Image processing device for displaying content, content creation device, and image processing method

• US 9,218,111 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Issued: 12/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kawai, Aritoki, Shinohara, Takayuki, Morisada, Hidehiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Pesin, Boris
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEE, JUSTIN S
• Application Number:
  US13/798,516
• Publication Number:
  US 20130198686A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,014 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3212 Monitoring battery levels, e.g. power saving mode being initiated when battery voltage goes below a certain level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

When the user enters a request for moving a viewpoint, whether or not a displayed area is encompassed in a link area that is set for an active image is kept monitored. When the displayed area is encompassed, a corresponding link is determined to be valid, and an image of a link destination mapped to the link area is displayed. Whether or not the displayed area moves outside of a link area set for an image of a link origin is further monitored. If even a part of the displayed area moves outside of the link area, a corresponding link is determined to be invalid, and the display is switched back to the image of the link origin. If none of the above-stated conditions applies, the initial image continues to be displayed while moving the displayed area according to the movement of the viewpoint within the active image.

Claims

1. An image processing device to display an image with moving a displayed area in the image according to user operation, comprising:

a content memory unit configured to store data of a plurality of images to be displayed and a link setting file that is respectively set for each image to achieve a link function of switching display of a single image being displayed to another image when an inclusion relationship between the displayed area and a specific link area satisfies a predetermined requirement, the link setting file describing information regarding the link area and identification information of a link destination image;

a link processing unit configured to determine whether an inclusion relationship with a link area set for a current image being displayed satisfies the predetermined requirement by a movement of the displayed area in the current image; and

a display image processing unit configured to switch an image to be displayed to the link destination image by performing a rendering process of rendering image data of the link destination image based on the identification information of the link destination image when it is determined by the link processing unit that the predetermined requirement has been satisfied,

wherein the link processing unit further continues to monitor an inclusion relationship between a link area that is set for an image displayed before a switching to the image being displayed and the displayed area in the image being displayed to determine whether the inclusion relationship no longer satisfies the predetermined requirement, and

wherein the display image processing unit further switches the image to be displayed back to the image displayed before the switching when the link processing unit determines that the predetermined requirement is no longer satisfied.

2. The image processing device according to claim 1,

wherein, in the link setting file, two link areas are set to include respective areas outside two opposite sides of four sides of each rectangular image and to link to different destination images, and

wherein the display image processing unit expresses a virtual array of the plurality of images concatenated by a link by switching an image to be displayed to a link destination image when it is determined that the predetermined requirement has been satisfied by a movement of the displayed area toward either one of the two sides of the image being displayed.

3. The image processing device according to claim 2,

wherein a condition where the displayed area is encompassed in the link area is set to be the predetermined requirement,

wherein link areas of each image are set such that an area in which a link area that is set to a first image and that links to a second image and a link area that is set to the second image and that links to the first image overlap with each other is set to be a size that does not allow the displayed area to be encompassed while the first image and the second image are arranged one after the other in the virtual sequence, and

wherein the link processing unit determines that an inclusion relationship between the link area linking to the second image, which is the image being displayed, and the displayed area no longer satisfies the predetermine condition before the link processing unit determines that an inclusion relationship between the link area linking to the first image, which is the image displayed before the switching, and the displayed area satisfies the predetermine condition.

4. The image processing device according to claim 2,

wherein a condition where the displayed area is encompassed in the link area is set to be the predetermined requirement,

wherein link areas of each image are set such that an area in which a link area that is set to a third image and that links to a second image and a link area that is set to the second image and that links to a third image overlap with each other is set to be a size that allows the displayed area to be encompassed while the first image, the second image, and the third image are successively arranged in the virtual sequence,

wherein the link processing unit determines that an inclusion relationship between the link area linking to the third image that is set to the second image, which is the image being displayed, and the displayed area satisfies the predetermine condition before the link processing unit determines that an inclusion relationship between the link area linking to the second image, which is the image being displayed, and the displayed area no longer satisfies the predetermine condition.

5. The image processing device according to claim 1,

wherein the link processing unit records identification information of a corresponding link destination image as a display history when the inclusion relationship between the link area set for the image being displayed and the displayed area is determined to satisfy the predetermined condition, and

wherein the display image processing unit acquires identification information of the link destination image recorded in the display history in reverse order from the order of recording each time a user enters an undo operation and switches the display image to the link destination image having the identification information.

6. The image processing device according to claim 2, wherein the display image processing unit displays the link destination image when the inclusion relationship is determined to satisfy the predetermined condition by a movement of the displayed area and expresses the virtual array by continuously displaying a part of the image of a link origin included in a frame.

7. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the data of the plurality of images stored by the content memory unit includes both data expressing a single image in a single resolution and data having a hierarchical structure obtained by hierarchizing data expressing a single image in a plurality of resolutions.

