Patent ID: 7126603
Filing Date: 2006-10-24
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
1. A method of generating at least one visualization representative of a real-world environment, comprising the steps of: capturing a dense set of image data from the real-world environment; compressing the captured image data for storage, wherein the image data compressing step further comprises creating a spatial hierarchy; decompressing a portion of the compressed image data such that a visualization representative of the real-world environment may be rendered from a selected novel viewpoint; prefetching and decompressing another portion of the image data such that captured image data surrounding the selected novel viewpoint is available to render the visualization from the selected novel viewpoint; and rendering the visualization of the real-world environment from the selected novel viewpoint; wherein the image data compressing step further comprises compressing images by building a tree via edge collapse operations of a triangulation of the image centers-of-projection and calculating residual images and reference images.