the calibrated geometric model is further based on a congruence of triangles in the geometric model.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the position of the first user is performed without the first user utilizing a user input device within the user space.

12. The method of claim 1, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first viewable region of the at least one image is a sub-region of the at least one image.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein the first viewable region is a sub-region of the at least one image and the another viewable region is a different sub-region of the at least one image.

15. A method comprising:

receiving, by a video distribution subsystem, a plurality of incoming real-time video feeds carrying data representative of a plurality of live video images captured by a plurality of video cameras;

receiving, by the video distribution subsystem, a request to view a user-selected outgoing real-time video feed among a plurality of outgoing real-time video feeds on one of a plurality of channels carrying data representative of one of the plurality of the live video images;

transmitting, by the video distribution subsystem, the user-selected outgoing real-time video feed carrying data representative of the one of the plurality of live video images to a video access subsystem;

receiving, by the video access subsystem, the user-selected outgoing real-time video feed carrying data representative of the one of the plurality of live video images;

calibrating, by the video access subsystem, a geometric model of an image array, a virtual aperture defined by a single display screen of a single display device, and a user space associated with the single display screen of the single display device, the calibrating comprising virtually positioning the image array at a constant distance behind the virtual aperture based on a predefined distance from the single display screen at which the entire image array is to be viewable, from the user space, through the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device;

detecting, by the video access subsystem, a position of a first user within the user space associated with the single display screen of the single display device and a position of a second user within the user space associated with the single display screen of the single display device, wherein

the detecting of the position of the first user comprises;

detecting a predefined tracking initiation gesture performed by the first user; and

locking onto and tracking, based on the predefined tracking initiation gesture, a physical feature of the first user within the user space during a first time period; and

the detecting of the position of the second user comprises;

detecting an additional predefined tracking initiation gesture performed by the second user; and

locking onto and tracking, based on the additional predefined tracking initiation gesture, a physical feature of the second user within the user space during a second time period, the second time period different from the first time period;

identifying, by the video access subsystem based on a relationship between the position of the first user, the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device, and the one of the plurality of live video images represented by the image array positioned at the constant virtual distance behind the virtual aperture in accordance with the calibrated geometric model, a first viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images;

identifying, by the video access subsystem based on a relationship between the position of the second user, the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device, and the one of the plurality of live video images represented by the image array positioned at the constant virtual distance behind the virtual aperture in accordance with the calibrated geometric model, a second viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images;

generating, by the video access subsystem, one of a display of the first viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images and a display of the second viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images; and

displaying, by the video access subsystem on the single display screen of the single display device, the one of the generated display of the first viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images and the generated display of the second viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images on the single display screen of the single display device, the first viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images representing a first perspective view of the one of the plurality of live video images based on the relationship between the position of the first user and the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device, and the second viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images representing a second perspective view of the one of the plurality of live video images based on the relationship between the position of the second user and the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

detecting, by the video access subsystem while locked onto and tracking the physical feature of the first user, a movement of the first user to another position within the user space; and

updating, by the video access subsystem, the display on the single display screen of the single display device in real time in accordance with the movement to display another viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images on the single display screen of the single display device, the another viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images representing another perspective view of the one of the plurality of live video images based on the another position.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the one of the plurality of live video images comprises end-user-generated content captured and provided to the video distribution subsystem in real time.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the one of the plurality of live video images comprises a live panoramic video image.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the one of the plurality of live video images comprises a live three-dimensional video image.

20. The method of claim 15, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

21. A system comprising:

a video distribution subsystem that

receives a plurality of incoming real-time video feeds carrying data representative of one of a plurality of a live video image captured by a plurality of video cameras,

receives a request to view a user-selected outgoing real-time video feed among a plurality of outgoing real-time video feeds on one of a plurality of channels carrying data representative of one of the plurality of live video images, and

distributes the user-selected outgoing real-time video feed carrying data representative of the one of the plurality of live video images over a network; and

a video access subsystem communicatively coupled to the video distribution subsystem by way of the network and that

receives the outgoing real-time video feed carrying data representative of one of the plurality of live video images;

calibrates a geometric model of an image array, a virtual aperture defined by a single display screen of a single display device, and a user space associated with the single display screen of the single display device, the calibrating comprising virtually positioning the image array at a constant distance behind the virtual aperture based on a predefined distance from the single display screen at which the entire image array is to be viewable, from the user space, through the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device;

detects a position of a first user within the user space associated with the single display screen of the single display device and a position of a second user within the physical user space associated with the single display screen of the single display device, wherein

the video access subsystem detects the position of the first user by;

detecting a predefined tracking initiation gesture performed by the first user; and

locking onto and tracking, based on the predefined tracking initiation gesture, a physical feature of the first user within the user space during a first time period; and

the video access subsystem detects the position of the second user by;

detecting an additional predefined tracking initiation gesture performed by the second user; and

locking onto and tracking, based on the additional predefined tracking initiation gesture, a physical feature of the second user within the user space during a second time period, the second time period different from the first time period;

identifies, based on a relationship between the position of the first user, the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device, and the one of the plurality of live video images represented by the image array positioned at the constant virtual distance behind the virtual aperture in accordance with the calibrated geometric model, a first viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images;

identifies, based on a relationship between the position of the second user, the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device, and the one of the plurality of live video images represented by the image array positioned at the constant virtual distance behind the virtual aperture in accordance with the calibrated geometric model, a second viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images;

generates, within the single display device, one of a display of the first viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images and a display of the second viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images; and

displays, on the single display screen of the single display device, one of a first perspective view of the generated display of the first viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images based on the relationship between the position of the first user and the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device and a second perspective view of the generated display of the second viewable region of the one of the plurality of live video images based on the relationship between the position of the second user and the virtual aperture defined by the single display screen of the single display device.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the video access subsystem comprises at least one of a set-top box device, a mobile phone device, a gaming console, and a tablet computer.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the network comprises at least one of a subscriber television network and a mobile phone network.