Apparatus and methods for the optimal stitch zone calculation of a generated projection of a spherical image

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11475534-B2
Application number	US-202017080693-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 26, 2020
Priority date	Oct 10, 2016
Publication date	Oct 18, 2022
Grant date	Oct 18, 2022

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for the stitch zone calculation of a generated projection of a spherical image. In one embodiment, a computing device is disclosed which includes logic configured to: obtain a plurality of images; map the plurality of images onto a spherical image; re-orient the spherical image in accordance with a desired stitch line and a desired projection for the desired stitch line; and map the spherical image to the desired projection having the desired stitch line. In a variant, the desired stitch line is mapped onto an optimal stitch zone, the optimal stitch zone characterized as a set of points that defines a single line on the desired projection in which the set of points along the desired projection lie closest to the spherical image in a mean square sense.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device configured to generate an image projection, the device comprising:
a data interface;
a processing apparatus in data communication with the data interface; and
a non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus in data communication with the processing apparatus, the non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus comprising a plurality of instructions configured to, when executed by the processing apparatus, cause the device to:
identify a stitch line associated with a meridian area of one or more at least partly spherical images obtained by the device via the data interface;
modify, based on the identified stitch line, an orientation of the one or more at least partly spherical images; and
generate, based at least on the modified one or more at least partly spherical images, a cubic projection having the identified stitch line.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of instructions are further configured to, when executed by the processing apparatus, cause the device to:
obtain image data via one or more image-capture apparatus; and
map at least a portion of the obtained image data onto the one or more at least partly spherical images.

3. The device of claim 2 , wherein the obtained image data comprises one or more hyper-hemispherical images each associated with a field of view greater than 180°.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein:
the one or more image-capture apparatus comprise at least a pair of fisheye cameras; and
capture of the one or more hyper-hemispherical images comprises identification of one or more overlapping portions proximate one or more boundaries of the one or more hyper-hemispherical images.

5. The device of claim 2 , wherein:
the map at least a portion of the obtained image data onto the one or more at least partly spherical images comprises a mapping of at least a portion of pixels associated with the at least partly spherical images onto Cartesian coordinates or spherical coordinates; and
generation of the cubic projection comprises a mapping of the modified one or more at least partly spherical images to the cubic projection.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the identification of the stitch line comprises a determination of an optimal stitch area, the optimal stitch area configured to (i) meet at least one mathematical criterion or (ii) reduce a level of distortion for an object of interest within the at least partly spherical images.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the generated cubic projection comprises six faces in a 4×3 arrangement, each of three contiguous faces of the six faces containing a portion of the identified stitch line, a face non-contiguous to the three contiguous faces containing a portion of the identified stitch line.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the generated cubic projection comprises six faces in a 3×2 arrangement, each of two contiguous faces of the six faces containing a portion of the identified stitch line, each of another two contiguous faces of the six faces containing a portion of the identified stitch line.

Assignees

• Gopro Inc

Inventors

• Abbas Adeel
• Macmillan Timothy
• Douady-Pleven Cesar

Classifications

• H04N23/45

  for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images · CPC title

• H04N23/698

  for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture · CPC title

• G06T3/4038

  Image mosaicing, e.g. composing plane images from plane sub-images · CPC title

• G06T3/005 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T3/0062

  Physics · mapped topic