Methods and apparatus for allowing a user to switch viewing positions and/or perspective while viewing an environment, e.g., as part of a 3D playback/viewing experience, are described. In various embodiments images of the environment are captured using cameras placed at multiple camera positions. During viewing a user can select which camera position he/she would like to experience the environment from. While experiencing the environment from the perspective of a first camera position the user may switch from the first to a second camera position by looking at the second position. A visual indication is provided to the user to indicate that the user can select the other camera position as his/her viewing position. If a user input indicates a desired viewing position change, a switch to the alternate viewing position is made and the user is presented with images captured from the perspective of the user selected alternative viewing position.

According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a system and method for displaying streamed video comprises one or more capturing devices and one or more servers. Each of the one or more capturing devices have a plurality of sensors configured to capture light used in forming image frames for a video stream. The sensors are arranged around a shape to capture the light at different focal points and at different angles. The servers are configured to receive light data from the capturing devices, store the data from the capturing devices, and provide a dynamically user-selected less-than-360-degree subset of the light data captured by the plurality of sensors to a remote end user as a stream of image frames for a video stream. The subset of the light data provided by the one more servers at a particular instance depend on selections from the end user's viewing device.

A stereoscopic endoscope apparatus includes: an image pickup device configured to pick up optical images for a right eye and a left eye; a similarity degree determination portion configured to receive input of an image signal for the right eye and an image signal for the left eye outputted from the image pickup device, and calculate a similarity degree between the image for the right eye and the image for the left eye; and an image signal output portion configured to switch and output a three-dimensional image signal formed of the image signal for the right eye and the image signal for the left eye and a two-dimensional image signal formed of either one of the image signal for the right eye and the image signal for the left eye, based on the similarity degree calculated by the similarity degree determination portion.

A picture switch is performed to select a right picture and a left picture, a right picture and a right picture, or a left picture and a left picture without changing the kind and format of a video signal before and after a switch of a 2D picture and a 3D picture of an endoscopic system, and a picture shift is performed to horizontally shift the right picture and the left picture, and the pictures are then output to a monitor.

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 transaction levels, and a sub-video is changed to a different sub-video at the transition point.

In example embodiments, a system and method for presenting multiple content (e,g., programs) on a single presentation device to a plurality of viewers is provided. The method comprises causing presentation of a combined video stream on the single presentation device. The combined video stream combines video data for at least a first video content of a first content stream and a second video content of a second content stream. The first video content is viewable by a first viewer and the second video content is viewable a second viewer. A control signal is received from a handheld device of the first viewer that indicates an action to be performed on the first video content. The combined video stream is modified to cause the action to be performed on the first video content. The adjusting of the combined video stream has no effect on the display of the second video content.

Disclosed is a method for displaying a panoramic image by an electronic device. According to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for generating a panoramic image may comprise sensing a direction that a first side surface of the electronic device faces through a sensor included in the electronic device, displaying a first partial image of the panoramic image corresponding to the sensed direction of the first side surface, determining a direction corresponding to the reference view information with respect to the first partial image if information regarding the first partial image differs from reference view information indicating a reference view for the panoramic image, and providing information about the determined direction.

A mode setting part 112 has a function to selectively set 2D and 3D display output modes. A play control part 132 changes the manner in which to control switching between display images in accordance with the display output mode set by the mode setting part 112. The play control part 132 changes the opacities of first and second display images with time so that when the two display images are cross-faded, the sum of the opacities of the first and second display images in a 3D display output mode is equal to or smaller than the sum of the opacities of the first and second display images in a 2D display output mode during a cross-fading period.

An encoder apparatus includes a memory and a processor to receive video data including a plurality of frames that have been captured in multiple imaging directions in a time series; to separate the frames included in the received video data, by the imaging directions; to store, for each of the imaging directions, the separated frames in the memory; to calculate, for each of the imaging directions, based on sequence numbers of the frames stored in the memory before separation, a frame rate of the video data including the frames; and to encode, for each of the imaging directions, the video data that includes the frames stored in the memory at the frame rate calculated with respect to the imaging direction, and to output the encoded video data.

Defining a display region for a projector display. An image of a camera's view of a display region is accessed. The image is displayed on a graphical user interface. The image has a first set of coordinates. The image and a reference canvas that is displayed on said graphical user interface is integrated. The integration comprises overlaying a portion of the reference canvas on the image. The reference canvas has a second set of coordinates. One of the first set of coordinates and the second set of coordinates represents a mesh of movable control points being movable from a first location to a second location on the graphical user interface. The first set of coordinates are mapped to the second set of coordinates, thereby generating a pointwise correspondence mapping between coordinate points of the reference canvas and coordinate points of the image.