Systems and methods for interactive video generation and rendering

• US 9,924,240 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2016
• Issued: 03/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Blohm, Patrick Ted Gert, Roush, Christopher Michael, Porseland, Karl Henrik Olav, Tavendale, Michael William, Paumgarten, Mathias, Margusity, Eric Henry, Falik, Wes, Fischer, Jens, Cave, Simon Frederick, Vicente, Israel Pastrana, Plattel, Cornelis Antonius, Brennan, Jonathan Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoang, Phi
• Application Number:
  US15/144,787
• Publication Number:
  US 20160321832A1
• Time in Patent Office: 687 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot

Abstract

A method for animating a map resource is provided, the method includes receiving a plurality of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) from a third party website, the plurality of URLs comprising one or more attributes; receiving a user selection to create an animation sequence of one or more of the attributes; querying a current value of the one or more attributes from an external resource and returning the queried value; receiving, from the user, a first keyframe and a second keyframe for the animation sequence; interpolating one or more additional keyframes with assigned values; and creating the animation sequence based on the first keyframe, the second keyframe, and the one or more additional keyframes.

Claims

1. A method for animating a map resource, the method comprising:

receiving, by one or more computing devices, a plurality of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) from a third party website, the plurality of URLs comprising one or more attributes;

displaying by the one or more computing devices, one or more images corresponding to the one or more attributes from the third party website,

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a. user selection of the one or more images to create an animation sequence of one or more of the attributes;

querying, by the one or more computing devices, a current value of the one or more attributes from an external resource and returning the queried value;

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a first keyframe and a second keyframe for the animation sequence;

interpolating, by the one or more computing devices, one or more additional keyframes with assigned values;

creating, by the one or more computing devices, the animation sequence based on the first keyframe, the second keyframe, and the one or more addition keyframes; and

displaying, by the one or more computing devices, the animation sequence to a user.

2. The method of, claim 1, wherein the attributes, comprise one or more of latitude, longitude, altitude, zoom level, and pan.

3. A system for interactive video generation and rendering, the system comprising:

a client device, in communication with a server, the client device configured to;

display one or more images from a third party website;

receive an input from a riser indicating a user selection of the one or more images to create an animation sequence;

receive an input from the user indicating a user selection of a first keyframe in the animation sequence and a second keyframe in the animation sequence, the first keyframe comprising a first plurality of keyframe attributes, the second keyframe comprising a second plurality of keyframe attributes;

transmit, via a network, the first keyframe and the second keyframe to the server;

display, on a display screen, the animation sequence received from the server, the animation sequence comprising a first image corresponding to the first keyframe, a second image corresponding to the second keyframe, and a third image corresponding to a third keyframe, the first image, the second image, and the third image received, by the client device, via a network, from the server;

the server, in communication with the client device, the server configured to;

receive, via the network, the first keyframe and the second keyframe from the client device;

interpolate a third keyframe based on the first plurality of keyframe attributes of the first keyframe and the second plurality of keyframe attributes of the second keyframe, the third keyframe comprising a third plurality of keyframe attributes;

determining and retrieving the first image based on the first plurality of keyframe attributes from a memory, determining and retrieving the second image based on the second plurality of keyframe attributes from the memory, and determining and retrieving the third image based on the third plurality of keyframe attributes from the, memory;

generating the animation sequence based on the first image, the second image, and the third image;

transmitting, via a network, the animation sequence to the client device.

4. The system of claim 3, the interpolating of a value of a first keyframe attribute of the third keyframe at time t based on the equation:

B(t)=(1−

t)^3P₀+3(1−

t)²tP₁+3(1−

t)t²P₂+t³P₃, tϵ

[0,1], where t is time, P₀ is a first keyframe, P₁ is a transition point out of P₀, P is a transition point into P, and P is a second key frame.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein a first keyframe attribute of the third keyframe is interpolated by determining a difference in time between the first keyframe and the third keyframe, and a difference in time between the second keyframe and the third keyframe.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein retrieving;

the first image comprises the server transmitting to a second server a string including at least, one of the first keyframe attributes.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein retrieving the first image comprises transmitting, by the server, to a render server, at least one of the first keyframe attributes, wherein the render server is a server dedicated to exclusively rendering video files.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the transmitting, by the server, to the render server comprises accessing, by the server, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) on the render server, the URL comprising a string comprising at least one of the first keyframe attributes, wherein the render server is a server dedicated to exclusively rendering video files.

