METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FORMING FOVEATED IMAGES BASED ON EYE GAZE
A method includes rendering an original image at a first processor, encoding the original image to provide an encoded image, and transmitting the encoded image to a second processor. The method also includes decoding the encoded image to provide a decoded image, determining an eye gaze location, splitting the decoded image into N sections based on the eye gaze location, and processing N-1 sections of the N sections to produce N-1 secondary quality sections. The method further includes processing one section of the N sections to provide one primary quality section, combining the one primary quality section and the N-1 secondary quality sections to form a foveated image, and transmitting the foveated image to a display.
1 . A method comprising:
rendering an original image at a first processor;
encoding the original image to provide an encoded image;
transmitting the encoded image to a second processor;
decoding the encoded image to provide a decoded image;
determining an eye gaze location;
splitting the decoded image into N sections based on the eye gaze location;
processing N-1 sections of the N sections to produce N-1 secondary quality sections;
processing one section of the N sections to provide one primary quality section;
combining the one primary quality section and the N-1 secondary quality sections to form a foveated image; and
transmitting the foveated image to a display.
2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the first processor comprises a graphics processing unit and the second processor comprises a display driver.
3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the one primary quality section includes pixels corresponding to the eye gaze location.
4 . The method of claim 1 wherein processing the N-1 sections of the N sections to produce the N-1 secondary quality sections comprises compressing the N-1 sections using a lossy compression process.
5 . The method of claim 4 wherein the original image comprises an M×N image and the N-1 secondary quality sections comprise M×N images.
6 . The method of claim 1 wherein processing the N-1 sections of the N sections to produce the N-1 secondary quality sections comprises subsampling the N-1 sections.
7 . The method of claim 6 wherein the original image comprises an M×N image and the N-1 secondary quality sections comprise αM×αN images, where α<1.
8 . The method of claim 1 further comprising warping the foveated image prior to transmitting the foveated image to the display.
9 . The method of claim 1 further comprising determining an eye gaze velocity, wherein pixel dimensions of the one primary quality section are a function of the eye gaze velocity.
10 . The method of claim 1 wherein:
the eye gaze location comprises an eye gaze region; and
the one primary quality section includes pixels corresponding to the eye gaze region.
11 . A method comprising:
determining an eye gaze location;
rendering, at a first processor, a first image having a first image quality and a second image having a second image quality, wherein the first image quality is higher than the second image quality;
encoding the first image to provide a first encoded image;
encoding the second image to provide a second encoded image;
transmitting the first encoded image and the second encoded image to a second processor;
decoding the first encoded image and the second encoded image to provide a first decoded image and a second decoded image;
combining the first decoded image and the second decoded image to form a foveated image; and
transmitting the foveated image to a display.
12 . The method of claim 11 wherein the first processor comprises a graphics processing unit and the second processor comprises a display driver.
13 . The method of claim 11 wherein the first image includes pixels corresponding to the eye gaze location.
14 . The method of claim 11 further comprising:
compressing the first decoded image using a lossless compression process;
compressing the second decoded image using a lossless compression process; and
storing the compressed first decoded image and the compressed second decoded image in memory.
15 . The method of claim 14 wherein:
the compressed first decoded image comprises an M×N image;
the compressed second decoded image comprises an M×N image; and
the foveated image comprises a 2M×2N image.
16 . The method of claim 11 wherein the foveated image comprises an M×N image and the first image and the second image comprise αM×αN images, where α<1.
17 . The method of claim 11 further comprising warping the foveated image prior to transmitting the foveated image to the display.
18 . The method of claim 11 wherein determining the eye gaze location is performed at a first frame rate and rendering the first image and the second image is performed at a second frame rate higher than the first frame rate.
19 . The method of claim 18 further comprising displaying the foveated image at the second frame rate.
20 . The method of claim 11 wherein the first image has a rectangular shape centered at the eye gaze location.