8. A content creation device comprising:

an image data generation unit configured to generate a plurality of items of image data;

a link adjustment unit configured to adjust and set a specific link area for each image to achieve a link function of switching display of a single image being displayed to another image, in an image processing device for display an image with moving a displayed area in the image according to user operation when the displayed area is encompassed in the specific link area, such that an area in which a link area that is set to a first image and that links to a second image and a link area that is set to the second image and that links to the first image overlap with each other is set to be a size that does not allow the displayed area to be encompassed, while the first image and the second image are arranged one after the other in a virtual sequence of images expressed by a link; and

a content file output unit configured to output a content file that maps the image data to a link setting file in which information regarding the link area and identification information of a link destination image are described.

9. The content creation device according to claim 8, wherein the link adjustment unit adjusts and sets the link area such that an area in which a link area that is set to a first image and that links to a second image and a link area that is set to the second image and that links to a third image overlap with each other is set to be a size that allows the displayed area to be encompassed while the first image, the second image, and the third image are successively arranged in the virtual sequence.

10. An image processing method to display an image with moving displayed area in the image according to user operation, comprising:

reading out, from a memory device, a content file that maps data of a plurality of images to be displayed to a link setting file that is set for each image to achieve a link function of switching display of a single image being displayed to another image when an inclusion relationship between the displayed area and a specific link area satisfies a predetermined requirement, the link setting file describing information regarding the link area and identification information of a link destination image;

switching, when an inclusion relationship with a link area set for a current image being displayed satisfies the predetermined requirement by a movement of the displayed area in the current image, an image to be displayed to a link destination image by performing a rendering process of rendering image data of the link destination image based on the identification information of the link destination image; and

continuing to monitor an inclusion relationship between a link area that is set for an image displayed before a switching to the image being displayed and the displayed area in the image being displayed and switching back to the image displayed before the switching when the inclusion relationship no longer satisfies the predetermined requirement.

11. A computer program product embedded in a non-transitory computer readable recording medium, comprising:

a module configured to display an image with moving a displayed area in the image according to user operation;

a module configured to read out, from a memory device, a content file that maps data of a plurality of images to be displayed to a link setting file that is set for each image to achieve a link function of switching display of a single image being displayed to another image when an inclusion relationship between the displayed area and a specific link area satisfies a predetermined requirement, the link setting file describing information regarding the link area and identification information of a link destination image;

a module configured to switch, when an inclusion relationship with a link area set for a current image being displayed satisfies the predetermined requirement by a movement of the displayed area in the current image, an image to be displayed to a link destination image by performing a rendering process of rendering image data of the link destination image based on the identification information of the link destination image; and

a module configured to continue to monitor an inclusion relationship between a link area that is set for an image displayed before a switching to the image being displayed and the displayed area in the image being displayed and switching back to the image displayed before the switching when the inclusion relationship no longer satisfies the predetermined requirement.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having embodied thereon a computer program product comprising:

a module configured to display an image with moving a displayed area in the image according to user operation;

a module configured to read out, from a memory device, a content file that maps data of a plurality of images to be displayed to a link setting file that is set for each image to achieve a link function of switching display of a single image being displayed to another image when an inclusion relationship between the displayed area and a specific link area satisfies a predetermined requirement, the link setting file describing information regarding the link area and identification information of a link destination image;

a module configured to switch, when an inclusion relationship with a link area set for a current image being displayed satisfies the predetermined requirement by a movement of the displayed area in the current image, an image to be displayed to a link destination image by performing a rendering process of rendering image data of the link destination image based on the identification information of the link destination image; and

a module configured to continue to monitor an inclusion relationship between a link area that is set for an image displayed before a switching to the image being displayed and the displayed area in the image being displayed and switching back to the image displayed before the switching when the inclusion relationship no longer satisfies the predetermined requirement.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having embodied thereon a content file processed in an image processing device to display an image with moving displayed area in the image according to user operation, wherein the content file has a data structure mapping the following to each other:

data of a plurality of images to be displayed; and

a link setting file describing a link area and identification information of a link destination image,

where the link area is a specific link area set for each image to achieve a link function of switching display of a single image being displayed to another image when a displayed area is encompassed in the specific link area; and

wherein the link area is setsuch that an area in which a link area that is set to a first image and that links to a second image and a link area that is set to the second image and that links to the first image overlap with each other is set to be a size that does not allow the displayed area to be encompassed, while the first image and the second image are arranged one after the other in a virtual sequence of images expressed by a link.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium according to claim 13, wherein the link area is set such that an area in which a link area that is set to third image and that links to a second image and a link area that is set to the second image and that links to a third image overlap with each other is set to be a size that allows the displayed area to be encompassed while the first image, the second image, and the third image are successively arranged in the virtual sequence.