Abstract:
A scalable method and apparatus is described to provide personalized interactive visualization of a plurality of compressed image data to a plurality of concurrent users. A plurality of image sources are digitally processed in the compressed domain to provide controllable enhanced user-specific interactive visualization with support for adjustment in viewing parameters such frame-rate, field of view, resolution, color format, viewpoint and bandwidth.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/175,328, filed May 4, 2009 which is incorporated herein as reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of Invention 
         [0003]    The invention relates to a method and apparatus for efficiently and seamlessly synthesizing a plurality of dynamically configurable compressed views of a scene from compressed imagery of the scene captured by a plurality of video sources. 
         [0004]    2. Description of Related Art 
         [0005]    High resolution mega-pixel video cameras provide a cost effective way of providing high quality visual coverage of a large area of interest. To achieve detailed coverage of a large area of interest, such as a sports arena, railway station, a large facility or a building may require several such cameras possibly generating several mega-pixels of data at video-rate. Multiple users have a need to access this data with different resolutions, field of view coverage and formats. 
         [0006]    Despite availability of such high quality, large coverage, high-resolution imagery, existing systems are limited in their ability to simultaneously synthesize multiple views that can be independently controlled to provide configurable field of view and resolution seamlessly across the covered venue. It is desirable that each user, independent of the others, be able to seamlessly navigate the covered area similar in experience to a having a Pan Tilt Zoom camera solely to itself. 
         [0007]    For instance, multiple security guards may want to view or assess different parts of the buildings, or follow different intruders in a multi-prong intrusion. Further, a mobile guard may want to monitor the situation on a handheld device supporting CIF resolution, while a guard in the control room may monitor on a 1080p HD display. 
         [0008]    In a sports arena, multiple TV screens may be displaying different views of the play, as determined by the production director assigned to that display. Further, some of the legacy displays may be Standard Definition, while others may be High Definition with resolutions ranging from 720i to 1080p. 
         [0009]    In an internet video conferencing scenario, multiple participants generate video at different resolutions and have different viewing resolution and bandwidth constraints. Each user may individually desire to view either all, a subset or just one of the participants on their display. Further, a smart phone user on a 3G network may have very different bandwidth and resolution constraints than a user on a high-speed internet network using a large TV display. 
         [0010]    Traditional methods and systems for personalized interactive visualization experience are computationally prohibitive and unable to support a plurality of concurrent users with user-specific viewing requirements and constraints. The computational cost has dramatically increased especially due to high-resolution mega-pixel video sources, while maintaining need to support low resolution to high resolution displays. Traditional methods of decompressing all source video to raw format, processing raw video, synthesizing user-specific view and recompressing them is cost prohibitive and no longer sustainable when required to support high-resolution video sources and displays. 
         [0011]    Several mega-pixel camera manufactures provide systems that support a few independent views (typically up to 4) that can be simultaneously and independently controlled for field of view and resolution. The synthesized views are, however, limited to within the field of view of each camera. The users are unable to see a view that may be partially covered by two separate cameras. The visualization is therefore not seamless; it is limited to one camera and limited to a few users. 
         [0012]    On the other hand, several legacy video visualization system support 2D or 3D stitching of videos from multiple standard resolution cameras in a geographic reference frame to provide a seamless navigation across multiple cameras. U.S. Pat. No. 7,522,186 describes a system for overlaying imagery from multiple fixed cameras onto a 3D textured model of a scene. These systems perform computationally prohibitive full decompression followed by alignment, and view synthesis in the image domain using special graphics card for visualization. The high computational cost of these image processing steps significantly impedes their ability to synthesize plurality of views in a scalable and cost-effective way. As a result, the system is limited to synthesizing only one view, and thus supports only one user. Every additional user requires its own complete visualization system. This approach is not scalable to large number of users due to limitations of cost of each system and bandwidth requirement to transfer possibly 10&#39;s of mega-pixels of imagery to every such system at video rate. 
         [0013]    U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,359,363 and 7,450,165 describe devices for generating user-specific views in raw image format. The devices are limited to support a single uncompressed camera source and the patent does not address scalability of processing for plurality of users, and do not support compressed video sources. 
         [0014]    U.S. Pat. No. 6,075,905 describes a method for stitching a sequence of raw images to construct a mosaic. The patent does not address generating a user-specific view of desired resolution and field of view characteristics, and does not address scalability of processing for generating a plurality of user-specific views. 
         [0015]    Several methods have been described in literature for manipulating imagery in the compressed domain for better performance. U.S. Pat. No. 7,680,348 and references therein describe fast compressed domain methods for adjusting video resolution and region of interest for JPEG 2000 compressed imagery. The patent and references do not address compositing video from a plurality of video sources and processing architecture for generating a plurality of user-specific views. 
         [0016]    Consequently, there remains a need in the art for a scalable method and apparatus that supports a plurality of concurrent users and provides personalized control to each of the concurrent users for interactive visualization across a plurality of video sources with support for output user-specific resolutions and bandwidth constraints. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0017]    The present invention teaches systems and methods to efficiently synthesize plurality of dynamically configurable views of a scene in compressed domain from at least one compressed video or image sources; wherein each configurable view may be specified by at least one of the following view synthesis parameters: field of view, viewpoint, resolution, color format, frame rate and bandwidth. 
         [0018]    One aspect of the present invention provides improved methods to leverage multi-resolution data extractable from multi-scale image compression formats with minimal processing to synthesize plurality of views from at least one compressed data source, with only incremental processing per synthesized view. 
         [0019]    It is still another aspect of the present invention to provide improved methods and systems to synthesize plurality of views from at least one compressed data source, and transmit to at least one user-device. 
