Image viewing method for displaying portion of selected image based on user interaction input and related image viewing system and machine readable medium

• US 9,690,458 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2013
• Issued: 06/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xueshan Technologies Inc. (Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Inventors: Cheng, Chia-Ming
• Primary Examiner(s): Xia, Xuyang
• Application Number:
  US13/890,227
• Publication Number:
  US 20140075382A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,511 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence

Abstract

An image viewing method includes: determining at least a first partial image corresponding to a portion of a first image directly selected from a plurality of images, and driving a display apparatus according to the first partial image; in accordance with a user interaction input, determining a second partial image corresponding to a portion of a second image directly selected from the images; and driving the display apparatus according to at least the second partial image. In one implementation, the first image and the second image are spatially correlated, and a field of view (FOV) of each of the first image and the second image is larger than an FOV of the display apparatus.

Claims

1. An image viewing method, comprising:

generating a plurality of images, each image of the plurality of images having a corresponding unique viewing angle;

storing the plurality of images individually in a storage apparatus, wherein the plurality of images stored in the storage apparatus are not merged into a single image, and all of information of the plurality of images is preserved;

determining at least a first partial image corresponding to a portion of a first image directly selected from the plurality of images, and driving a display apparatus to display the first partial image;

in accordance with a user interaction input by touching or dragging action on a touch panel to select the portion of the first image, determining a second partial image corresponding to a portion of a second image directly selected from the plurality of images, wherein the step of determining the second partial image comprises;

referring to the same user interaction input to find a plurality of candidate images from the plurality of images, wherein the first image and the plurality of candidate images are spatially correlated, and each of the plurality of candidate images has a candidate portion pointed to by the same user interaction input; and

performing comparison based on candidate portions of the plurality of candidate images to select one of the plurality of candidate images as the second image, wherein the comparison is referring to differences between the portion of the first image and the candidate portions of the plurality of candidate images to select one of the plurality of candidate images as the second image and a candidate image with a smallest difference between a candidate portion and the portion of the first image is selected as the second image; and

driving the display apparatus to display at least the second partial image, wherein the first partial image is displayed on the display apparatus before the second partial image is determined and displayed in response to the same user interaction input, the first image and the second image are spatially correlated, and a field of view (FOV) of each of the first image and the second image is larger than an FOV of the display apparatus.

2. The image viewing method of claim 1, wherein when the first image is an image initially selected from the plurality of images, the first image is determined automatically without user intervention.

3. The image viewing method of claim 1, further comprising:

referring to positions of the candidate portions of the plurality of candidate images to select one of the plurality of candidate images as the second image.

4. The image viewing method of claim 3, wherein a candidate image with a candidate portion closest to an image center is selected as the second image.

5. The image viewing method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the second partial image comprises:

performing a local image warping operation upon the portion of the second image to generate a warped portion of the second image; and

determining the second partial image according to the warped portion of the second image.

6. The image viewing method of claim 5, further comprising:

performing a local image alignment analysis upon the plurality of images to obtain image alignment information;

wherein the local image warping operation is performed by referring to the image alignment information.

7. The image viewing method of claim 6, further comprising:

obtaining motion information of the plurality of images by;

performing a three-dimensional (3D) motion analysis upon the plurality of images;

or receiving an output of a motion sensor located at an image capture apparatus which generates the plurality of images;

wherein the local image alignment analysis is performed by referring to the motion information.

8. The image viewing method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the plurality of images by performing a global image warping operation upon each of a plurality of input images.

9. The image viewing method of claim 8, further comprising:

performing a global image alignment analysis upon the plurality of images to obtain image alignment information;

wherein the global image warping operation is performed by referring to the image alignment information.

10. The image viewing method of claim 9, further comprising:

obtaining motion information of the plurality of images by;

performing a three-dimensional (3D) motion analysis upon the plurality of images;

or

receiving an output of a motion sensor located at an image capture apparatus which generates the plurality of images;

wherein the global image alignment analysis is performed by referring to the motion information.

11. The image viewing method of claim 1, wherein the first partial image and a third partial image corresponding to a portion of a third image directly selected from the plurality of images are displayed on the display apparatus for three-dimensional (3D) playback;

the image viewing method further comprising;

in accordance with the same user interaction input, determining a fourth partial image corresponding to a portion of a fourth image directly selected from the plurality of images; and

the step of driving the display apparatus according to at least the second partial image comprises driving the display apparatus according to the second partial image and the fourth partial image for 3D playback, where the third image and the fourth image are spatially correlated, and an FOV of each of the third image and the fourth image is larger than the FOV of the display apparatus.

12. The image viewing method of claim 1, wherein a display output of the display apparatus is switched from the first partial image to the second partial image in response to the same user interaction input.

