Method and system for providing on-line virtual reality movies

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The present invention relates to a method and system forproviding a three-dimensional image via a computer. Moreparticularly, the invention is concerned with a method andsystem for providing a user with an on-line virtual realitymovie produced from a cyclic movie, namely, a movie whichis viewed repeatedly, stored in a distant network server.

When viewing various media such a video, audio, text andimages, a viewer or user generally retrieves the media from astorage device or ''server” connected via a network to manycomputers or users. There are two basic disadvantages of dataretrieval: delay between the time that a user request the dataand the time when transmission begins, and the bandwidthlimitations, data throughput or rate of data transmission. Oneexample of a user's server system is a CD ROM drive and personalcomputer. Another example is a network such as the Internetservers and a user's personal computer. Such networks areinstalled in order to facilitate convenient data transmission between users and distribution from the server to the users' computers.

When various multimedia types such as audio, video, textand images are accessed by a user, the disadvantages listedabove can impose limitations on the performance of the systems.For example, the bandwidth directly effects the amount of timerequired to transmit a video frame from the server to the userand thus the video frame rate.

Various methods have been developmed for enabling usefulaccess to each media type. In the example of video, it ispossible to compression encode the video frame sequence for realtime transmission through the available band or alternately, to"mirror" or copy the entire sequence to an intermediate storagedevice to which the user has higher bandwidth access and enablethe viewing of the sequence only after the whole sequence hasbeen copied.

It is therefore a broad object of the present invention toovercome the above disadvantages and to provide a method andsystem for providing on-line virtual reality movies to userslinked by a network to a network server storing cyclic movies.

In accordance with the present invention there is provideda method for providing on-line virtual reality movies,comprising inputting a cyclic movie sequence into an encoder,determining the number of portions that each frame of said movieis divided into, and forming partial frames, specifying hot-spots and independent objects for interaction within a partialframe, transmitting the partial frames part by part to a user'sasynchronous database, and displaying said frames on a user'sinterface.

The invention further provides a system for providinga production workstation for producing VR movies, an encoder forpreparing the VR movie for transmission, and a server including a repository for the VR movie and a transceiver for transmittingthe movie part by part to a user, upon request.

The invention will now be described in connection withcertain preferred embodiments with reference to the followingillustrative figures so that it may be more fully understood.

With specific reference now to the figures in detail, it isstressed that the particulars shown are by way of example andfor purposes of illustrative discussion of the preferredembodiments of the present invention only and are presented inthe cause of providing what is believed to be the most usefuland readily understood description of the principles andconceptual aspects of the invention. In this regard, no attemptis made to show structural details of the invention in moredetail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of theinvention, the description taken with the drawings makingapparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms ofthe invention may be embodied in practice.

In the drawings:

Figs. 1 and 2 are block diagrams illustrating the methodand system according to the present invention.

Referring to Fig. 1 there is shown a block diagram of asystem for providing on-line virtual reality (VR) movies. Thesystem includes a production workstation 2 for receiving inputimages and processing same, as will be described hereinafter.

Such input images may be constituted by photographs which arescanned into the workstation. The output from the workstation 2,being a raw VR movie, is fed into an encoder 4 for preparing themovie for transmission and in turn, applied to a server 6essentially used for storage and transmission of the movie toclients, namely, subscribers or user units 8.

Turning now to Fig. 2, there is illustrated a user unit 8in greater detail. Seen is a transceiver 10, a asynchoronousmemory/database 12, a decoder 14 and a user’s workstation 16.

The method according to the invention is as follows:selected images are introduced in the production workstation 2in which the VR movie is produced in accordance with a certainscript. The producer at the workstation determines the numberof and size (for example, in bytes) of the partial frames andalso defines the various available interactions between theframes by defining hot spots and objects at 20, using auxiliarystandard devices for producing movies, such as a keyboard, amovie, speakers and a CPU all designated by the numeral 22. Theproduct obtained is a raw VR movie, which is a complete VR moviethat has not been reformatted for transmission. The preparationof the movie for transmission is effected in the encoder 4 wherepartial frames are generated through an iterative process.

The partial frames are generated in generator 24 as controlled by the controller 26, as follows: A partial resolution frame or a partial resolution slice of each frame of the VR movie sequence is generated. One example of such apartial resolution frame is sub-sampled scan lines, e.g., theremoval of every 10th line of a 150 line frame or a compressionencoded frame, which partial resolution frame results in ablurry display. The partial resolution frame is then subtractedfrom the original frame yielding a residual frame or a remainderframe. This process can be repeated on the residual frame,generating a second partial resolution frame. The procedure isalso repeated time and again, until the number (which isdetermined by the producer) of partial resolution frames isgenerated. The net result is a set of partial resolution framesthat can be recombined into the original full resolution frame.

When this process is completed on each frame of thesequence, the partial resolution frames are transmitted. Theorder of transmission follows the script given by the producer,and commonly, the first partial resolution frame of each frameis transmitted, followed by the second partial resolution frame,and so on. This sequence of transmission allows for the wholesequence to be viewed in a partial resolution format thatprogressively comes into focus.

An additional enhancement could be to compression encodethe partial resolution frames, possibly taking into accountsimilarities between various frames. This is effected in thecompressor 28.

The now encoded and compressed VR movie parts are passed tothe server 6 where the movie parts are stored in the database 30and eventually transmitted to a user's unit 8 part by part, bymeans of a transceiver 32. User's transceiver 10 receives movieparts and transmits requests for additional information. Theuser's database 12 is progressively updated with requestedimages or alternatively may be automatically progressivelyupdated by the server 6.

The user's database 12 functions asynchronously, supplyingthe frames to the user by request independent of datatransmission. Upon receiving the frames, the latter are firstdecompressed at 34 (if compression took place) and then decodedand recombined by a partial frame integrator 36. Followingthis, the partial frames are stored in the user's database wherethe frames may be stored in a compressed format, effected by thecompressor 38. The user's workstation 16 enables the user toview and interact with the VR movie. The user utilizes theworkstation for sending requests for images to the decoder whichretrieves (and decompresses, if necessary), the images from theuser's database and sends requests for particular images whichmay not yet have been transmitted to the server database.Furthermore, it actuates any script produced in the productionworkstation 2. Hence the user's workstation also includes thestandard devices included in the workstation 2 and designated by the number 22

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It will be evident to those skilled in the art that theinvention is not limited to the details of the foregoingillustrated embodiments and that the present invention may beembodied in other specific forms without departing from thespirit or essential attributes thereof. The present embodimentsare therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrativeand not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicatedby the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description,and all changes which come within the meaning and range ofequivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.