         [0020]    It is still another aspect of the present invention to provide improved methods and systems to synthesize plurality of views, with support for dynamic (on-the-fly) updates to view synthesis parameters, from at least one compressed data source, and transmit to at least user-device. 
         [0021]    It is still another aspect of the present invention to provide improved methods and systems to synthesize plurality of live or pre-recorded views with support for dynamic (on-the-fly) updates to view synthesis parameters, and transmit to at least one user-device. 
         [0022]    It is still another aspect of the present invention to provide an improved system implementation and methods to record at least one data source and synthesize plurality of live or pre-recorded views with support for dynamic (on-the-fly) updates to view synthesis parameters, and transmit to at least one user-device. 
         [0023]    The above and other aspects of the invention are achieved as will now be further described. Methods and systems for synthesizing a plurality of live or pre-recorded views, with on-the-fly adjustment to view parameters, from at least one compressed data source, and transmitting to at least one user-device are disclosed herein. 
         [0024]    According to one method described herein, multi-resolution coefficients are extracted from video compressed using multi-scale image/video compression formats such as JPEG 2000 and Laplacian code (Burt, “The Laplacian Pyramid as a compact Image Code”, IEEE Communications, April 1983, M. Unser, “An Improved Least Squares Laplacian Pyramid for Image Compression,” Signal Processing, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 187-203, May 1992). The multi-resolution coefficients for JPEG 2000 correspond to the wavelet coefficients, while the multi-resolution coefficients for Laplacian code correspond to Laplacian coefficients. 
         [0025]    The extracted multi-resolution coefficients from at least one data sources are leveraged to perform computationally efficient multi-scale image processing for synthesis of plurality of views in the same multi-resolution representation as that of source data. The intermediate image processing steps may include multi-scale image alignment, color correction, warping, convolution and blending of multi-resolution coefficients extracted from source data. The synthesized views in multi-resolution representation are then encoded using the final stage of Huffman or arithmetic encoder, to generate compressed synthesized views. The said method is herein collectively referred to as Compressed Domain Multi-Scale View Synthesis. 
         [0026]    The said Compressed Domain Multi-Scale View Synthesis method requires only partial decoding of source data, which eliminates need for computationally expensive full decompression of data sources and recompression of synthesized views. At the same time the said method avoids introducing extraneous compression artifacts and errors due to repeated decompression and then recompression. Further, efficient multi-scale image processing means adds only incremental processing cost, thereby enabling a scalable and computationally efficient means for synthesizing a plurality of views from at least one compressed data source. 
         [0027]    According to another method disclosed herein describes methods and operational steps to synthesize a plurality of pre-configured set of views. A fixed set of view configurations are defined. A view configuration may consist of field of view, viewpoint, resolution, color format, bandwidth and frame rate parameters. Data in multi-resolution compression format is received from at least one data source. The compressed data is parsed and analyzed using Compressed Domain Multi-Scale View Synthesis method to synthesize a plurality of compressed views, one for each view configuration. The synthesized and compressed plurality of views is transmitted to at least one user device. 
         [0028]    A data source may be configured as a digital camera, or a video camera, or a group of video cameras adapted to provide wide angle high view, or a network video recorder, or a media server. Data may be received from the data source through a wired or a wireless network router or a wireless or wired network. In addition, data may be preprocessed through a data format adapter to convert incompatible original data source format to a compressed multi-resolution format. 
         [0029]    Each of the plurality of views is independently synthesized. Each view may correspond to an independent view configuration. Each such view may also be independently broadcast to multiple user-devices that subscribe to a particular view. 
         [0030]    According to another method disclosed herein describes methods and operational steps to synthesize plurality of dynamically configurable set of views. A view manager is configured to maintain and support dynamic configuration of view configuration, user-device subscribers, view life-spans and view controllers. A regular check is performed for a range of view control messages and an active view request table is dynamically updated. A subset of data sources is dynamically selected such that it collectively covers the viewpoints and area of interest required to synthesize all views within the active view request table. Data in multi-resolution compressed data format is requested from selected data sources. The compressed data stream is selectively parsed to extract only relevant multi-resolution coefficients that are required for synthesis of the view in the active view request list. The extract multi-resolution coefficients are processed using computationally efficient and scalable Compressed Domain Multi-Scale View Synthesis method to synthesize a plurality of compressed views one for each of the active view requests. A synthesized view is then transmitted to associated list of user-devices. The said method thus enables computationally efficient and scalable synthesis of plurality of views that may be dynamically controlled by at least one user-device simultaneously. 
         [0031]    One or more user-devices may subscribe to any view. However, at any time only one user-device for a view may be allowed to control the view parameters for that view at any time. The user-devices may be assigned priorities to arbitrate which user-device has control of that view. In any case, since the said method supports a plurality of views, a user-device requiring independent control may send a new view request to the system. 
         [0032]    According to another method disclosed herein describes methods and operational steps to synthesize plurality of dynamically configurable set of view in both live and playback mode. At least one data recorder is configured to time stamp each frame and synchronously record at least one data source. At least one view manager is also configured to maintain and support dynamic configuration of view configuration enhanced with view time, user-device subscribers, view life-spans and view controllers. A regular check is performed for a range of view control messages and an active view request table is dynamically updated. The data recorders are searched based on the active view request table and at least one playback virtual data source is generated. Each virtual data source is associated with a start time and original data source ID. It may be the case that there is a plurality of virtual data sources each with unique start time but same data source ID. The compressed virtual data sources are parsed and Compressed Domain Multi-Scale View Synthesis method to synthesize a plurality of compressed views one for each of the active view requests with playback support. The compressed views are transmitted to associated list of user-devices. The said method enables synthesis of plurality of views that can be dynamically and independently controlled in both time and the usual view configuration parameters. 
