Composition manager camera

• US 9,183,657 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2014
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: 2236008 Ontario Inc. (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Belanger, Etienne, Nita, Adrian, Boak, Adrian, Van Reenen, Michael Alexander, Graham, Neil John
• Primary Examiner(s): Crawford, Jacinta M
• Application Number:
  US14/504,068
• Publication Number:
  US 20150022621A1
• Time in Patent Office: 405 Days
• Field of Search: 345/530, 345/536, 345/619, 345/629
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2200/32 involving image mosaicing
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0492 Change of orientation of the displayed image, e.g. upside-down, mirrored
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/10 Mixing of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of an operation, e.g. adding, on the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/12 Use of DVI or HDMI protocol in interfaces along the display data pipeline
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/001 Arbitration of resources in a display system, e.g. control of access to frame buffer by video controller and/or main processor
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00209 Transmitting or receiving image data, e.g. facsimile data, via a computer, e.g. using e-mail, a computer network, the internet, I-fax
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/262 Studio circuits, e.g. for mixing, switching-over, change of character of image, other special effects ; Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects

Abstract

A system and method may be provided to access images through a camera service, where the images are generated by a non-sensor image source, such as a composition manager. The system may include the camera service and the non-sensor image source. The non-sensor image source may generate a processed image from a source other than a sensor. The camera service may provide the processed image generated by the non-sensor image source to an image consuming application.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an image buffer in which a video stream from a non-sensor image source is buffered;

a processor; and

a memory comprising a camera service, the camera service executable with the processor to provide one or more image consuming applications access to a plurality of image sources through a camera application programming interface, the camera application programming interface configured to provide a unified view of the image sources and to treat each of the image sources as a camera,

the camera service executable with the processor to receive a request to select an image source from which to receive video content through the camera service,

wherein the camera service is further executable to select, based on the request, the image source from among the image sources, the image sources comprising a sensor image source and the non-sensor image source, and

wherein the camera service is further executable to provide the video stream buffered in the image buffer to an application based on a selection of the non-sensor image source as the image source.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the application is a display driver.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the camera service is further executable to receive an image specification parameter and to provide the video stream to the application in accordance with the image specification parameter.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the image specification parameter comprises at least one of a location of a processed image, a size of the processed image, a color format of the processed image, a pixel format of the processed image, a timestamp of the processed image, or an availability of the processed image.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the image buffer is a writeback buffer, wherein the writeback buffer is a buffer populated by a hardware component of a composition manager, where data stored in the writeback buffer represents a composited image for display.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the application is a video chat application.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-sensor image source includes a video decoding application.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-sensor image source includes an application that generates the video stream.

9. A method comprising:

providing a camera service through which an image consuming application selects, when executed by a processor, a non-sensor image source as an image source from which to receive video content, wherein the camera service, when executed by the processor, provides the image consuming application access to a plurality of image sources through a camera application programming interface, the camera application programming interface configured to provide a unified view of the image sources and each of the image sources is viewed as a camera, the image sources comprising the non-sensor image source;

buffering a video stream in an image buffer with the processor, the video stream received by the camera service from the non-sensor image source; and

providing the video stream, which is generated by the non-sensor image source and buffered in the image buffer, to the image consuming application through the camera service based on selection of the non-sensor image source as the image source.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising receiving, by the camera service when executed by the processor, a request from the image consuming application for the video stream in a target format, wherein providing the video stream comprises providing the video stream in the target format requested by the image consuming application.