Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Limited

Patrick John Connor

Simon Mark Benson

Andrew William Walker

Matthew William Sanders

Jessica Rose Grant

Hans-Werner Gellersen

Ludwig Sidenmark

Sharwin Winesh Raghoebardajal

Richard James Forster

Mark Jacobus Breugelmans

Oliver George Hume

Maria Chiara Monti

Nigel John Williams

Timothy Edward Bradley

Colin Jonathan Hughes

Robert Keith John Withey

An image processing system operable to generate one or more images for display, the system comprising a rendering unit operable to render one or more of a plurality of textures using flexible scale rasterization, FSR, a metadata generation unit operable to generate metadata indicating one or more properties of the FSR used to render a corresponding texture, a shader compiler operable to read the metadata, and to modify a shader to enable a texture sampling to be performed that includes an FSR resolve where the metadata indicates that a corresponding texture has been rendered with FSR, and an image generation unit operable to generate an image for display using at least one modified shader, the generated image including one or more of the plurality of textures.

Image processing system and method

A processing system for modifying interactive content includes: a user profile obtaining unit operable to obtain the user profile including information about an eye-in-head radius, the eye-in-head radius representing an amount of a display viewable by a user without moving their head, an interactive element identification unit operable to identify interactive elements in displayed content, and to identify selection areas associated with each identified interactive element, and a content modification unit operable to modify interactions between a user and one or more of the identified interactive elements in dependence upon the obtained user profile, the content modification unit is operable to locate one or more of the identified interactive elements in dependence on the eye-in-head radius, and the content modification unit is further operable to determine an overlap threshold between the eye-in-head radius and each selection area in order for an interaction with a corresponding interactive element to be performed.

Content modification system and method

A user profile generating system for generating a user profile for use with a processing device operable to display content includes: a head motion tracking unit operable to identify head motion of the user, an eye motion tracking unit operable to identify eye motion of the user, and a profile generating unit operable to generate a user profile comprising head tracking and eye tracking information for the user, where the generated user profile is used to modify interactions between the user and a processing device.

User profile generating system and method

A method of data storage includes associating delta colour compression DCC metadata with one or more tiles of graphics data, selecting one or more such tiles that are uniform in colour and hence can be accurately represented by the DCC metadata for that tile, and replacing some or all of the graphics data in one or more selected tiles with different data.

Data storage system and method

Apparatus comprises an image processor configured to provide output video images to a head mountable display, HMD, having one or more display elements to display video images to a wearer of the HMD, for display by the one or more display elements in response to input video images, in which each output video image corresponds to a respective input video image; in which: the image processor comprises a detector configured to detect whether an input image brightness at image locations in the input video images exceeds a threshold image brightness; and the image processor is configured to vary a relationship between the display properties at a given image location in a given output video image and the input image display properties at the given image location in the corresponding input video image in response to a detection that image brightness at the given image location in one or more input video images preceding that corresponding input video image exceeded the threshold image brightness.

Video processing

A method of capturing free viewpoint content at a location includes recording video on each of a plurality of portable video recording devices at the location; each portable video recording device detecting a wireless synchronisation signal transmitted at the location; and each portable video recording device periodically adding a timestamp to its respective recorded video; where the timestamp is responsive to the detected wireless synchronisation signal, thereby enabling synchronisation of a plurality of recorded videos responsive to the timestamps.

Image acquisition system and method

An eye tracking system for tracking one or more of a user's eyes includes an closed-eye detector operable to detect when a user has closed one or more of their eyes, an eye tracker operable to detect an eye orientation in dependence upon a measured deformation of an eyelid corresponding to the an eye that has been detected to be shut, and an image renderer operable to render a foveated image for display in response to the detected eye orientation.

Eye tracking method and apparatus

A head-mountable display (HMD) system includes at least one detector to detect movement of an eye of a user wearing the HMD, control circuitry to detect saccadic movement of the eye in dependence upon the detected movement of the eye, a display unit and a processor to generate images for display to the user by the display unit, in which the control circuitry is configured to control the processor in response to the detected saccadic movement, in which the control circuitry is configured to control the processor to adjust one or more image quality parameters for one or more of the images to be displayed by the display unit during the detected saccadic movement.

Gaze tracking apparatus and systems

A data generation system for generating data representing content to be displayed includes: a content dividing unit operable to divide content to be displayed into a plurality of polyhedra and generate polyhedron position information, an intersection detecting unit operable to generate intersection information that describes the intersection of one or more surfaces within the content with the plurality of polyhedra, a polyhedron classifying unit operable to classify each of the polyhedra in dependence upon the intersection information, the classification indicating the properties of the surface within the respective polyhedra, and a data generating unit operable to generate data comprising the polyhedron position information and the polyhedron classification information.

Data generation system and methods

A head-mountable display device includes: a display element observable by a user; an image generator operable to generate an image for display by the display element; a plurality of ultrasound transducers, the ultrasound transducers being operable and arranged to emit ultrasound signals towards at least a first eye of the user when the head-mountable display is being worn by the user; one or more sensors operable and arranged to detect reflections of the emitted ultrasound signals; an eye imaging unit operable to generate a representation of the user's eye based on the ultrasound signals received at the one or more sensors; and an eye position detector configured to detect the position of the eye relative to the position of the head-mountable display device based on the representation, the eye position detector being configured to detect whether the position of the eye is offset from a desired position.

Head-mountable display device and method

An image generation system includes a region of interest identifying unit operable to identify a region of interest within a piece of content, the piece of content comprising one or more objects, and an image generation unit operable to generate an image for display comprising one or more of the one or more objects such that objects at a different visual depth to the region of interest are present in the generated image at a lower quality.

Video generation method and apparatus

A controller for determining a displacement of a control stick and an applied pressure on the control stick comprises at least a first control stick, one or more sensors configured to sense a pressure applied to at least one control stick and to generate corresponding pressure information, first circuitry configured to receive displacement information associated with a physical displacement of the control stick, second circuitry configured to receive from one or more of the sensors pressure information associated with the pressure applied to the control stick, and third circuitry configured to determine the displacement of the control stick and the applied pressure on the control stick; wherein at least a first sensor is configured to sense the pressure applied when the physical displacement of the control stick reaches a displacement limit.

Input method and apparatus

An image rendering method the steps of, for a view of a virtual model having a locus of interest, performing flexible scale rasterisation with a first bin distribution for a luminance channel, and mapping the results to a first pixel space; performing flexible scale rasterisation with a second bin distribution for chrominance channels, and mapping the results to a second pixel space; and outputting an image based upon the luminance and chrominance results mapped to the first and second pixel spaces; where the second bin distribution includes larger bins than the first bin distribution in a region outside the locus of interest.

Image rendering method and apparatus employing flexible scale rasterization

A head-mountable display (HMD) for use with a processing device, the HMD comprising a display unit for displaying image content to the user, and a directional airflow unit operable to generate a directional airflow in accordance with control data corresponding to an appropriate airflow for content to be displayed on the HMD.

Head-mountable apparatus and systems

A user input system for controlling a viewpoint within displayed content includes a user profile obtaining unit operable to obtain a user profile having information about head motion and eye motion for a user, an input unit operable to receive user inputs relating to a change in viewpoint within displayed content, the user inputs including the user's head motion, and a viewpoint modification unit operable to modify the viewpoint in the displayed content in dependence upon received inputs and the user profile, where the modification to the viewpoint includes a greater motion than the head motion received as an input.

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London, United Kingdom

Patrick John Connor