         [0033]    Each active view synthesis module, at configured frame-rate, and for configured duration, identifies and procures the set of required multi-resolution coefficients from the decoder module, warps and blends the coefficients to synthesize coefficients corresponding to the desired view. The synthesized coefficients are encoded using the multi-resolution compression format and transmitted to the associated user device, thereby enabling the user device to periodically receive updated view at configured frame-rate and for configured duration, and corresponding to dynamically adjusted view parameters. 
         [0034]    Systems are also described herein for improved synthesis of plurality of views from at least one compressed data source. In one such system, at least one receiver for receiving data from external data sources, at least one processor for parsing compressed data sources and synthesizing the plurality of views, and at least one transmitter for broadcasting the synthesized views to the at least one user-device, is present. This system enables synthesis and broadcasting of a plurality of pre-configured views to at least one user-device. Additionally, the system may include a data adapter for converting non-compatible data source format into compatible multi-resolution format. The system may also include a user-device for further analysis or display of at least one synthesized view. 
         [0035]    A system for synthesizing plurality of dynamically configurable set of views is also disclosed herein. Such a system generally includes at least high-bandwidth receiver for receiving data from at least one data source, at least one low-bandwidth receiver for receiving view control messages from the user-devices, at least one processor for view management, and parsing compressed data sources and synthesizing the plurality of views, and at least one transmitter for broadcasting the synthesized views to the at least one user-device. 
         [0036]    A system for synthesizing plurality of dynamically configurable set of views with both live and instant playback support is also disclosed herein. Such a system generally includes at least high-bandwidth receiver for receiving data from at least one data source, at least one low-bandwidth receiver for receiving view control messages from the user-devices, at least one data recorder, at least one processor for view management, and parsing compressed data sources and synthesizing the plurality of views, and at least one transmitter for broadcasting the synthesized views. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING 
         [0037]    The novel features believed characteristic of this invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objects, and advantages, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description of illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein: 
           [0038]      FIG. 1  depicts a block diagram illustrating method that provides computationally efficient synthesis of plurality of pre-configured views of a scene in compressed format from at least one compressed data source, in accordance with preferred embodiments of present invention. 
           [0039]      FIG. 2  depicts a block diagram illustrating method that provides computationally efficient synthesis of plurality of dynamically configurable views of a scene in compressed format from at least one compressed data source, in accordance with preferred embodiments of present invention. 
           [0040]      FIG. 3  depicts a block diagram illustrating method that provides computationally efficient synthesis of plurality of dynamically configurable live or replay views of a scene in compressed format from at least one compressed data source, in accordance with preferred embodiments of present invention. 
           [0041]      FIG. 4  illustrates a flowchart illustrative of detailed operation of dynamic configuration of view synthesis by user devices, which may be utilized in accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention 
           [0042]      FIG. 5  depicts a prior art pictorial representation of multi-resolution coefficients. 
           [0043]      FIG. 6  depicts a block diagram illustrating in greater detail method that provides encoding of multi-resolution coefficients into compressed output image, in accordance with preferred embodiments of present invention. 
           [0044]      FIG. 7  depicts a block diagram illustrating in greater detail method that provides extraction of multi-resolution coefficients from a compatible compressed data source, in accordance with preferred embodiments of present invention. 
           [0045]      FIG. 8  depicts a block diagram illustrating in greater detail method that provides view synthesis from multi-resolution coefficients extracted from at least one compressed data source, in accordance with preferred embodiments of present invention. 
           [0046]      FIG. 9  depicts a schematic diagram illustrating a high-level hardware configuration of a server  309 , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0047]      FIG. 10-13  depict exemplary system configurations illustrating integration of present invention with other components, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0048]      FIG. 1  depicts a block diagram illustrating a method  46  that provides computationally efficient synthesis of plurality of pre-configured views of a scene in compressed format from at least one compressed data source, in accordance with preferred embodiments of present invention. The method takes a set of compressed data sources  30 ,  31 ,  32  as input. The Decode MRC modules  40 ,  41 ,  42  extract respective multi-resolution coefficients (MRC) data from respective data sources  30 ,  31 , and  32 . A time synchronized buffer module  51  timestamps, identity-stamps, synchronizes and buffers the MRCs. It also collates and organizes the MRC data into buckets (a logical data structure), such that each bucket contains MRC data and any metadata corresponding to a common timestamp. The MRC buckets are subsequently multi-cast to a Calibration Update module  58  and a Metadata Association module  53 . 
         [0049]    The Calibration Update module  58  processes the MRC buckets to update alignment and color correction parameters between data sources  30 ,  31 ,  32  and provides them to the Metadata Association module  53  upon request. It consists of calibration database  54 , an alignment update module  56  and color correction update module  55 . Calibration database  54  may contain pre-estimated and refined intrinsic (such as focal length and camera center) and extrinsic parameters (such as 3D orientation and location with respect to a common reference) about the data sources and color correction parameters. The alignment update module  56  periodically processes data in MRC buckets to further refine the intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of the data sources  30 ,  31 ,  32 . Also, the color correction update module  55  periodically processes the data in MRC buckets to further refine the color correction parameters for the data sources  30 ,  31 ,  32 . The refined parameters with timestamps are stored in the calibration database  54 . 
         [0050]    The Metadata Association module  54  upon receiving an MRC bucket extracts the common timestamp and requests the alignment and color correction parameters from calibration update module  58  corresponding to the extracted timestamp. The received parameters are added to the MRC bucket as additional metadata that describe the alignment and brightness relationship among the data sources  30 ,  31 , and  32 . The metadata enhanced MRC (hereafter referred to as MEMRC) buckets are pushed to another buffer module  52 . 
