Patent ID: 7506071

Claim:
A method for streaming images from a server to a plurality of clients of an interactive streaming image system, the method comprising: receiving by the server, from the plurality of clients via a network, client information for each of the plurality of clients, the client information comprising both client location information and client directional information, repectively provided by a location determining device and a directional determining device, for each of the plurality of clients of the interactive streaming imagine system; generating by the server a new image frame for each of the plurality of clients based on the received client information; comparing by the server the new image frame and an immediate previous image frame for each of the plurality of clients to determine whether content changed between the new image frame and the immediate previous image frame; setting by the server a new compression level for each of the clients based on the comparison between the new image frame and the immediate previous image frame for each of the clients; wherein setting the new compression level comprises, in response to determining a content change between the new image frame and the immediate previous frame for a particular client, performing a smoothing heuristic on the new image frame to decrease quality and setting the new compression level based on the smoothing heuristic; and wherein further setting the new compression level comprises, in response to determining no content change between the new image frame and the immediate previous frame for a particular client, performing a smoothing heuristic on the new image frame to increase quality and setting the new compression level based on the smoothing heuristic; encoding by the server the new image frame based on the new compression level for each client, wherein encoding by the server the new image frame based on the new compression level comprises accessing a lookup table associated with the new compression level; and transmitting by the server the encoded new image frame and an indication of the new compression level to each of the plurality of clients via the network.