Method of visualizing a large still picture on a small-size display

• US 7,936,936 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2005
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 6, LLC
• Original Assignee: NXP B.V. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Inventors: Gentric, Philippe
• Primary Examiner(s): Alavi; Amir
• Application Number:
  US10/597,973
• Publication Number:
  US 20080151336A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,274 Days
• Field of Search: 382/104, 382/162, 382/164, 382/173, 382/178, 382/224, 382/232, 382/233, 382238-240, 382/243, 375/240.12, 375/240.13, 375/240.23, 375/240.24, 375/240.26, 345/328, 345/355, 358/528, 341/65, 341/67
• US Class Current: 382/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00307 with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/60 using transform coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234336 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures or audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234363 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for clients with a lower screen resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25825 involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8153 comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/33328 Resolution

Abstract

A method of visualizing a large still picture on a display having a size smaller than the large still picture includes the steps of dividing the large still picture into a set of pieces, where the pieces have a size substantially equal to the display size; ranking the pieces of the large still picture according to a predetermined scanning order; and encoding the set of pieces using a predictive block-based compression technique according to the predetermined scanning order so as to obtain a video sequence.

Claims

1. A method of processing a large still picture so as to visualize it on a display having a size smaller than the large still picture, said method comprising the steps of:

dividing the large still picture into a set of pieces, said pieces having a size substantially equal to the display size,

ranking the pieces of the large still picture according to a predetermined scanning order,

encoding the set of pieces using a predictive block-based compression technique according to said predetermined scanning order so as to obtain a video sequence, and

decoding and displaying the video sequence on the display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the pieces of the large still picture overlap each other and wherein the dividing and ranking steps are based on a traveling shot adapted to cover at least a part of the large still picture.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of detecting contours within the large still picture.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the dividing and ranking steps are based on a continuous scanning of the contours detected by the step of detecting contours.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the contours belong to an object, and wherein the ranking step comprises scanning the contours from left to right and from top to bottom until the center of the object is reached.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of zooming a part of the large still picture.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the zooming step comprising:

down-sampling the large still picture to generate a down-sampled picture, wherein the down-sampled picture has a lower resolution than the large still picture; and

forming a final picture of the video sequence using the down-sampled picture.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a computer program product comprising program instructions for implementing, when said computer program product is executed by a processor, the method of claim 1.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the ranking step comprises scanning the large still picture from left to right, then from top to down, then from right to left.

10. A device for processing a large still picture so as to visualize it on a display having a size smaller than the large still picture, said device comprising:

said display,

means for dividing the large still picture into a set of pieces, said pieces having a size substantially equal to the display size,

means for ranking the pieces of the large still picture according to a predetermined scanning order,

an encoder for encoding the set of pieces using a predictive block-based compression technique according to said predetermined scanning order so as to obtain a video sequence, and

a decoder for decoding and displaying the video sequence on the display.