         [0051]    The buffer module  52 , buffers the incoming MEMRC buckets and then multicasts them to a bank of View Synthesis modules  71 ,  72 ,  73 ,  74 . The buffer module  52  also decouples output view synthesis processing from prior input data processing. The View Parameters  61 ,  62 ,  63 ,  64  specify the field of view, resolution, view point and frame-rate for the desired views. The View Synthesis modules  71 ,  72 ,  73 , and  74 , processes input MEMRC buckets to perform multi-resolution correct correction, warping, and fusion to generate respective view MRC based on respective View Parameters  61 ,  62 ,  63  and  64 . 
         [0052]    The view MRCs generated from View Synthesis Modules  71 ,  72 ,  73 , and  74  are pushed to Encode MRC modules  80 ,  81 ,  82  and  83 , respectively. The Encode MRC modules  80 ,  81 ,  82  and  83 , encode respective input view MRC into respective compressed views  90 ,  91 ,  92 ,  93 . A pairing of a View Synthesis Module and an Encode MRC module is hereafter referred to as a View Synthesis Pipeline. For example, the pair ( 71 ,  80 ) is a Video Synthesis Pipeline. 
         [0053]    The data sources  30 ,  31 ,  32 , are respectively labeled “Coded Video  1 ”, “Coded Video  2 ” and “Code Video N”, and associated Decode MRC modules  40 ,  41 ,  42  are respectively labeled “Decode MRC  1 ”, “Decode MRC  2 ” and “Decode MRC N”, to indicate that a plurality of data sources may be utilized in accordance with method  46 . Although only three data sources and three associated Decode MRC modules are shown in  FIG. 1 , those skilled in the art will appreciate that additional or few data sources may be also implemented in accordance with method  46 . 
         [0054]    The output synthesized views  90 ,  91 ,  92 ,  93 , are respectively labeled “Coded View  1 ”, “Coded View  2 ”, “Coded View  3 ” and “Coded View M”, associated Encode MRC modules  80 ,  81 ,  82 ,  83  are respectively labeled “Encode MRC  1 ”, “Encode MRC  2 ”, “Encode MRC  3 ” and “Encode MRC M”, and associated View Synthesis modules  71 ,  72 ,  73 ,  74  are respectively labeled “Synthesize View  1 ”, “Synthesize View  2 ”, “Synthesize View  3 ”, and “Synthesize View  4 ”, to indicate that a plurality of compressed views may be synthesized in accordance with method  46 . Although only four output views with equal number of Encode MRC and Synthesize View modules are shown in  FIG. 1 , those skilled in the art will appreciate that additional or few output views may also be implemented in accordance with method  46 . 
         [0055]    The data source  32  and output view  93  are labeled “Coded Video N” and “Coded View M” to indicate that a plurality of output views may be synthesized from a plurality of input data sources, and their cardinality may be different. Although, the method  46  in  FIG. 1  illustrates only four output views synthesized from only three input data sources, those skilled in the art will appreciate that additional or few input data sources and additional or few output views may also be implemented in accordance with method  46 . 
         [0056]    Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that a view synthesis pipeline may also implement synthesis of raw view, by replacing Encode MRC module with a module that transforms multi-resolution coefficients to raw imagery. 
         [0057]      FIG. 2  depicts a block diagram illustrating method  47  that provides computationally efficient synthesis of plurality of dynamically configurable views  90 ,  91 ,  92  and  93  of a scene in compressed format from a plurality of compressed data sources  30 ,  31  and  32 , in accordance with preferred embodiments of present invention. Note that in  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2  analogous parts are indicated by identical reference numerals. Thus, for example data sources  30 ,  31 ,  32  of  FIG. 1  are analogous to data sources  30 ,  31 ,  32  of  FIG. 2 . 
         [0058]    The key difference between method  46  of  FIG. 1  and method  47  of  FIG. 2  is that method  47  provides dynamic (on-the-fly) control over view synthesis, data source selection and view distribution. View synthesis, data source selection and view distribution are respectively controlled by View Control Manager  102 , Data Source Selector  101 , and View Subscription Manager  100 . 
         [0059]    Each of View Control Requests  111 ,  112 ,  113 ,  114  may be a request to modify View Parameters, activate new views or deactivate views, subscribe or unsubscribe a view. The View Control Requests  111 ,  112 ,  113 ,  114  are processed by the View Control Manager  102 . The View Control Manager  102  is a master controller that performs dynamic configuration of View Parameters  61 ,  62 ,  63 , and  64 , and updates the View Subscription Manager  100  and Data Source Selector  101 , based on View Control Requests  111 ,  112 ,  113 , and  114 . 
         [0060]    In case a View Control Request is a request to modify View Parameters, the View Control Manager  102 , may modify one or more of the View Parameters  61 ,  62 ,  63  and  64 , which in turn governs the views synthesized by the View Synthesis Pipelines ( 71 ,  80 ), ( 72 ,  81 ), ( 73 ,  82 ) and ( 74 ,  83 ). 
         [0061]    In case a View Control Request is a request to activate or deactivate a view, the View Control Manager  102 , may modify one or more of the View Parameters  61 ,  62 ,  63  and  64 , and inform the multi-port switch  70  to activate or deactivate corresponding View Synthesis Pipeline. 
         [0062]    In case a View Control Request is a request to subscribe or unsubscribe a view, the View Control Manager  102 , may forward the request to the View Subscription Manager  100 . The View Subscription Manager  100  may then update its view subscription list corresponding to the view. 
         [0063]    The View Control Manager  102  also informs the Data Source Selector  101  of any changes to the View Parameters  61 ,  62 ,  63  and  64 . The Data Source Selection  101  processes these messages to determine a subset of data sources that may be required to synthesize output views as specified in the latest View Parameters  61 ,  62 ,  63 , and  64 . For example, if all the View Parameters  61 ,  62 ,  63  and  64  correspond to a subset of coverage area of data source  30 , then only data source  30  is selected. Data Source Selector  101  uses the data source subset to control the multi-port switch  35 . The multi-port switch  35  connects data sources within the selected subset and disconnects data sources not in the selected subset. The dynamic selection of data sources may reduce computational requirements, or, alternatively increase the number of data sources that can be processed within a given computational budget. 
