Efficient rendering of panoramic images, and applications thereof
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorStephane LAFON
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fast renderer for panoramic images is herein disclosed. In an embodiment, a precomputation is made of (a) a region on a surface defined by a first transformation from a viewport to the surface and (b) a second transformation that maps from the precomputed region to the viewport. In order to render the surface on the viewport, the renderer determines what portion of the image intersects with the precomputed region and proceeds to apply the precomputed second transformation to the portion of the image, thereby resulting in a transformed image which can be rendered in the viewport for display.
Claims16
A method for rendering a surface, comprising:
- (a) computing a region on the surface defined by a first transformation from a viewport to the surface;
- and
- (b) computing a second transformation that maps from the region to the viewport;
- (c) determining a portion of an image which intersects with the region;
- (d) applying the second transformation to the portion of the image which intersects with the region, to obtain a transformed image;
- and
- (e) rendering the transformed image in the viewport for display.
A system for rendering a surface, comprising:
- a server that computes a region on the surface defined by a first transformation from a viewport to the surface and computes a second transformation that maps from the region to the viewport;
- and
- a panorama viewer that determines a portion of an image which intersects with the region on the surface and applies the second transformation to the portion of the image intersecting with the region on the surface, resulting in a first transformed image, which is rendered in the viewport for display.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.