Methods and apparatus for communicating and/or using frames including a captured image and/or including additional image content

A playback method, the method comprising:

• receiving content including a first frame, said first frame including a first image captured by a first camera and first additional image content from an additional content source, said first additional image content occupying a portion of said first frame which is smaller than the first image, said first image being an image captured by said first camera with a fisheye lens, said first image occupying a non-rectangular portion of the first frame, said first additional image content is positioned in an edge corner of said first frame which is outside the portion of the first frame occupied by said first image captured by the first camera;
• receiving a first mesh model of a first portion of an environment to which said first image is to be applied as a texture;
• recovering an alpha value mask from said received content to be used in combining pixel values included in said first additional image content and said first image content, said alpha value mask including alpha values communicated as pixel values in said first frame, said recovering the alpha value mask including recovering pixel values from a portion of said first frame used to communicate the alpha value mask;
• and
• generating a first output image to be displayed, said step of generating a first output image to be displayed including performing a rendering operation to generate said first output image, said rendering operation including generating said first output image using said first image as a first texture, said first additional image content as a second texture and said first mesh model as a model of an environment to which at least one of said first and second textures is applied, generating the first output image to be displayed including combining pixel values from said first image and pixel values from said first additional image content to generate pixel values of a portion of the generated output image.

A content playback device, the content playback device comprising:

• memory;
• a processor configured to:
• control the content playback device to receive content including a first frame, said first frame including a first image captured by a first camera and first additional image content from an additional content source, said first additional image content occupying a portion of said first frame which is smaller than the first image and providing pixel values to replace pixel values of said first image during playback or be blended with pixel values of said first image during playback;
• control the content playback device to receive a first mesh model of a first portion of an environment to which said first image is to be applied as a texture;
• and
• generate, at the content playback device, a first output image to be displayed, said step of generating a first output image to be displayed including performing a rendering operation to generate said first output image, said rendering operation including generating said first output image using said first image as a first texture, said first additional image content as a second texture and said first mesh model as a model of an environment to which at least one of said first and second textures is applied, said generating a first output image including:
• i) combining one pixel value of the first image included in the first frame with one pixel value of the first additional image content to generate one pixel value of said first output image or ii) replacing said one pixel value of the first image included in the first frame with said one pixel value of the first additional image content to generate said one pixel value of said first output image;
• and
• a display configured to display the first output image.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions which when executed by a processor of a content playback device control the content playback device to:

• receive, at the content playback device, content including a first frame, said first frame including a first image captured by a first camera and first additional image content from an additional content source, said first additional image content occupying a portion of said first frame which is smaller than the first image and providing pixel values to replace pixel values of said first image during playback or be blended with pixel values of said first image during playback;
• receive, at the content playback device, a first mesh model of a first portion of an environment to which said first image is to be applied as a texture;
• and
• generate, at the content playback device, a first output image to be displayed, said step of generating a first output image to be displayed including performing a rendering operation to generate said first output image, said rendering operation including generating said first output image using said first image as a first texture, said first additional image content as a second texture and said first mesh model as a model of an environment to which at least one of said first and second textures is applied, said generating a first output image including:
• i) combining one pixel value of the first image included in the first frame with one pixel value of the first additional image content to generate one pixel value of said first output image or ii) replacing said one pixel value of the first image included in the first frame with said one pixel value of the first additional image content to generate said one pixel value of said first output image.