         [0064]    Compressed data from the connected data sources among the full set  30 ,  31 ,  32 , is processed by respective Decode MRC modules  40 ,  41 ,  42 , to generate respective MRC. The time synchronized buffer module  51  organizes the MRC output into time-synchronized MRC buckets, which are further processed by Calibration Update Module  58  and Metadata Association  54  to generate MEMRC buckets analogous to processing by parts  51 ,  58  and  54  of  FIG. 1  in method  46 . A buffer module  52 , buffers the MEMRC buckets and multi-casts them to only the connected video synthesis pipelines. A multi-port switch  52  controls which Video Synthesis Pipeline is connected to the buffer module  52 . The connected Video Synthesis Pipelines process the input MEMRC buckets to generate compressed synthesized views. The View Subscription Manager  100  multi-casts the compressed views synthesized using updated View Parameters  61 ,  62 ,  63 , and  64  to the corresponding subscribed users. 
         [0065]      FIG. 3  depicts a block diagram illustrating method  48  that provides computationally efficient synthesis of plurality of dynamically configurable live or replay views  90 ,  91 ,  92  and  93  of a scene in compressed format from a plurality of compressed data sources  30 ,  31  and  32 , in accordance with preferred embodiments of present invention. Note that in  FIG. 1 ,  FIG. 2  and  FIG. 3  analogous parts are indicated by identical reference numerals. 
         [0066]    The key difference between methods  47  of  FIGS. 2 and 48  of  FIG. 3  is that method  48  provides data source recording, search and dynamically configurable live and or replay view synthesis. The method  48  replaces data source selection switch  35  with a Data Recorder module  103  and Data Search and Playback Module  104  to provide enhanced data source selection for a combination of live and replay. Further, the View Control Requests  111 ,  112 ,  113 ,  114 , View Parameters  61 ,  62 ,  63 ,  64 , View Control Manager  102  and Data Source Selector  101  are configured to support “view time”. 
         [0067]    The View Control Requests  111 ,  112 ,  113 ,  114  of  FIG. 3  that request modification to View Parameters may also include one or more time parameters that identify a time instant. The time parameters may be specified as standard date and time, a time bookmark, or an unambiguous event description. The View Control Manager  102  processes these requests, and may accordingly update one or more View Parameters  61 ,  62 ,  63 , and  64 , and switch  52  to activate or deactivate View Synthesis Pipelines ( 71 ,  80 ), ( 72 ,  81 ), ( 73 ,  82 ) and ( 74 ,  83 ). 
         [0068]    The View Control Manager  102  also informs the Data Source Selector  101  of modifications to any of the View Parameters  61 ,  62 ,  63 , and  64 . The Data Source Selector  101  processes the messages from View Control Manager  102  and compiles a list of data sources. The list may include a combination of live and recorded data sources replayed from different time instants. For example, it may be the case that there are multiple data sources that corresponding to the same original data source but different start times. The Data Source Selector  101  configures the Data Search and Playback module  104  to initiate playback of the identified list of recorded data sources as per their replay time and any live data sources. 
         [0069]    The Data Recorder module  103  receives the live data sources  30 ,  31 ,  32 , and records them. The Data Search and Playback module  104  accesses the Data Recorder module  103  to retrieve the live or recorded data sources  36 ,  37 ,  38 ,  39  as configured by Data Source Selector  101  and pushes them to the associated Encode MRC modules  40 ,  41 ,  42 ,  43 . The MRC data generated by Encode MRC modules  40 ,  41 ,  42 ,  43  is further processed and distributed analogous to method  47  described in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0070]      FIG. 4  illustrates a flowchart illustrative of detailed operation of the View Control Manager  102 , which may be utilized in accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention. The View Control Manager  102  upon initialization commences at label  401 , after which it immediately flows to decision block  402 , to detect if the View Control Manager  102  has been asked to terminate. If not terminated, decision block  404  continually checks the View Control Request Queue  405  has any pending requests, until the View Control Manager is terminated. 
         [0071]    Upon availability of a request, function block  406  “pops” a request from the View Control Request Queue  405 . The request is checked against three conditions described herein. 
         [0072]    Decision block  407  checks if request is for requesting control of a new view. If “yes”, decision block  412  further checks if there are spare View Synthesis Pipelines available. If “yes”, functional blocks  413 ,  414 ,  415  and  416  reserve a spare View Synthesis Pipeline and assign the requesting user as owner of the view, inform the Data Source Selector  101 , inform the View Subscription Manager  100 , and respond in positive to the request, respectively, and control loops back to beginning of decision block  402 . If decision block  412  response is “no”, decision block  418  checks if requesting user has higher priority than owners of other views. If “yes” function block  417  may re-assigns ownership of one such view to the requesting user, followed by actions of function blocks  414 ,  415  and  416  described earlier. If decision block  412  responds “no”, then function block  420  responds in negative to the request and returns control back to beginning of decision block  402 . 
         [0073]    Decision block  408  checks if request is to update View Parameters for a view. If “yes”, decision block  411  checks if the requesting user is the owner of the view. If “yes”, function block  419  updates the View Parameter associated with the view, followed by actions of function blocks  414 ,  415  and  416  described earlier. If decision block  411  responds “no”, View Control Manager  102  may optionally give another opportunity to instead treat the request as request for a new view but with requested view parameters, and forward control to decision block  412 . The processing in decision block  412  and further is described above. 
