Methods, devices, and systems for providing panoramic video content to a mobile device from an edge server

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11032590-B2
Application number	US-201816119652-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2018
Priority date	Aug 31, 2018
Publication date	Jun 8, 2021
Grant date	Jun 8, 2021

Abstract

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, embodiments for determining a first motion-to-update latency of a mobile device in relation to receiving a video content update provided by a video content server. Further embodiments include, responsive to determining that the first motion-to-update latency exceeds a threshold: determining a motion-to-update latency of the mobile device in relation to receiving video content updates from a plurality of edge servers resulting in a plurality of motion-to-update latencies, identifying a second motion-to-update latency from the plurality of motion-to-update latencies that is below the threshold, identifying an edge server associated with the second motion-to-update latency, and transmitting video content to the edge server to mitigate the first motion-to-update latency. The edge server provides a portion of the video content at different time intervals to the mobile device and the video content comprises panoramic video content. Other embodiments are disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device, comprising:
a processing system including a processor; and
a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
determining a first motion-to-update latency of a mobile device in relation to receiving a video content update provided by the device;
responsive to determining that the first motion-to-update latency exceeds a threshold:
determining a motion-to-update latency of the mobile device in relation to receiving video content updates from a plurality of edge servers, wherein the determining results in a plurality of motion-to-update latencies;
identifying a second motion-to-update latency from the plurality of motion-to-update latencies that is below the threshold;
identifying an edge server associated with the second motion-to-update latency; and
transmitting video content to the edge server to mitigate the first motion-to-update latency of the device, wherein the edge server provides a portion of the video content at different time intervals determined according to the second motion-to-update latency to the mobile device in response to receiving an indication from the mobile device of user head movement in viewing the video content resulting in a plurality of portions of video content, wherein the video content comprises panoramic video content, wherein a first portion of the plurality of portions of video content comprises a margin area surrounding a viewport area, wherein the margin area and the viewport area cover a plurality of head movements over a time period, where the margin area is determined by a coverage rate for the first portion of the video content, a cumulative probability distributed function of the coverage rate and the second motion-to-update latency, wherein the coverage rate is based on covering the plurality of head movements over the time period.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise mitigating jitter, packet loss, and frame drops associated with the video content.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of motion-to-update latencies is determined according to a first time between detecting user motion of a virtual reality headset and display local rendering, a second time between sending a request from the mobile device for a content update and receiving the content update, a third time for processing the content update, a fourth time between sending the content update and receiving the content update at the mobile device, a fifth time for processing and display the content update by the mobile device, or any combination thereof.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein the request includes a motion index number, wherein the motion index number identifies a portion of the content update being requested.

5. The device of claim 4 , wherein the edge server crops the video content to include the portion of the content update.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise selecting a streaming protocol from a plurality of streaming protocols for use by the edge server.

7. The device of claim 6 , wherein the streaming protocol being selected results in the edge server having the second motion-to-update latency.

8. The device of claim 7 , wherein the edge server provides to the mobile device the portion of video content using the selected streaming protocol.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the edge server crops the portion of the video content prior to providing the portion of the video content to the mobile device.

10. A non-transitory, machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by an edge server including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:
receiving a request for a portion of video content from a mobile device; and
providing the portion of the video content to the mobile device at a time determined according to a motion-to-update latency in response to receiving an indication from the mobile device of user head movement in viewing the video content, wherein the portion of video content comprises a margin area surrounding a viewport area, wherein the margin area and the viewport area cover a plurality of head movements over a time period, wherein the video content comprises panoramic video content, wherein a video content server transmits the video content to the edge server using a selected streaming protocol in response to determining the motion-to-update latency for the edge server using the selected streaming protocol is below a threshold, where the margin area is determined by a coverage rate for the portion of the video content, a cumulative probability distribution function of the coverage rate and the motion-to-update latency, wherein the coverage rate is based on covering the plurality of head movements over the time period.

11. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the mobile device is communicatively coupled to a virtual reality headset that presents the portion of the video content.

12. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the motion-to-update latency is determined according to a first time between detecting user motion of the virtual reality headset and display local rendering, a second time between sending a request from the mobile device for a content update and receiving the content update, a third time for processing the content update, a fourth time between sending the content update and receiving the content update at the mobile device, a fifth time for processing and display the content update by the mobile device, or any combination thereof.

13. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the request includes a motion index number, wherein the motion index number identifies a portion of the content update being requested.

14. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise cropping the video content to include the portion of the content update resulting in a cropped video content.

15. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the cropped video content comprises the margin area.

16. The non-transitory, machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the video content server identifies the selected streaming protocol according to the motion-to update latency of the selected streaming protocol.

17. A method, comprising:
providing by a mobile device comprising a processor, a request for a portion of video content to an edge server, wherein the request includes a motion index; and
receiving, by the mobile device, the portion of video content from the edge server according to the motion index and at a time determined according to a motion-to-update latency in response to transmitting an indication from the mobile device of user head movement in viewing the video content, wherein the edge server is selected from a plurality of edge servers by a video content server according to the motion-to-update latency of the edge server being below a threshold, wherein the edge server crops the portion of the video content prior to providing the portion of the video content to the mobile device resulting in a cropped portion of the video content, wherein the cropped portion of the video content comprises a margin area surrounding a viewport area, and wherein the edge server determines the margin area and the viewport area cover a plurality of head movements over a time period, wherein the margin area is determined by a coverage rate for the cr

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Shi Shu
• Murray John F
• Hwang Michael
• Jana Rittwik
• Gupta Varun

Classifications

• H04L65/612

  for unicast · CPC title

• H04L65/80

  Responding to QoS · CPC title

• H04N21/238 Primary

  Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidth; Processing of multiplex streams {(hybrid fiber coaxial [HFC] networks for downstream channel allocation for video distribution H04L12/2801; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60)} · CPC title

• H04N21/222

  Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end {(provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56)} · CPC title

• H04N21/21805

  enabling multiple viewpoints, e.g. using a plurality of cameras · CPC title