A sequence of picture slices is encoded as reference slices and non-reference slices, wherein the reference slices include B slices, by forming, for each B slice, at least one data packet containing data values derived from brightness and color information pertaining to the slice. The data packet for each B slice includes a header element indicating whether the B slice is a reference slice. The header element of each reference B slice has a value that depends on depth of the reference B slice in a hierarchy of discardability.

A sequence of picture slices is encoded as reference slices and non-reference slices, wherein the reference slices include B slices, by forming, for each B slice, at least one data packet containing data values derived from brightness and color information pertaining to the slice. The data packet for each B slice includes a header element indicating whether the B slice is a reference slice. The header element of each reference B slice has a value that depends on depth of the reference B slice in a hierarchy of discardability.

A method for obtaining video chunks of a video sphere for display on a head-mounted display connected to a video server is described, the video chunks being spatially split into a plurality of tiles that can be encoded on at least two different quality levels, including a high quality level and a low quality level, and a display window includes a video sphere portion that is to be displayed at a particular display time. Prior to the display time, the display window is predicted, tiles covering the estimated display window are estimated, and assigned a high quality level, and tiles adjoining those tiles are estimated and assigned a low quality level. A request is sent to a video server to obtain an encoded tile at the associated quality level. The tiles are received from the video server, the display window is determined, and the tiles corresponding to the determined display window are decoded and displayed.

A method for obtaining video chunks of a video sphere for display on a head-mounted display connected to a video server is described, the video chunks being spatially split into a plurality of tiles that can be encoded on at least two different quality levels, including a high quality level and a low quality level, and a display window includes a video sphere portion that is to be displayed at a particular display time. Prior to the display time, the display window is predicted, tiles covering the estimated display window are estimated, and assigned a high quality level, and tiles adjoining those tiles are estimated and assigned a low quality level. A request is sent to a video server to obtain an encoded tile at the associated quality level. The tiles are received from the video server, the display window is determined, and the tiles corresponding to the determined display window are decoded and displayed.

A video encoding system in which pixel data is decomposed into frequency bands prior to encoding. The frequency bands are organized into blocks that are provided to a block-based encoder that encodes the blocks and passes the encoded blocks to a wireless interface that packetizes the blocks for transmittal over a wireless connection. The encoder may categorize the encoded frequency bands into multiple priority levels, and may tag each frequency block with metadata indicating the frequency band represented in the block, the priority of the frequency band, and timing information. The wireless interface may then transmit or drop packets according to the priority levels of the encoded frequency blocks in the packets and/or according to the timing information of the frequency blocks in the packets.

A video encoding system in which pixel data is decomposed into frequency bands prior to encoding. The frequency bands are organized into blocks that are provided to a block-based encoder that encodes the blocks and passes the encoded blocks to a wireless interface that packetizes the blocks for transmittal over a wireless connection. The encoder may categorize the encoded frequency bands into multiple priority levels, and may tag each frequency block with metadata indicating the frequency band represented in the block, the priority of the frequency band, and timing information. The wireless interface may then transmit or drop packets according to the priority levels of the encoded frequency blocks in the packets and/or according to the timing information of the frequency blocks in the packets.

A method for remote operation of a robot, preferably including: recording a set of sensor streams; transmitting a transmission stream; selecting a received stream for display; and/or displaying the selected stream. A system, preferably including a robot and a remote operation system connected to the robot by one or more communication networks.

A method for remote operation of a robot, preferably including: recording a set of sensor streams; transmitting a transmission stream; selecting a received stream for display; and/or displaying the selected stream. A system, preferably including a robot and a remote operation system connected to the robot by one or more communication networks.

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method of content-layer based compression of a video being broadcasted over a network. The method may include: receiving a video stream comprising a plurality of video stream frames; identifying in at least some of the plurality of video stream frames at least two content-layers of predefined content-layers to yield corresponding at least two content-layer streams, wherein each of the at least two content-layer streams is associated with one of the at least two content-layers; and compressing each of the at least two content-layer video streams according to predetermined parameters of the content-layer associated with the respective content-layer video stream and according to available resources of the network to yield corresponding at least two compressed content-layer streams.

A video encoding system in which pixel data is decomposed into frequency bands prior to encoding. The frequency bands are organized into blocks that are provided to a block-based encoder. The encoded frequency data is packetized and transmitted to a receiving device. On the receiving device, the encoded data is decoded to recover the frequency bands. Wavelet synthesis is then performed on the frequency bands to reconstruct the pixel data for display. The system may encode parts of frames (tiles or slices) using one or more encoders and transmit the encoded parts as they are ready. A pre-filter component may perform a lens warp on the pixel data prior to the wavelet transform.