An image generating apparatus generates a panoramic image by transforming at least one divided area including a range onto which a scene viewed from an observation point is projected, out of eight divided areas obtained by dividing the surface of a sphere having at least a partial range onto which the scene is projected, with three planes that pass through the center of the sphere and are orthogonal to each other, into such an area that the number of pixels corresponding to mutually equal latitudes is progressively reduced toward higher latitudes, and placing the transformed area on a plane, and outputs the generated panoramic image.

Hyper-hemispherical images may be combined to generate a rectangular projection of a spherical image having an equatorial stitch line along of a line of lowest distortion in the two images. First and second circular images are received representing respective hyper-hemispherical fields of view. A video processing device may project each circular image to a respective rectangular image by mapping an outer edge of the circular image to a first edge of the rectangular image and mapping a center point of the circular image to a second edge of the first rectangular image. The rectangular images may be stitched together along the edges corresponding to the outer edge of the original circular image.

Innovations in reconstruction and rendering of panoramic video are described. For example, a view-dependent operation controller of a panoramic video playback system receives an indication of a view direction for an application and, based at least in part on the view direction, identifies a section of a picture of panoramic video in an input projection. The view-dependent operation controller limits operations of a color converter, video decoder, and/or streaming controller to the identified section. In this way, the panoramic video playback system can avoid performing operations to reconstruct sections of the picture of panoramic video that will not be viewed. As another example, a mapper of a panoramic video playback system re-projects at least some sample values in an input flat projection towards a center location for a view direction, producing an output flat projection, which an application can use to generate one or more screen projections.

Innovations in reconstruction and rendering of panoramic video are described. For example, a view-dependent operation controller of a panoramic video playback system receives an indication of a view direction for an application and, based at least in part on the view direction, identifies a section of a picture of panoramic video in an input projection. The view-dependent operation controller limits operations of a color converter, video decoder, and/or streaming controller to the identified section. In this way, the panoramic video playback system can avoid performing operations to reconstruct sections of the picture of panoramic video that will not be viewed. As another example, a mapper of a panoramic video playback system re-projects at least some sample values in an input flat projection towards a center location for a view direction, producing an output flat projection, which an application can use to generate one or more screen projections.

An electronic apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes a storage and a processor configured to convert an original image to a spherical image, to acquire a plurality of two-dimensional (2D) images corresponding to a respective plurality of points on the spherical image by projecting the spherical image onto a plane with reference to the respective plurality of points on the spherical image, and to store the acquired 2D images in the storage.

A mobile device is provided. The mobile device may include a communication interface; a display; a memory configured to store one or more instructions; and at least one processor configured to execute the one or more instructions stored in the memory to: control the communication interface to communicate with an image display apparatus; control a viewpoint of a 360-degree image based on an input; and control the communication interface to transmit, to the image display apparatus, at least one among an image corresponding to the viewpoint of the 360-degree image, and viewpoint control information corresponding to the viewpoint of the 360-degree image.

A system receives an encoded image representative of the 2D projection of a cubic image, the encoded image generated from two overlapping hemispherical images separated along a longitudinal plane of a sphere. The system decodes the encoded image to produce a decoded 2D projection of the cubic image, and perform a stitching operation to portions of the decoded 2D projection representative of overlapping portions of the hemispherical images to produce stitched overlapping portions. The system combine the stitched overlapping portions with portions of the decoded 2D projection representative of the non-overlapping portions of the hemispherical images to produce a stitched 2D projection of the cubic image, and encode the stitched 2D projection of the cubic image to produce an encoded cubic projection of the stitched hemispherical images.

A system captures a first hemispherical image and a second hemispherical image, each hemispherical image including an overlap portion, the overlap potions capturing a same field of view, the two hemispherical images collectively comprising a spherical FOV and separated along a longitudinal plane. The system maps a modified first hemispherical image to a first portion of the 2D projection of a cubic image, the modified first hemispherical image including a non-overlap portion of the first hemispherical image, and maps a modified second hemispherical image to a second portion of the 2D projection of the cubic image, the modified second hemispherical image also including a non-overlap portion. The system maps the overlap portions of the first hemispherical image and the second hemispherical image to the 2D projection of the cubic image, and encodes the 2D projection of the cubic image to generate an encoded image representative of the spherical FOV.

Apparatus and methods for providing a frame packing arrangement for the encoding/decoding of, for example, panoramic content. In one embodiment, the frame packing arrangement utilizes overlapping imaging data so as to enable, for example, a post-decode stitching operation to be performed. The frame packing arrangement may utilize a number of projection formats, such as a cubemap projection, and may utilize any number of differing aspect ratios such as, without limitation, 43, 32, 42, 24 aspect ratios. Additionally, the overlapping imaging data may be positioned within the frame packing arrangement chosen so as to improve upon coding efficiency. For example, the overlapping imaging data may be positioned within the frame packing arrangement so as to emphasize image continuity. An encoder apparatus and decoder apparatus for use with the aforementioned frame packing arrangements are also disclosed.

A system of this invention is an all-around moving image distribution system for viewing an all-around moving image with realism. This all-around moving image distribution system includes an all-around camera, an all-around image generator that acquires an all-around moving image captured by the all-around camera, and generates time-series all-around frame image data, an all-around moving image data generator that encodes the time-series all-around frame image data, and generates all-around moving image data in a format reproducible in real time in a communication terminal apparatus, a distribution server that distributes, to the communication terminal apparatus, the all-around moving image data uploaded from the all-around moving image data generator, and an all-around moving image reproducer that reproduces, in real time, the all-around moving image data distributed from the distribution server, and displays a moving image of a range corresponding to a line-of-sight instruction by a user.