Patent ID: 9635136
Date: 2017-04-25
CPC Classifications: G06F,G06T,G09G,H04L

Claim:
1. A method of communicating images for display to a plurality of wireless portable devices, the method comprising steps of: pre-processing a source image to obtain a series (K storing the image parcels of the series for serving by one or more servers; providing client software to a wireless portable device; receiving a first request at the one or more servers from the first wireless portable device over a network communication channel, wherein the network communication channel is at least in part wireless, and the first request being for a first image parcel of the series, wherein the first image parcel is selected based on a first user-controlled image viewpoint on the first wireless portable device relative to the source image; sending the first image parcel from the one or more servers to the first wireless portable device over the network communication channel, in response to the first request; receiving a second request at the one or more servers from the first wireless portable device over the network communication channel, the second request being for a second image parcel of the series, wherein the second image parcel is selected based on the first user-controlled image viewpoint on the first wireless portable device relative to the source image, the step of receiving the second request being performed after the step of receiving the first request; and sending the second image parcel from the one or more servers to the first wireless portable device over the network communication channel, in response to the second request; wherein: the first wireless portable device renders at least a portion of the first image parcel before finishing receiving the second image parcel; the first wireless portable device issues the first request and the second request according to a priority order; priority of the second request in the priority order is not higher than priority of the first request in the priority order; the first wireless portable device stores the first image parcel and the second image parcel in a local parcel storage at the first wireless portable device; before issuing the first request, the first wireless portable device determines that a third image parcel is usable for the first user-controlled image viewpoint and the third image parcel is already stored in the local parcel storage, and the first wireless portable device renders the third image parcel before issuing the first request without requesting the third image parcel over the network communication channel; the first wireless portable device handles download operations of at least the first image parcel and the second image parcel in parallel, thereby enabling efficient use of network bandwidth in conditions of network latency; and the local parcel store is configured as a server to provide access to the at least some image parcels received by the first wireless portable device.