Panoramic video viewer

• US 9,781,356 B1
• Filed: 12/16/2014
• Issued: 10/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Banta, William Christopher, Selmanovic, Demir
• Primary Examiner(s): Zalalee, Sultana M
• Application Number:
  US14/571,759
• Time in Patent Office: 1,022 Days
• 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 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2350/00 Solving problems of bandwidth in display systems
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/16 Use of wireless transmission of display information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21805 enabling multiple viewpoints, e.g. using a plurality of cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/86 for controlling the colour saturation of colour signals, e.g. automatic chroma control circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2628 Alteration of picture size, shape, position or orientation, e.g. zooming, rotation, rolling, perspective, translation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/68 for controlling the amplitude of colour signals, e.g. automatic chroma control circuits H04N9/71, H04N9/73 take precedence; camera processing pipelines for controlling the colour saturation of colour signals H04N23/86

Abstract

Various examples are directed to displaying a panoramic video at an interface comprising a focus region and a thumbnail region. The focus region may display an active field-of-view of the panoramic video, where the active field-of-view is a portion selected from the full field-of-view of the panoramic video. The thumbnail region may display a thumbnail version of the panoramic video comprising a thumbnail field-of-view that is equivalent to the full field-of-view. A distribution of color saturation levels of the thumbnail version may indicates a distribution of fields-of-view selectable from the full field-of-view.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for displaying a panoramic video, the method comprising:

displaying an interface for viewing the panoramic video, wherein the interface comprises a focus region and a thumbnail region;

displaying at the focus region an active field-of-view selected from a full field-of-view of the panoramic video; and

displaying at the thumbnail region a thumbnail version of the panoramic video having a thumbnail field-of-view equivalent to the full field-of-view of the panoramic video, wherein a distribution of color saturation levels of the thumbnail version indicates a distribution of fields-of-view selectable from the full field-of-view, and wherein the distribution of fields-of-view selectable from the full field-of-view comprises a first field-of-view selected from the full field-of-view during a previous display of the panoramic video.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the distribution of fields-of-view selectable from the full field-of-view comprises a plurality of fields-of-view selected from the full field-of-view during previous displays of the panoramic video.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a color saturation level at a first position of the thumbnail version is proportional to a first value for the distribution of fields-of-view corresponding to the first position.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a color saturation level at a second position of the thumbnail version is proportional to a second value for the distribution of fields-of-view corresponding to the second position, wherein the first value for the distribution of fields-of-view is higher than the second value for the distribution of fields-of-view, and wherein the color saturation level at the first position is higher than the color saturation level at the second position.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying a color-gradient mask to the thumbnail version.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the color-gradient mask indicates a color saturation level for each position in the thumbnail field-of-view, and wherein applying the color-gradient mask comprises modifying a color saturation level of a first pixel of the thumbnail version to match a color saturation level indicated by the color-gradient mask for a position of the first pixel.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a field-of-view outline at the thumbnail region, wherein the field-of-view outline indicates a location within the thumbnail field-of-view of the active field-of-view displayed at the focus region.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface further comprises a navigation region and further comprising displaying at the navigation region at least one tool configured to receive navigation input from a user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the interface comprises:

executing a browser; and

executing a web application through the browser, wherein the thumbnail region and focus region are provided by the web application.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a translate command from a user, wherein the translate command indicates a translate direction for the active field-of-view; and

translating the active field-of-view in the translate direction.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the translate command comprises receiving an indication that the user has selected and moved a point in the focus region.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the translate command comprises receiving an indication that the user has selected and shifted a field-of-view outline in the thumbnail region to a position indicating a new active field-of-view.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving from a content provider at least a portion of a first tile selected from a plurality of tiles of the panoramic video, wherein each tile of the plurality of tiles is a video having a tile field-of-view that is a portion of the full field-of-view of the panoramic video, and wherein displaying the active field-of-view comprises displaying the active field-of-view from the first tile.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining a buffer navigation position in a second tile selected from the plurality of tiles, wherein a second tile field-of-view is adjacent a first tile field-of-view in the translate direction, and wherein the buffer navigation position indicates a first frame in the second tile that can be displayed after the second tile is buffered;

sending a request for the second tile, wherein the request comprises an indication of the buffer navigation position;

receiving a portion of the second tile beginning from the buffer navigation position;

buffering the second tile, wherein buffering the second tile comprises downloading a threshold number of frames of the second tile ahead of the buffer navigation position;

translating the active field of view in the translate direction, wherein the active field-of-view reaches an edge of the first tile field-of-view; and

displaying the active field-of-view from the second tile.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining a translate rate limit, wherein the translate rate limit is a rate at which the active field-of-view can be translated in the translate direction without reaching the edge of the first tile field-of-view before the buffering of the second tile is complete.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying at the thumbnail region a suggested active field-of-view outline at a location in the thumbnail region indicating a suggested active field-of-view selected from the full field-of-view, wherein the suggested active field-of-view represents an aggregation fields-of-view from the distribution of fields-of-view selectable from the full field-of-view.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface comprises a field-of-view icon, the field-of-view icon comprising an arc, wherein a subtending angle of the arc indicates the active field-of-view.

18. A computing device comprising at least one processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

displaying an interface for viewing a panoramic video, wherein the interface comprises a focus region and a thumbnail region;

displaying at the focus region an active field-of-view selected from a full field-of-view of the panoramic video; and

displaying at the thumbnail region a thumbnail version of the panoramic video having a plurality of color saturation levels and a thumbnail field-of-view equivalent to the full field-of-view of the panoramic video, wherein the thumbnail version comprises a plurality of selectable regions, each of the plurality of selectable regions being displayed with one of a plurality of color saturation levels and corresponding to one of a plurality of fields-of-view selectable from the full field-of-view, wherein a first one of the plurality of fields-of-view selectable from the full field-of-view comprises a first field-of-view selected from the full field-of-view during a previous display of the panoramic video.

19. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to perform the method further comprising:

determining a first value for a first selectable region of the plurality of selectable regions of the thumbnail version, wherein the first selectable region is at a first position in the thumbnail version, wherein the first value represents a first number of times the first selectable region was selected as an active field of view during previous displays of the panoramic video;

determining a second value for a second selectable region of the plurality of selectable regions of the thumbnail version, wherein the second selectable region is at a second position in the thumbnail version, wherein the second value represents a second number of times the second selectable region was selected as the active field of view during previous displays of the panoramic video, and wherein the first value is greater than the second value; and

increasing a color saturation of at least one pixel in the first selectable region of the thumbnail version at the first position.

20. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to perform the method further comprising:

displaying a field-of-view outline at the thumbnail region, wherein the field-of-view outline indicates a location within the thumbnail field-of-view of the active field-of-view displayed at the focus region.