         [0074]    Decision block  409  checks if request is to subscribe or unsubscribe to an existing view. If “yes”, decision block  410  checks if the requesting user is authorized to subscribe or unsubscribe to the specified view. If “yes”, function block  415  informs View Subscription Manager  100 , function block  416  responds in positive and flow return back to beginning of decision block  402 . If decision block  410  responds “no”, function block  420  responds in negative to the request and flow return back to the beginning of decision block  402 . 
         [0075]      FIG. 5  depicts a pictorial representation of MRC data, which may be utilized in accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention. For illustrative purposes, it may be assumed that the multi-resolution coefficients are multi-resolution wavelet coefficients extracted from a JPEG 2000 compressed stream.  FIG. 7  illustrates the output from an R-level wavelet transform. HL R-1    131  is the wavelet sub-band corresponding to horizontal high-pass and vertical low-pass filter at resolution (R- 1 ), LH R-1    132  is the wavelet sub-band corresponding to horizontal low-pass and vertical high-pass filter at resolution (R- 1 ), HH R-1   130  is the wavelet sub-band corresponding to horizontal high-pass and vertical high-pass filter at resolution (R- 1 ). The LL R-1  (not shown) is the wavelet sub-band corresponding to horizontal low-pass and vertical low-pass filter at resolution (R- 1 ). The LL R-1  is iteratively represented using (R- 1 )-level decomposition as HL R-2    135 , LH R-2    136 , HH R-2    134 , and LL R-2 . LL 0    137  corresponds to the low-pass horizontal and low-pass vertical component after R iterations of wavelet decomposition. 
         [0076]      FIG. 6  depicts a block diagram illustrative of a method  80  to encode MRC data  120  into a coded image  124  using a multi-resolution compression format, which may be utilized in accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention. The Quantizer  121 , Tier-1 Encoder  122 , and Tier-2 Encoder  123 , are specific to compression format used for encoding. For illustrative purposes, it may be assumed that the underlying compression format is JPEG 2000. A detailed description of parts  121 ,  122  and  123  is well documented in prior art, and are briefly summarized herein. The input MRC data  120  is quantized by Quantizer  121 . The quantized MRC data is arithmetic encoded using Tier-1 Encoder  122 . The Tier-2 Encoder  123  further packetizes and formats the output of part  122  to generate the compression format compatible coded image  124 . 
         [0077]      FIG. 7  depicts a block diagram illustrative of a method  40  to extract MRC  145  from a coded image  140  compressed using a multi-resolution compression format, which may be utilized in accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention. The parts Tier-2 Decoder  141 , Tier-1 Decoder  142 , and De-Quantizer  143  are specific to compression format used for coded image  140 . For illustrative purposes, it may be assumed that the coded image  140  is compressed using JPEG 2000. A detailed description of parts  141 ,  142  and  143  is well documented in prior art, and are briefly summarized herein. A coded image  140  represented as a sequence of bytes in JPEG 2000 format is input Tier-2 Decoder  141 . The Tier-2 Decoder  141  parses and de-packetizes the coded image. The Tier-1 Decoder  142  performs arithmetic decoding to extract the quantized multi-resolution coefficients. The De-Quantizer  142  finally performs any de-quantization to remove any coefficient bias. 
         [0078]    The Resolution Normalization Module  144  is responsible for ensuring a common resolution level structure is used across data sources with differences in pixel resolution and field of regard. Consider the following illustrative situations. First, given two co-located data sources camera  1  and camera  2 , such that camera  1  has 1024×1024 pixel resolution and horizontal FOV 30 degrees, and camera  2  with same 1024×1024 pixel resolution but with horizontal FOV of 15 degrees. In this case, although the cameras have same pixel resolution, the angular resolution of camera  2  is twice (along azimuth and elevation) to that of camera  1 . Those skilled in the art may appreciate the need to consider information at similar angular resolutions to reduce aliasing and seams. In this case, a resolution level R for camera  1  corresponds to resolution level R- 1  for camera  2 . 
         [0079]    Second, consider two co-located JPEG 2000 compressed data sources camera  1  and camera  2  with identical pixel resolution and field of view. However, their respective compressions used different number of resolution levels. This disparity in number of resolution levels need to be addressed to support data fusion at all resolution levels. 
         [0080]    The Resolution Normalization Module  144  performs three main tasks. First, it defines a common standard for resolution across all data sources. The common standard for resolution may be angular resolution (useful for co-located cameras) or the more general ground sampling distance (useful for cameras that may not be co-located). Second, it processes the camera calibration information to map the extracted resolution sub-bands to the common standard. Third, generate data corresponding to the missing resolution bands for data sources for which the extracted MRC are missing one of more common resolution bands. If any of the high-resolution bands are missing, those are generated as zero-valued images. If the low resolution bands are missing, those are creating by iteratively decomposing the lowest available LL band. 
         [0081]    The output of Resolution Normalization Module  144  is MRC  145  extracted from code image  140  which are associated to a common set of resolution levels used across all data sources. The multi-resolution coefficients for JPEG 2000 compression format are organized as sub-bands as illustrated in  FIG. 5  and as described above. 
         [0082]    For illustrative purposes only,  FIG. 5-7  have used JPEG 2000 compressed data sources. The methods described herein are also applicable to codecs based on multi-scale transforms such as those described in Burt, “The Laplacian Pyramid as a compact Image Code”, IEEE Communications, April 1983, and M. Unser, “An Improved Least Squares Laplacian Pyramid for Image Compression,” Signal Processing, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 187-203, May 1992. 
