Method and system for accelerating warping

A digital image processing system for transforming a source digital image into a target digital image to produce an effect of warping comprising:

• an address generator for identifying a subset of pixel locations within all pixel locations of said target image;
• an address generator for identifying pixel locations within said source image associated with each pixel location within said subset of pixel locations;
• and
• a memory manager operative to copy pixel attribute values from a source neighborhood of each pixel location within said source image, said source neighborhood being defined by means of a source acceleration pixel template, into pixel attribute values for corresponding pixel locations in a target neighborhood of each pixel location within said subset of pixel locations, said target neighborhood being defined by means of a target acceleration pixel template containing at least two pixel locations.

A method for interactively zooming in or out of a digitized scene being projected on a view surface while keeping fixed a specified point in said view surface located other than at the center of said view surface, comprising:

• identifying said specified point in said view surface;
• identifying a pre-zoom and post-zoom viewing distance from said view surface;
• and
• computing a modified view surface in such a manner that said specified point in said modified view surface maps to the same point in the digitized scene when using either said pre-zoom or said post-zoom viewing distance.

A digital image processing system for interactively zooming in or out of a digitized scene being projected on a view surface while keeping fixed a specified point in said view surface located other than at the center of said view surface, comprising:

• a spatial coordinate register for storing spatial coordinates of said specified point;
• viewing distance registers for storing the values of the pre-zoom and post-zoom viewing distances from said view surface;
• and
• a processor for computing a modified view surface in such a manner that said specified point whose spatial coordinates are stored in said spatial coordinate register maps to the same point in the digitized scene when using either said pre-zoom or said post-zoom viewing distance, the values of which are stored in said viewing distance registers.

A method for controlling interactive warping of a digital panorama image for displaying a projected view of said panorama on a view surface, so that the projected view does not require access to pixel data outside the dimension limits of said panorama, said projected view being determined by viewing parameters including a vertical elevation viewing parameter and a distance viewing parameter, the method comprising:

• calculating minimum and maximum values for said vertical elevation viewing parameter for a given value of said viewing distance parameter;
• comparing a requested value of said vertical elevation viewing parameter with said minimum and maximum values;
• adjusting said requested value of said vertical elevation viewing parameter so that it does not fall below or above said minimum and maximum values, respectively;
• and
• warping the panorama based at least on the adjusted vertical elevation viewing parameter.

An image processing system for controlling interactive warping of a digital panorama image for displaying a projected view of said panorama on a view surface, so that the projected view does not require access to pixel data outside the dimension limits of said panorama, said projected view being determined by viewing parameters including a vertical elevation viewing parameter and a distance viewing parameter, the system comprising:

• a processor for calculating minimum and maximum values for said vertical elevation viewing parameter for a given value of said viewing distance parameter;
• a logic processing unit for comparing a requested value of said vertical elevation viewing parameter with said minimum and maximum values;
• an arithmetic unit for adjusting said requested value of said vertical elevation viewing parameter so that it does not fall below or above said minimum and maximum values, respectively;
• and
• a renderer for warping the panorama based at least on the adjusted vertical elevation viewing parameter.