System and method for distributing and rendering content as spherical video and 3D asset combination

1. A method of emulating motion parallax at a head mounted display (HMD), comprising:

receiving a 3D video at a HMD;

obtaining a model of an object in the 3D video;

obtaining a processed 3D video in which the 3D video is processed to remove the object from the 3D video;

tracking a change in position of the HMD by a sensor of the HMD;

rendering the processed 3D video at the HMD; and

rendering the model of the object at a new position in the processed 3D video based on the tracked change in position of the HMD such that a motion parallax effect is provided by a relocation of the object to the new position in the processed 3D video relative to an initial position of the object in the 3D video.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the processed 3D video comprises receiving the processed 3D video from a server.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the processed 3D video comprises rendering a patch segment over a segment of the 3D video including the object to remove the object from the 3D video.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein rendering the patch segment further comprises receiving the patch segment from a server.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein rendering the patch segment further comprises generating the patch segment at the HMD.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein generating the patch segment at the HMD comprises generating the patch segment using a diminished reality technique on the 3D video.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein generating the patch segment at the HMD comprises using a second model of a second object, wherein the second object is visually behind the first object in the 3D video.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

displaying the received 3D video at the HMD to a user;

detecting a user gaze direction within the displayed 3D video; and

selecting the object for motion parallax emulation based on the detected user gaze direction.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein selecting the object for motion parallax emulation further comprises determining that the object is less than a threshold virtual distance from the user within the displayed 3D video.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein selecting the object for motion parallax emulation further comprises determining that a size of the object is less than a threshold size.

11. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions operative, when executed on the processor, to cause the system to:

receive a 3D video at a HMD;

obtain a model of an object in the 3D video;

obtain a processed 3D video in which the 3D video is processed to remove the object from the 3D video;

track a change in position of the HMD by a sensor of the HMD;

render the processed 3D video at the HMD; and

render the model of the object at a new position in the processed 3D video based on the tracked change in position of the HMD such that a motion parallax effect is provided by a relocation of the object to the new position in the processed 3D video relative to an initial position of the object in the 3D video.

12. A method for emulating motion parallax at a head mounted display (HMD), comprising:

displaying at a HMD a received 3D video;

selecting an object in the 3D video for motion parallax emulation;

obtaining a 3D model of the object in the 3D video;

removing the object from the 3D video to prepare a processed 3D video without the object;

tracking a change in position of the HMD by a sensor of the HMD;

rendering the processed 3D video at the HMD; and

rendering the 3D model of the object at a new position in the processed 3D video based on the tracked change in position of the HMD such that a motion parallax effect is provided by a relocation of the object to the new position in the processed 3D video relative to an initial position of the object in the 3D video.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein removing the object from the 3D video comprises rendering a patch segment over a segment of the 3D video including the object.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein rendering the patch segment further comprises receiving the patch segment from a server.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein rendering the patch segment further comprises generating the patch segment at the HMD.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein generating the patch segment at the HMD comprises generating the patch segment using a diminished reality technique on the 3D video.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein generating the patch segment at the HMD comprises using a second model of a second object, wherein the second object is visually behind the first object in the 3D video.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein selecting the object comprises:

detecting a user gaze direction within the displayed 3D video; and

selecting the object based on the detected user gaze direction within the displayed 3D video.

19. The method of claim 12 , wherein selecting the object further comprises determining that the object is less than a threshold virtual distance from a user within the displayed 3D video.

20. The method of claim 12 , wherein selecting the object further comprises determining that a size of the object is less than a threshold size.