         [0083]      FIG. 8  depicts a block diagram illustrative of a method  71  to synthesize MRC of a view  210  using MEMRC input data  150 ,  151  and  152 , in accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention. The Split and Select MRC module  160  logically groups the MEMRC data  150 ,  151 , and  152  into sub-band groups  170 ,  171 ,  172 . For example,  170  may correspond to LL 0  sub-band grouped from one or more MEMRC input data among  150 ,  151 , and  152 , while  171  may correspond to HL 2  sub-band grouped from one or more MEMRC data among  150 ,  151 , and  152 . 
         [0084]    The Split and Select MRC module  160  also process the associated View Parameter  61  to select a subset of MEMRC data among input  150 ,  151 , and  152  required to synthesize view specified in View Parameter  61 . For example, View Parameter  61  may specify a view whose field of view is contained entirely within the field of views of data sources associated with inputs  150  and  151 , in which case the sub-band group  170  may contain sub-bands LL 0  from only  150  and  151 . Further, not all sub-bands may be required to synthesize the view specified in View Parameter  61 . For example, if highest resolution sub-band in MEMRC  150  is of resolution 1024×1024, and View Parameter  61  only requires a resolution less than 512×512, then the highest resolution sub-band in MEMRC  150  is not required, and thus no sub-band group is created corresponding to that resolution level. 
         [0085]    Further, the Split and Select MRC module  160  invokes one or more Sub-band View Synthesis modules among  161 ,  162  and  163 , and respectively forwards the MEMRC sub-band groups  170 ,  171  and  172 . The Sub-band Synthesis modules  161 ,  162  and  163  respectively process input MEMRC sub-band groups  170 ,  171  and  172  to synthesize respective sub-band for the view prescribed in View Parameter  61 . Each of the Sub-band Synthesis modules  161 ,  162  and  163  are functionally identical, but process different sub-band groups. We herein describe the Sub-band Synthesis module  161  as an illustration of the processing within modules  161 ,  162  and  163 . 
         [0086]    The Sub-band Synthesis module  161  consists of an array of warp modules  180 ,  181  and  182 , and a sum module  183 . It assigns a warp module to each MEMRC sub-band within the input MEMRC sub-band group  170 . A warp module performs the following four tasks: (1) Creates an image canvas (a two-dimension image grid) corresponding to the View Parameter  61  with a resolution corresponding to the resolution level of input sub-band group  170 , (2) Computes the alignment parameters of the input sub-band to the image canvas based on the metadata embedded in the input MEMRC sub-band, (3) Compute the color adjust parameters based on the metadata embedded in the input MEMRC sub-band, and (4) Uses the alignment and color adjustment parameters to warp the input sub-band onto the image canvas using back-projection. There may be portions of the image canvas that may fall outside the image boundary of the input sub-band image after back-projection; such locations on the image canvas are set to zero. 
         [0087]    The output of the warp modules is sent to a sum module  183 . The sum module adds the output of the warp modules and normalizes the pixel-wise sum to create a single sub-band image  200 . The synthesized sub-band image  200  is the synthesized image corresponding to one of the sub-bands of the desired view as assigned to Sub-band Synthesis module  161 . The Group MRC module  164  collects and assembles the synthesized sub-band images  200 ,  201 ,  202  respectively from Sub-band Synthesis modules  161 ,  162 , and  163 . The output  210  of Group MRC module is MRC corresponding to a synthesized view as prescribed in View Parameter  61 . 
         [0088]      FIG. 9  depicts a schematic diagram illustrating a high-level hardware configuration of a computer-based Server  309 , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Those skilled in the art can appreciate, however, that other hardware configurations with less or more hardware and/or modules may be utilized in carrying out the methods and systems of the present invention. CPU  301  of server performs as the main controller of other components and main processing work horse for manipulating data. The CPU  301  may be physically composed of one or more processing chips, each of which may be single or multi-core. CPU  301  is generally coupled to an internal bus  304  so that it may be interconnected to respective components. 
         [0089]    A Multi-Media processing module  306  may be available to the CPU  301  for off-loading computationally-intensive processing tasks. This may be configured as specialized multi-media processing hardware such as Digital Signal Processing (DSP) hardware, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) hardware, specialized ASIC and FPGA based hardware, with associated drivers and multi-media processing software. 
         [0090]    Data Receiver  300  under CPU  301  control serves to interface with data sources to receive data. This may be configured as industry standard interfaces such as Ethernet, IEEE 1394, USB, Channel Link, fiber channel, HDMI, Component Video, Composite Video, or a combination thereof, or custom high-speed interfaces, along with associated drivers. The Data Receiver  301  captures data from one or more data sources and transfers it over the internal bus  304 . Portions or whole of the transferred data may be directly processed by CPU  301 , and/or temporarily buffered in Dynamic Memory  307 , and/or stored in Storage  308  for later processing, longer-term storage and/or playback. 
         [0091]    The Control Data Receiver  305  under CPU  301  control serves to interface with user devices to receive View Control Requests, and other auxiliary control commands such as remote server administration commands. The Control Data Receiver  305  may also be used to send response to View Control Request back to the associated user devices, and exchange respective health and status messages. The Control Data Receiver  305  may be configured as industry standard interfaces such as Ethernet, IEEE 1394, USB, Channel Link, Serial port, or a combination thereof, or custom control interfaces, along with associated drivers. 
         [0092]    The Data Transmitter  302  under CPU  301  control serves to interface with user devices to transmit synthesized views. This may be configured as industry standard interfaces such as Ethernet, IEEE 1394, USB, Channel Link, fiber channel, HDMI, Component Video, Composite Video, or a combination thereof, or custom high-speed interfaces, along with associated drivers. 
