Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

David H Mebane

Shyam Sadhwani

Matthew Richard Wozniak

Bakkama Srinath Reddy

Vladislav Alexandrov

Dibyajyoti Roy

Aaron Oneal

Innovations in reconstruction and rendering of panoramic video are described. For example, a view-dependent operation controller of a panoramic video playback system receives an indication of a view direction for an application and, based at least in part on the view direction, identifies a section of a picture of panoramic video in an input projection. The view-dependent operation controller limits operations of a color converter, video decoder, and/or streaming controller to the identified section. In this way, the panoramic video playback system can avoid performing operations to reconstruct sections of the picture of panoramic video that will not be viewed. As another example, a mapper of a panoramic video playback system re-projects at least some sample values in an input flat projection towards a center location for a view direction, producing an output flat projection, which an application can use to generate one or more screen projections.

Re-projecting flat projections of pictures of panoramic video for rendering by application

Innovations in reconstruction and rendering of panoramic video are described, including the use of a platform rendering engine to provide a screen projection based on a view direction specified for an application through an interface. For example, based at least in part on the view direction specified for the application, at least a section of panoramic video in an input projection is identified. At least some of sample values of the at least a section of the picture of panoramic video in the input projection are mapped to a screen projection. The screen projection is output for display to a buffer for the application. Thus, an application may use panoramic video, including updating a view direction, without itself having to render a screen projection for the panoramic video.

Interface for application-specified playback of panoramic video

View-dependent operations during playback of panoramic video

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

David H Mebane