9. The system of claim 8, the string further comprising a second of the first keyframe attributes and a separator character, the separator character located at an index larger than the last character of the at least one of the first keyframe attributes and smaller than an index of a first character of the second of the first keyframe attributes.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the render server instantiates an instance of an object, and the server instantiates a different instance of the object.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the render server parses the first keyframe attributes, the first keyframe attributes stored in JSON data received by the render server from the server, accesses a temporary image from a render server memory based on the first keyframe attributes, takes a screenshot of the temporary image and store the first image, pixels of the first image being equivalent to pixels of the screenshot of the temporary image.

12. A method for interactive video generation and rendering, the method comprising:

displaying, by a client device, one or more images from a third party website;

receiving, by a client device, an input from a user indicating a user selection of the one or more images to create an animation sequence;

receiving, by a client device, an input from the user indicating a user selection of a first keyframe in the animation sequence and a second keyframe in the animation sequence, the first keyframe comprising a first plurality of keyframe attributes, the second keyframe comprising a second plurality of keyframe attributes;

transmitting, via a network by the client device, the first keyframe and the second keyframe to the server;

displaying, by the client device, on a display screen, the animation sequence received from the server, the animation sequence comprising a first image corresponding to the first keyframe, a second image corresponding to the second keyframe, and a third image corresponding to a third keyframe, the first image, the second image, and the third image received, by the client device, via a network, from the server;

receiving, via a network by a server, the first keyframe and the second keyframe from the client device;

interpolating, by the server, a third keyframe based on the first plurality of keyframe attributes of the first keyframe and the second plurality of keyframe attributes of the second keyframe, the third keyframe comprising a third plurality of keyframe attributes;

determining, by the server, and retrieving the first image based on the first plurality of keyframe attributes from a memory, determining and retrieving the second image based on the second plurality of keyframe attributes from the memory, and determining and retrieving the third image based on the third plurality of keyframe attributes from the memory;

generating, by the server, the animation sequence based on the first image, the second image, and the third image;

transmitting, by the server via a network, the animation sequence to the client device.

13. The system of claim 12, the interpolating of a value of a first keyframe attribute of the third keyframe at time t based on the equation:

B(t)=(1−

t)³P₀ +3(1−

t)²tP₁+3(1−

t)t²P₂+t³P₃, tϵ

[0,1], where t is time, P₀ is a first keyframe, P₁ is a transition point out of P₀, P is a transition point into P, and P is a second key frame.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein a first keyframe attribute of the third keyframe is interpolated by determining a difference in time between the first keyframe and the third keyframe, and a difference in time between the second keyframe and the third keyframe.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein retrieving the first image comprises the server transmitting to a second server a string including at least one of the first keyframe attributes.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the render server parses the first keyframe attributes, the first keyframe attributes stored in JSON data received by the render server from the server, accesses a temporary image from a render server memory based on the first keyframe attributes, takes a screenshot of the temporary image and store the first image, pixels of the first image being equivalent to pixels of the screenshot of the temporary image.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the transmitting, by the server, to the render server comprises accessing, by the server, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) on the render server, the URL comprising a string comprising at least one of the first keyframe attributes, wherein the render server is a server dedicated to exclusively rendering video files.

18. The system of claim 17, the string further comprising a second of the first keyframe attributes and a separator character, the separator character located at an index larger than the last character of the at least one of the first keyframe attributes and smaller than an index of a first character of the second of the first keyframe attributes.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the render server instantiates an instance of an object, and the server instantiates a different instance of the object.