METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING AND USING REDUCED RESOLUTION IMAGES AND/OR COMMUNICATING SUCH IMAGES TO A PLAYBACK OR CONTENT DISTRIBUTION DEVICE
Methods and apparatus for using selective resolution reduction on images to be transmitted and/or used by a playback device are described. Prior to transmission one or more images of an environment are captured. Based on image content, motion detection and/or user input a resolution reduction operation is selected and performed. The reduced resolution image is communicated to a playback device along with information indicating a UV map corresponding to the selected resolution allocation that should be used by the playback device for rendering the communicated image. By changing the resolution allocation used and which UV map is used by the playback device different resolution allocations can be made with respect to different portions of the environment while allowing the number of pixels in transmitted images to remain constant. The playback device renders the individual images with the UV map corresponding to the resolution allocation used to generate the individual images.
1 . A method of communicating information to be used to represent an environment, the method comprising:
communicating a first image map to be used to map portions of a frame to segments of an environmental model, said first image map allocating different size portions of the frame to different segments of the environmental model thereby allocating different numbers of pixels to different segments of said model; and
communicating a first frame including at least a portion of a first image to be mapped to said environmental model using said first image map.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
communicating a second image map to be used to map portions of a frame to segments of the environmental model, said second image map allocating different size portions of the frame to different segments of the environmental model thereby allocating different numbers of pixels to different segments of said model, said second image map allocating a different number of pixels to a first segment of said model than are allocated by said first image map; and
communicating a second frame including at least a portion of a second image to be mapped to said environmental model using said second image map.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said first and second image maps map different numbers of pixels to an area corresponding to the same portion of an environment thereby providing different resolution allocations for said same portion of the environment based on which of the first and second image maps are used.
4 . An apparatus for communicating information to be used to represent an environment, the apparatus including a processor configured to operate said apparatus to:
communicate a first image map to be used to map portions of a frame to segments of an environmental model, said first image map allocating different size portions of the frame to different segments of the environmental model thereby allocating different numbers of pixels to different segments of said model; and communicate a first frame including at least a portion of a first image to be mapped to said environmental model using said first image map.
5 . The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein said processor is further configured to operate said apparatus to:
communicate a second image map to be used to map portions of a frame to segments of the environmental model, said second image map allocating different size portions of the frame to different segments of the environmental model thereby allocating different numbers of pixels to different segments of said model, said second image map allocating a different number of pixels to a first segment of said model than are allocated by said first image map; and
communicate a second frame including at least a portion of a second image to be mapped to said environmental model using said second image map.
6 . The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein said first and second image maps map different numbers of pixels to an area corresponding to the same portion of an environment thereby providing different resolution allocations for said same portion of the environment based on which of the first and second image maps are used.
7 . The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the apparatus is a server providing a real time content stream while an event is ongoing.
8 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions, which when executed by a processor, control a system to:
communicate a first image map to be used to map portions of a frame to segments of an environmental model, said first image map allocating different size portions of the frame to different segments of the environmental model thereby allocating different numbers of pixels to different segments of said model; and
communicate a first frame including at least a portion of a first image to be mapped to said environmental model using said first image map.