13. An image viewing system, comprising:

an image capture apparatus generating a plurality of images, each image of the plurality of images having a corresponding unique viewing angle;

a storage apparatus storing the plurality of images individually, wherein the plurality of images stored in the storage apparatus are not merged into a single image, and all of information of the plurality of images is preserved;

an output circuit driving a display apparatus to display a first partial image corresponding to a portion of a first image directly selected from the plurality of images;

a user input receiving circuit receiving a user interaction input by touching or dragging action on a touch panel to select the portion of the first image;

an image selection circuit directly selecting a second image from the plurality of images according to the same user interaction input, wherein the image selection circuit refers to the same user interaction input to find a plurality of candidate images from the plurality of images, where the first image and the plurality of candidate images are spatially correlated, and each of the plurality of candidate images has a candidate portion pointed to by the same user interaction input; and

the image selection circuit performing comparison based on candidate portions of the plurality of candidate images to select one of the plurality of candidate images as the second image, wherein the comparison is referring to differences between the portion of the first image and the candidate portions of the plurality of candidate images to select one of the plurality of candidate images as the second image and a candidate image with a smallest difference between a candidate portion and the portion of the first image is selected as the second image;

an image cropping circuit determining a second partial image corresponding to a portion of the second image according to the same user interaction input;

wherein the output circuit is further driving the display apparatus to display at least the second partial image, the first partial image is displayed on the display apparatus before the second partial image is determined and displayed in response to the same user interaction input, the first image and the second image are spatially correlated, and a field of view (FOV) of each of the first image and the second image is larger than an FOV of the display apparatus.

14. The image viewing system of claim 13, wherein when the first image is an image initially selected from the plurality of images, the first image is determined by the image selection circuit automatically without user intervention.

15. The image viewing system of claim 13, wherein the image selection circuit refers to positions of the candidate portions of the plurality of candidate images to select one of the plurality of candidate images as the second image.

16. The image viewing system of claim 15, wherein a candidate image with a candidate portion closest to an image center is selected by the image selection circuit as the second image.

17. The image viewing system of claim 13, further comprising:

an image warping circuit performing a local image warping operation upon the portion of the second image to generate a warped portion of the second image;

wherein the image cropping circuit determines the second partial image according to the warped portion of the second image.

18. The image viewing system of claim 17, further comprising:

an image alignment analysis circuit performing a local image alignment analysis upon the plurality of images to obtain image alignment information;

wherein the image warping circuit performs the local image warping operation by referring to the image alignment information.

19. The image viewing system of claim 18, further comprising:

a motion information acquisition circuit obtaining motion information of the plurality of images by;

performing a three-dimensional (3D) motion analysis upon the plurality of images;

or

receiving an output of a motion sensor located at an image capture apparatus which generates the plurality of images;

wherein the image alignment analysis circuit performs the local image alignment analysis by referring to the motion information.

20. The image viewing system of claim 13, further comprising:

an image warping circuit generating the images by performing a global image warping operation upon each of a plurality of input images.

21. The image viewing system of claim 20, further comprising:

an image alignment analysis circuit performing a global image alignment analysis upon the plurality of images to obtain image alignment information;

wherein the image warping circuit performs the global image warping operation by referring to the image alignment information.

22. The image viewing system of claim 21, further comprising:

a motion information acquisition circuit obtaining motion information of the plurality of images by;

performing a three-dimensional (3D) motion analysis upon the plurality of images;

or

receiving an output of a motion sensor located at the image capture apparatus which generates the plurality of images;

wherein the image alignment analysis circuit performs the global image alignment analysis by referring to the motion information.

23. The image viewing system of claim 13, wherein the first partial image and a third partial image corresponding to a portion of a third image directly selected from the plurality of images are displayed on the display apparatus for three-dimensional (3D) playback;

the image selection circuit further directly selects a fourth image from the plurality of images according to the same user interaction input;

the image cropping circuit further determines a fourth partial image corresponding to a portion of the fourth image according to the same user interaction input;

the output circuit drives the display apparatus according to the second partial image and the fourth partial image for 3D playback;

the third image and the fourth image are spatially correlated; and

an FOV of each of the third image and the fourth image is larger than the FOV of the display apparatus.

24. The image viewing system of claim 13, wherein a display output of the display apparatus is switched from the first partial image to the second partial image in response to the same user interaction input.

25. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program code, wherein when executed by a processor, the program code instructs the processor to perform the following steps:

generating a plurality of images with an image capture apparatus, each image of the plurality of images having a corresponding unique viewing angle;

storing the plurality of images individually in a storage apparatus, wherein the plurality of images stored in the storage apparatus are not merged into a single image, and all of information of the plurality of images is preserved;

determining at least a first partial image corresponding to a portion of a first image directly selected from the plurality of images, and driving a display apparatus to display the first partial image;

in accordance with a user interaction input by touching or dragging action on a touch panel to select the portion of the first image, determining a second partial image corresponding to a portion of a second image directly selected from the plurality of images, wherein the step of determining the second partial image comprises;

referring to the same user interaction input to find a plurality of candidate images from the plurality of images, wherein the first image and the plurality of candidate images are spatially correlated, and each of the plurality of candidate images has a candidate portion pointed to by the same user interaction input; and

performing comparison based on candidate portions of the plurality of candidate images to select one of the plurality of candidate images as the second image, wherein the comparison is referring to differences between the portion of the first image and the candidate portions of the plurality of candidate images to select one of the plurality of candidate images as the second image and a candidate image with a smallest difference between a candidate portion and the portion of the first image is selected as the second image; and

driving the display apparatus to display at least the second partial image, wherein the first partial image is displayed on the display apparatus before the second partial image is determined and displayed in response to the same user interaction input, the first image and the second image are spatially correlated, and a field of view (FOV) of each of the first image and the second image is larger than an FOV of the display apparatus.

26. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 25, wherein a display output of the display apparatus is switched from the first partial image to the second partial image in response to the same user interaction input.