Behavioral directional encoding of three-dimensional video

1. A method for generating optimal segment parameters for a three-dimensional video comprising:

receiving head-tracking data that includes yaw, pitch, and roll values that describe one or more positions of one or more people as a function of time while the one or more people are viewing a three-dimensional video;

generating video segments from the three-dimensional video; and

for each of the video segments:

determining a directional encoding format that projects latitudes and longitudes of locations of a surface of a sphere onto locations on a plane based on the yaw, pitch, and roll values from the head-tracking data;

determining a cost function that identifies a region of interest on the plane based on the head-tracking data that includes the yaw, pitch, and roll values that describe the one or more positions of the one or more people; and

generating optimal segment parameters that minimize a sum-over position for the region of interest.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cost function indicates a geometric mean of horizontal and vertical pixels per degree for a user looking at the region of interest.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cost function gives a measure of perceived resolution for a user gazing in a particular direction at a particular timestamp that corresponds to the yaw, pitch, and roll values.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

cropping the region of interest for one or more video segments based on the optimal segment parameters to form one or more thumbnails of one or more cropped regions of interest; and

generating a timeline of the three-dimensional video with the one or more thumbnails.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

re-encoding the three-dimensional video to include the optimal segment parameters for each of the video segments; and

providing a re-encoded video and the optimal segment parameters for each of the video segments to a client device, wherein the client device uses the re-encoded video and the optimal segment parameters for each of the video segments to generate a two-dimensional video that automates head movement.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

providing a user with an option to modify the two-dimensional video by at least one of selecting different optimal segment parameters and selecting a different region of interest for one or more of the video segments.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating a two-dimensional video from the three-dimensional video based on the optimal segment parameters that depicts head tracking movement as automatic panning within the two-dimensional video.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cost function incorporates hinge loss.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the video segments from the three-dimensional video includes generating equal-length video segments of a predetermined length.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the video segments from the three-dimensional video includes generating the video segments based on a detection of scene boundaries in the three-dimensional video.

11. A system for generating optimal segment parameters for a three-dimensional video comprising:

one or more processors coupled to a memory;

a head-tracking module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors, the head-tracking module operable to receive head-tracking data that includes yaw, pitch, and roll values that describe one or more positions of one or more people as a function of time while the one or more people are viewing a three-dimensional video;

a segmentation module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors, the segmentation module operable to generate video segments from the three-dimensional video; and

a parameterization module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors, the parameterization module operable to, for each of the video segments:

determine a directional encoding format that projects latitudes and longitudes of locations of a surface of a sphere onto locations on a plane based on the yaw, pitch, and roll values from the head-tracking data;

determine a cost function that identifies a region of interest on the plane based on the head-tracking data that includes the yaw, pitch, and roll values that describe the one or more positions of the one or more people; and

generate optimal segment parameters that minimize a sum-over position for the region of interest.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the cost function indicates a geometric mean of horizontal and vertical pixels per degree for a user looking at the region of interest.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the cost function gives a measure of perceived resolution for a user gazing in a particular direction at a particular timestamp that corresponds to the yaw, pitch, and roll values.

14. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a user interface module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors, the user interface module operable to crop the region of interest for one or more video segments based on the optimal segment parameters to form one or more thumbnails of one or more cropped regions of interest and generate a timeline of the three-dimensional video with the one or more thumbnails.

15. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a user interface module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors, the user interface module operable to generate a two-dimensional video from the three-dimensional video based on the optimal segment parameters that depicts head tracking movement as automatic panning within the two-dimensional video.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein the cost function incorporates hinge loss.

17. A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving head-tracking data that includes yaw, pitch, and roll values that describe one or more positions of one or more people as a function of time while the one or more people are viewing a three-dimensional video;

generating video segments from the three-dimensional video; and

for each of the video segments:

determining a directional encoding format that projects latitudes and longitudes of locations of a surface of a sphere onto locations on a plane based on the yaw, pitch, and roll values from the head-tracking data;

determining a cost function that identifies a region of interest on the plane based on the head-tracking data that includes the yaw, pitch, and roll values that describe the one or more positions of the one or more people; and

generating optimal segment parameters that minimize a sum-over position for the region of interest.

18. The computer storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the cost function indicates a geometric mean of horizontal and vertical pixels per degree for a user looking at the region of interest.

19. The computer storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the cost function gives a measure of perceived resolution for a user gazing in a particular direction at a particular timestamp that corresponds to the yaw, pitch, and roll values.

20. The computer storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise:

cropping the region of interest for one or more video segments based on the optimal segment parameters to form one or more thumbnails of one or more cropped regions of interest; and

generating a timeline of the three-dimensional video with the one or more thumbnails.