A video providing device for providing video content having a plurality of viewpoints, the device includes: a video storage unit operable to store a plurality of versions of a video for each of a plurality of the viewpoints in the video content, the videos being encoded such that each video includes a region of high resolution corresponding to that viewpoint, where a plurality of the videos each include the same region of high resolution, and each video having the same region of high resolution is encoded with a temporal offset of the group of pictures relative to those other videos with the same region of high resolution, the group of pictures offsets defining video switching times for each video, a viewpoint determining unit operable to determine a requested viewpoint in the video content, a timing identification unit operable to identify a next suitable video switching time from amongst the plurality of video switching times, a video selection unit operable to select a video with a high resolution region corresponding to the requested viewpoint and the identified video switching time, and a video transmitting unit operable to transmit the selected video to a video receiving device.

In a method and supporting system for intelligent buffering of large scale videos, a video presentation includes a plurality of sub-videos, each associated with a field of view. During presentation of the large scale video, sub-videos within a user's field of view are loaded and presented to the user, and sub-videos in proximate fields of view are loaded for potential presentation. On identifying a change in the user's field of view to one of the proximate fields of view, sub-videos are loaded for presentation within the new field of view. In a method and supporting system for seamless transitions in large scale videos, a video having a plurality of sub-videos is provided for presentation to a user, and distraction levels based on video content and user interactions are tracked. A transition point for the video is identified based on one or both distraction levels, and a sub-video is changed to a different sub-video at the transition point.

Provided are an image sensor with one or more image receivers for image combining, and an imaging system and method therefor. The image sensor includes an image sensor array to generate first image data for a first image; a receiver to receive, into the image sensor, second image data for a second image; an image combination circuit coupled to the image sensor array and the receiver to receive the first image data and the second image data and combine the first image data and the second image data into combined image data for a single combined image, according to one or more image combination criteria, and at least one of the first image data and the second image data; and a transmitter coupled to the image combination circuit to transmit the combined image data for the combined image from the image sensor.

A partial image acquiring unit 50 of an image data output device 10 acquires plural partial images photographed with different angles of view. An output image generating unit 52 connects partial images to generate data of one wide-angle image. A map generating unit 56 generates map data relating to a joint of partial images, and a data output unit 54 outputs these pieces of data. A content creation device 18 refers to the map data and enlarges a region including the joint, and detects and corrects image distortion and a discontinuous part. A content reproduction device 20 refers to the map data and connects or combines the remaining partial images as appropriate to carry out output to the display device 16b.

In a method for processing 360-degree video data, performed by a 360-degree video transmission device, according to one embodiment of the present invention, the method comprises the steps of: acquiring 360-degree video data captured by at least one image acquisition device; processing the 360-degree video data so as to derive a two-dimensional picture including an omnidirectional image; generating metadata about the 360-degree video data; encoding information about the two-dimensional picture; and performing encapsulation on the basis of the information about the two-dimensional picture and the metadata, wherein the metadata includes non-contiguous flag information indicating whether one or more viewpoints included in a viewpoint group in the 360-degree video data are non-contiguous with each other.

An electronic device, non-transitory computer readable medium and a method for point cloud compression (PCC) is provided. The method includes receiving a PCC stream; mapping the PCC stream to a plurality of video ISO base media file format (ISOBMFF) streams; generating a ISOBMFF elementary stream including configuration information indicating a logical grouping of the plurality of video ISOBMFF streams into the PCC stream; and transmitting the ISOBMFF elementary stream and the plurality of video ISOBMFF streams to a client device.

A method, a computer storage medium, and a client for switching scenes of a panoramic video are provided. The method includes playing a first primary video stream in a first video stream group associated with a first perspective of a user; determining a video stream switching time when a perspective of the user is switched from the first perspective to a second perspective, the video stream switching time being associated with a time length of a video slice in a second backup video stream; and switching from the first primary video stream to the second backup video stream when a play time of the first primary video stream reaches the video stream switching time, so that content of the second backup video stream starting from the video stream switching time is played. The present application can improve the effects of switching between scenes of the panoramic video.

Provided are an image sensor with one or more image receivers for image combining, and an imaging system and method therefor. The image sensor includes an image sensor array to generate first image data for a first image; a receiver to receive, into the image sensor, second image data for a second image; an image combination circuit coupled to the image sensor array and the receiver to receive the first image data and the second image data and combine the first image data and the second image data into combined image data for a single combined image, according to one or more image combination criteria, and at least one of the first image data and the second image data; and a transmitter coupled to the image combination circuit to transmit the combined image data for the combined image from the image sensor.

Time information of an output video and setting information of an imaging apparatus at least a switch time included in the time information are obtained. Setting information of a virtual viewpoint at the switch time included in the time information in which setting information of the virtual viewpoint at the switch time is set based on the obtained setting information of the imaging apparatus is obtained. An image processing apparatus generates a virtual viewpoint video based on the setting information of the virtual viewpoint. The image processing apparatus and a storage apparatus storing the captured video synchronously output frames of the same time based on the time information. The virtual viewpoint video and the captured video received from the image processing apparatus and the storage apparatus are outputted while being switched from one video to another at the switch time.

An information processing system includes a user-specified video creation unit configured to create a user-specified video to be distributed to a user terminal from a free-viewpoint video created based on a plurality of captured images captured by a plurality of cameras, an accepting unit configured to accept an instruction of changing setting of a virtual camera from the user terminal, a determination unit configured to determine whether a user needs assistance in setting a viewpoint of the virtual camera based on the instruction from the user accepted by the accepting unit, and a switching unit configured to switch an image being displayed on the user terminal to another image when the determination unit determines that the user needs assistance in setting the viewpoint.