Large format video archival, storage, and retrieval system and method

A software system for viewing a video stream from large data files with high ratio in and out zoom and/or pan without image degradation and with high speed of image presentation and manipulation, said software system configured to interface with a storage drive, the software system comprising:

• an image frame formatting module configured to store temporally sequential image sections of the digital files in tiled and overlapping format in a storage drive, and
• an image frame display module configured to stream temporally sequential image data to a display without substantial computer operating system intervention, wherein when panning or zooming results in switching to a different video segment, switching between video segments occurs within a display refresh interval.

An apparatus for viewing a video stream from large digital data files with high ratio in and out zoom and/or pan without image degradation and with high speed of image presentation and manipulation, the apparatus comprising:

• means for storing temporally sequential image sections of the digital files in tiled and overlapping format in a storage drive, and
• means for streaming temporally sequential image data to a display without substantial computer operating system intervention, wherein the streaming is performed so that display interrupts are applied to allow accumulation of information and change of a display image occurs during refresh intervals.

A method for viewing a video stream from large data files with high ratio in and out zoom and/or pan without image degradation and with high speed of image presentation and manipulation, comprising:

• storing temporally sequential image sections of the digital files in tiled and overlapping format in a storage drive, and
• streaming temporally sequential image data to a display without substantial computer operating system intervention,
• wherein display interrupts are applied to allow accumulation of information and change of a display image occurs during refresh intervals.

An apparatus for viewing videos from large data files with high ratio in and out zoom and/or pan without image degradation and with high speed of image presentation and manipulation, comprising:

• a storage device that stores temporally sequential image sections of the digital files in tiled and overlapping format contiguously in a storage drive, said storage device stores a reduced resolution dataset for each image frame, wherein an amount of overlap is adjustable;
• and
• a streaming device that transfers the temporally sequential image sections to a display without substantial computer operating system intervention.