Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for varying panning speeds of images based on saliency such that 360-degree images, panoramic images, video images and/or other wide view area images may be efficiently displayed by varying the panning speed such that the user focuses on salient portions of the image. A panning speed is determined based on the currently displayed area and its saliency relative to the saliency of non-displayed or peripheral portions. As a user pans from one area to another, while the user pans over a salient portion of the image, the actual reflected panning may occur at a relatively slower speed than when the user pans over an area not including a salient portion, or a less salient portion.

Abstract: Embodiments herein select first and second panoramic images from respective first and second video streams, each comprising a series of stitched images captured by multiple cameras of respective first and second non-co-located video camera arrays. These arrays may be capturing live video for virtual reality rendering. A rotation is computed between the first and second panoramic images such that, when applied, the first and/or the second panoramic images are rotated relative to one another such that at least one common object is oriented to a common field of view position in both those panoramic images. The output can be variously manifested for different embodiments, for example the output can include a) the first video stream, the second video stream, and an indication of the computed rotation; and/or b) the first video stream and the second video stream with the computed rotation applied thereto.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product provide for view dependent delivery of tile-based video content. In the context of a method, coordinates and span of each of a plurality of tiles of video content generated by an encoder are determined. The method also includes creating a media presentation description including segment information and supplemental fields including information regarding the coordinates and span of each of a plurality of tiles of video content. The method further includes providing for view dependent delivery by associating the media presentation description with file segments to be delivered to a player. A corresponding apparatus and computer program product are also provided.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for varying panning speeds of images based on saliency such that 360-degree images, panoramic images, video images and/or other wide view area images may be efficiently displayed by varying the panning speed such that the user focuses on salient portions of the image. A panning speed is determined based on the currently displayed area and its saliency relative to the saliency of non-displayed or peripheral portions. As a user pans from one area to another, while the user pans over a salient portion of the image, the actual reflected panning may occur at a relatively slower speed than when the user pans over an area not including a salient portion, or a less salient portion.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided to generate a panoramic view derived from multiple cameras and automatically place a seam in that panoramic view in a computationally efficient manner. In regards to a method, images captured by at least two cameras are received. Each camera has a different, but partially overlapping field of view. The method determines a seam location and scale factor to be used when combining the images together to minimize errors at the seam between the two images. In some example implementations, the seam location and scale factor may be recalculated in response to a manual or automatic trigger. In some additional example implementations, motion associated with an image element near a seam location is detected, and the seam location is moved in a direction opposite that of the direction of motion.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided to define the location of a center point associated with each frame within a stream of image data. Metadata associated with the orientation, such as the pitch and yaw, of a camera is synchronized on a frame-by-frame basis with a related stream of image data. In connection with receiving the image data and the orientation data, the method defines a center point associated with a video frame images and transmits a control signal causing the reorientation of at least a subset of video image frames. In some example implementations, arising in the context of 360° video streams, the rotation of the head of a viewer of virtual reality content or other 360° video streams may be taken into account when defining the location of a center point.

Abstract: Various methods are provided for facilitating live virtual reality streaming, and more specifically, for facilitating dynamic metadata transmission, stream tiling, and attention based active view processing, encoding, and rendering. One example method may receiving an indication of a position of a display unit, determining, based on the indication of the position of the display unit, at least one active view associated with the position of the display, the at least one active view being a first view of a plurality of views, and causing transmission of first video content corresponding to the at least one active view, the first video content configured for display on the display unit.