Patent ID: 9251561
Filing Date: 2016-02-02
CPC Classification: G06T,H04N

Claim Text:
1. A panoramic image display apparatus, comprising: a storage configured to store panoramic images where information on shooting locations and shooting orientations are associated with each other; an acquisition unit configured to acquire a first panoramic image to be displayed, from the storage; a marker setting unit configured to associate a marker, indicating the presence and x, y, and z axis coordinates of a second panoramic image in a shooting direction, with the first panoramic image to be displayed, when the second panoramic image has a shooting location that is in the shooting direction of the first panoramic image to be displayed, wherein the appearance of the marker is based on the proximity of the second panoramic image relative to the first panoramic image, such that the user can identify the distance between the first and second panoramic images based on the appearance of the marker, and a plurality of markers vary in appearance when the proximities associated with said markers are different; a mapping processing unit configured to map the first panoramic image to be displayed, which is associated with the marker of the second panoramic image, into a three-dimensional (3D) panoramic space as a texture; a three-dimensional (3D) image generator configured to generate a three-dimensional (3D) panoramic image, when the three-dimensional panoramic image mapped by the mapping processing unit is viewed in a specified line of sight in such a manner as to regard the shooting location of the first panoramic image to be displayed as a viewpoint position and such that the marker is displayed on said first panoramic image to be displayed at a point of said panoramic image corresponding to said shooting location of said second panoramic image; a display control unit configured to display the three-dimensional panoramic image on a screen; and an interface configured to receive an instruction from a user regarding the displayed three-dimensional panoramic image.