User interface for wide angle photography

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9538078-B2
Application number	US-201414194802-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 2, 2014
Priority date	Mar 2, 2014
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

The disclosed technology includes switching between a normal or standard-lens UI and a panoramic or wide-angle photography UI responsive to a zoom gesture. In one implementation, a user gesture corresponding to a “zoom-out” command, when received at a mobile computing device associated with a minimum zoom state, may trigger a switch from a standard lens photo capture UI to a wide-angle photography UI. In another implementation, a user gesture corresponding to a “zoom-in” command, when received at a mobile computing device associated with a nominal wide-angle state, may trigger a switch from a wide-angle photography UI to a standard lens photo capture UI.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method comprising:
outputting, by a computing device and for display, a standard-lens capture interface, the standard-lens capture interface based on a first focal length equal to or longer than a minimum focal length associated with an image capture device, and comprising a live preview associated with the image capture device;
receiving, at the computing device, an indication of a user gesture corresponding to a zoom-out command; and
responsive to receiving the indication of the user gesture corresponding to the zoom-out command, outputting, by the computing device and for display, a wide-angle capture interface, the wide-angle capture interface based on a second focal length shorter than the minimum focal length associated with the image capture device, and comprising the live preview.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wide-angle capture interface further comprises one or more indications, in addition to the live preview, of additional images to be captured to generate a wide-angle image.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein a number of the one or more indications of additional images corresponds to the second focal length.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the standard-lens capture interface further comprises an indication of the first focal length or an indication of a zoom level associated with the live preview.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wide-angle capture interface further comprises an indication of the second focal length or an angle of view associated with the second focal length.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of the user gesture is received while the first focal length is equal to the minimum focal length associated with the image capture device, the method further comprising changing a current focal length associated with the image capture device to the minimum focal length associated with the image capture device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of the user gesture is received responsive to a user prompt offering to output the wide-angle capture interface, the method further comprising:
responsive to determining, by the computing device, that two or more consecutive images defined by the image capture device comprise contiguous image content, outputting, by the computing device, the user prompt.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the two or more images defined by the image capture device are consecutively captured images.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the wide-angle capture interface further comprises representations of the two or more images received from the image capture.

10. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium that stores instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:
outputting, by the computing device and for display, a standard-lens capture interface, the standard-lens capture interface based on a first focal length equal to or longer than a minimum focal length associated with an image capture device, and comprising a live preview associated with the image capture device;
receiving, at the computing device, an indication of a user gesture corresponding to a zoom-out command; and
responsive to receiving the indication of the user gesture corresponding to the zoom-out command, outputting, by the computing device and for display, a wide-angle capture interface, the wide-angle capture interface based on a second focal length shorter than the minimum focal length associated with the image capture device, and comprising the live preview and one or more indications, in addition to the live preview, of additional images to be captured to generate a wide-angle image.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein a number of the one or more indications of additional images corresponds to the second focal length.

12. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the wide-angle capture interface further comprises an indication of an angle of view associated with the second focal length.

13. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the indication of the user gesture is received while the first focal length is within a predetermined threshold of the minimum focal length associated with the image capture device.

14. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the indication of the user gesture is received responsive to a user prompt offering to output the wide-angle capture interface, the method further comprising:
responsive to determining, by the computing device, that two or more consecutive images defined by the image capture device comprise contiguous image content, outputting, by the computing device, the user prompt.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein the wide-angle capture interface further comprises representations of the two or more images defined by the image capture device.

16. A system comprising:
at least one memory operatively coupled to a computing device and configured for storing data and instructions that, when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:
outputting, by the computing device and for display, a wide-angle capture interface, the wide-angle capture interface based on a first focal length shorter than a minimum focal length associated with an image capture device, and comprising a live preview associated with the image capture device;
receiving, at the computing device, an indication of a user gesture corresponding to a zoom-in command; and
responsive to receiving the indication of the user gesture corresponding to the zoom-in command, outputting, by the computing device and for display, a standard-lens capture interface, the standard-lens capture interface based on a first focal length equal to or longer than the minimum focal length associated with an image capture device, and comprising the live preview associated with the image capture device.

17. The system of claim 16 , the method further comprising the wide-angle capture interface further comprising one or more indications, in addition to the live preview, of additional images to be captured to generate a wide-angle image.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein a number of the one or more indications of additional images corresponds to the second focal length.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the wide-angle capture interface further comprises an indication of an angle of view associated with the second focal length.

20. The system of claim 16 , wherein the indication of the user gesture is received while the first focal length is within a predetermined threshold of the minimum focal length associated with the image capture device, the method further comprising changing a current focal length associated with the image capture device to a focal length within a predetermined threshold of the minimum focal length associated with the image capture device.

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Mehta Nirav Bipinchandra
• Köser Mikkel Crone
• SINGLETON David
• Hamilton Robert William
• Holland Henry John
• Ferreira Tony
• Hume Thomas Weedon

Classifications

• H04N23/698

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

• H04N23/667 Primary

  Camera operation mode switching, e.g. between still and video, sport and normal or high- and low-resolution modes · CPC title

• H04N23/62

  Control of parameters via user interfaces · CPC title

• H04N23/632

  for displaying or modifying preview images prior to image capturing, e.g. variety of image resolutions or capturing parameters · CPC title

• H04N23/633

  for displaying additional information relating to control or operation of the camera · CPC title