Patent ID: 8217956

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for rendering a spherical composite image from multiple component images, comprising: performing, by one or more computer processors: obtaining a set of component images and alignment information for each component image in the set of component images, wherein the alignment information includes three-dimensional (3D) rotation information relative to a reference position for the set of composite images; for each component image in the set of component images: decomposing respective 3D rotation information for the component image into three rotation matrices each describing rotation with respect to one of the x axis, the y axis, and the z axis; performing an in-plane rotation of the component image according to one of the three rotation matrices to generate a rotated image with respect to the axis corresponding to the one of the three rotation matrices; generating an intermediate image by rendering each element in a first planar dimension of the rotated image to generate pixel values in a corresponding element in the first planar dimension of the intermediate image; generating an output image by rendering each element in a second planar dimension of the intermediate image to generate pixel values in a corresponding element in the second planar dimension of the output image; and adjusting coordinates indicated in a bounding box of the output image according to the alignment information for the component image to position the output image on an interior surface of a sphere.