         [0093]      FIG. 10  depicts an exemplary video processing system configuration  510  in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The present invention is embodied in the Server  230 . For illustration purposes only, Server  230  is configured to employ method  47  illustrated in  FIG. 2 ,  FIG. 10  and description herein also illustrates novel applications and benefits enabled by Server  230 . The exemplary system configuration employs two network switches  225  and  235 . Network Switch  225  is functionally used to interface the Server  230  to input data sources configured as IP cameras  220 ,  221  and  222 , and Network Switch  235  is functionally used to interface the Server  230  to a set of output user devices  255  configured as User Data Analytics Server  255 , Visualization Station  251 , Display  252  and Wireless Display  241 . 
         [0094]    For illustrative purposes only, it may be assumed that the cameras  220 ,  221  and  222  are configured to provide JPEG 2000 compressed output. The Server  230  receives and processes the JPEG 2000 compressed data from the IP cameras  220 ,  221  and  222  and transmits the synthesized views in JPEG 2000 compressed format to the user devices  241 ,  250 ,  251  and  252 , in accordance with the preferred embodiments of the present invention described earlier. 
         [0095]    User device  250  is configured as a User Data Analytics Server. This user device illustrates a video processing server and may be configured to perform automated video analysis such as motion detect, perimeter breach detection, loitering, left object detection, or behavioral analytics such as people or vehicle counting. User device  250  may request one or more views from Server  230  when it is configured. The views may be requested at resolutions that user device  250  needs for analysis. The user device  250  may update the view parameters for one or more views by sending a View Control Request to Server  230 . 
         [0096]    User device  251  is configured as a Visualization Station. This user device illustrates a video visualization system and may be configured to request and simultaneously render one or more views on its display for visual assessment. The user device  251  may also provision for one or more of user control peripherals such a keyboard, mouse and joystick. The user device  251  may update the view parameters for one or more views by sending a View Control Request to Server  230 . The View Control Requests can be used to reposition views, or add or remove views. The views may be requested at different resolutions depending upon the display resolution they are assigned to minimize network bandwidth and computational needs for rendering. Further, one or more views may be controlled as Pan, Tilt Zoom cameras by continuously sending View Control Requests with updated absolute view parameters or relative adjustments. 
         [0097]    User device  252  is configured as a High-Definition 1080P display. The user device  252  illustrates a standard HD television display that may support multiple channels. A display adapter may request one 1080P for every active channel, or one 1080P as the background display for the active channel and may be lower resolution views of other channels that may viewed as Picture-in-Picture, or a set of may be low resolution views one for each channel that are displayed as a matrix. The display adapter converts the compressed data to a format supported by the display, provides support for multiple channels, and interacts with Server  230  to request and configure views. Each channel may correspond to one or more views. The display  252  may be equipped with a remote control or wired controls to select channels and control view parameters. 
         [0098]    User device  241  is configured as a Wireless Display. The user device  241  may be a cellular phone, smartphone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), Netbook, or a Laptop with wireless connectivity such as WiFi and GPRS/3G, and a display. The user device  241  may be interfaced to the Network Switch  235  via a Wireless Gateway  240 . The Wireless Display  241  may request one or more views from the Server  220 . The user device  241  may request one or more views using View Control Requests to the Server  220  at configurable resolutions so as to match the screen resolution assigned to the respective views. It may also control the view frame-rate and compression bit-rate using View Control Requests to adjust to the network bandwidth available to the user device. The user-device may also be able to adjust other view parameters such as field of view and viewpoint to provide enhanced visualization to the user. 
         [0099]      FIG. 11  depicts another exemplary video processing system configuration  520  in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The present invention is embodied in the Server  230 . For illustration purposes only, Server  230  of  FIG. 11  is configured to employ method  48  illustrated in  FIG. 3 . The exemplary system configuration employs Network Switch  225  as a means to interface all other components, namely the data sources  220 ,  221  and  222 , NVR  226 , Server  230  and User Devices  255 . The Server  230  is connected to two sets of data sources. The IP cameras  220 ,  221  and  222  provide “live” data of the scene. The “live” data is recorded by a NVR  226 , which also acts as data sources for recorded or “non-live” data. 
         [0100]    The Server  230  in  FIG. 11  may access both live and recorded data as required to synthesize the views as configured by the set of user devices  255 . This configuration enables user devices to independently and dynamically visualize different parts of the scene from multiple perspectives in both live and recorded mode. 
         [0101]      FIG. 12  depicts another exemplary video processing system configuration  530  in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The present invention is embodied in the Server  230 . For illustration purposes only, Server  230  of  FIG. 12  is configured to employ method  48  illustrated in  FIG. 3 . The exemplary system configuration employs Network Switch  225  as a means to interface all other components. The Server  230  is connected to two sets of data sources. The IP cameras  220 ,  221  and  222  provide “live” data of the scene. The “live” data is recorded by a NVR  226 , which also acts as data sources for recorded or “non-live” data. The key difference between system configuration  520  of  FIG. 11  and system configuration  530  of  FIG. 12  is that the User Devices  255  in configuration  530  interact with the Server  230  over a Wide Area Network (WAN)  256 . This configuration may enable user devices  255  to independently view events over the area of coverage of the camera either live or in replay mode and from one or more viewpoints that can dynamically configured by the user-device, and at resolutions and frame-rates that can individually configured by each user-device. 
         [0102]      FIG. 13  depicts another exemplary video processing system configuration  540  in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The present invention is embodied in the Server  230 . For illustration purposes only, Server  230  of  FIG. 12  is configured to employ method  48  illustrated in  FIG. 3 . The exemplary system configuration employs Network Switch  225  as a means to interface all other components. The Server  230  is connected to a Media Server  227 , and User Devices  255  interface with the Server  230  over a WAN  256 . This configuration may enable user-devices  255  to independently view streaming pre-recorded media “on-demand” with advanced time, time tag, or event description based media cueing, rewind, forward or backward play, from one or more viewpoints that can dynamically configured by the user-device, and at resolutions and frame-rates that can individually configured by each user-device.