Granted Patent B2

US 12,335,521 · App. 17/791,635 · Granted Jun 17, 2025

Inventors: David Flynn (Cupertino, CA); Khaled Mammou (Cupertino, CA); Fabrice A. Robinet (Cupertino, CA)

Assignee: Apple Inc.

H04N19/597G06T15/00H04N19/124H04N19/167H04N19/182H04N19/96

Abstract

Claims (56)

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, a data structure representing a point cloud in three-dimensional space, the point cloud having a plurality of points,

wherein the data structure comprises, for each point, a sequence of bits encoding a position of the point in each dimension of the three-dimensional space, wherein the position of the point is encoded according to a tree data structure representing a plurality of octants of space,

wherein, for a subset of the points, the corresponding sequences of bits represent an explicit signaling of the positions of the subset of the points relative to one or more reference points in the tree data structure according to a direct coding mode, and are quantized according to a first quantization step size,

wherein, for a remainder of the points, the corresponding sequences of bits represent the positions of the remainder of the points according to the tree data structure and without the direct coding mode, and are quantized according to a second quantization step size, wherein the first quantization step size is different from the second quantization step size,

wherein the subset of the points occupy one or more first octants of space of the plurality of octants of space, and

wherein each of the one or more first octants of space are surrounded by respective unoccupied octants of space of the plurality of octants of space,

determining, by the computer system, the position of each of the points based on the data structure, wherein determining the position of each of the points comprises:

for a subset of the points:

decoding the corresponding sequence of bits according to the direct coding mode to determine first position information representing the positions of the subset of the points relative to the one or more reference points, and

scaling the first position information by the first quantization step size, and for the remainder of the points:

decoding the corresponding sequence of bits to determine second position information representing the positions of the remaining of the points according to the tree data structure, and

dequantizing the second position information according to the second quantization step size; and

outputting, by the computer system, the determined positions of each of the points.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the position of each of the points based on the data structure comprises retrieving an indication of the first quantization step size from a header in the data structure, and

determining the position of each of the points of the subset of points based on the first quantization step size.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tree data structure is an octree.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising rendering three-dimensional content based on the determined positions of each of the points, wherein the three-dimensional content is at least one of virtual reality content or augmented reality content.

5. A device comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a data structure representing a point cloud in three-dimensional space, the point cloud having a plurality of points,

wherein the data structure comprises, for each point, a sequence of bits encoding a position of the point in each dimension of the three-dimensional space, wherein the position of the point is encoded according to a tree data structure representing a plurality of octants of space,

wherein, for a subset of the points, the corresponding sequences of bits represent an explicit signaling of the positions of the subset of the points relative to one or more reference points in the tree data structure according to a direct coding mode, and are quantized according to a first quantization step size,

wherein, for a remainder of the points, the corresponding sequences of bits represent the positions of the remainder of the points according to the tree data structure and without the direct coding mode, and are quantized according to a second quantization step size, wherein the first quantization step size is different from the second quantization step size,

wherein the subset of the points occupy one or more first octants of space of the plurality of octants of space, and

wherein each of the one or more first octants of space are surrounded by respective unoccupied octants of space of the plurality of octants of space,

determining the position of each of the points based on the data structure, wherein determining the position of each of the points comprises:

for a subset of the points:

decoding the corresponding sequence of bits according to the direct coding mode to determine first position information representing the positions of the subset of the points relative to the one or more reference points, and

scaling the first position information by the first quantization step size, and for the remainder of the points:

decoding the corresponding sequence of bits to determine second position information representing the positions of the remaining of the points according to the tree data structure, and

dequantizing the second position information according to the second quantization step; and

outputting the determined positions of each of the points.

6. The device of claim 5 , wherein determining the position of each of the points based on the data structure comprises retrieving an indication of the first quantization step size from a header in the data structure, and

determining the position of each of the points of the subset of points based on the first quantization step size.

7. The device of claim 5 , wherein the tree data structure is an octree.

8. The device of claim 5 , the operations further comprising rendering three-dimensional content based on the determined positions of each of the points, wherein the three-dimensional content is at least one of virtual reality content or augmented reality content.

9. A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, that when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a data structure representing a point cloud in three-dimensional space, the point cloud having a plurality of points,

wherein the data structure comprises, for each point, a sequence of bits encoding a position of the point in each dimension of the three-dimensional space, wherein the position of the point is encoded according to a tree data structure representing a plurality of octants of space,

wherein, for a subset of the points, the corresponding sequences of bits represent an explicit signaling of the positions of the subset of the points relative to one or more reference points in the tree data structure according to a direct coding mode, and are quantized according to a first quantization step size,

wherein, for a remainder of the points, the corresponding sequences of bits represent the positions of the remainder of the points according to the tree data structure and without the direct coding mode, and are quantized according to a second quantization step size, wherein the first quantization step size is different from the second quantization step size,

wherein the subset of the points occupy one or more first octants of space of the plurality of octants of space, and

wherein each of the one or more first octants of space are surrounded by respective unoccupied octants of space of the plurality of octants of space,

determining the position of each of the points based on the data structure, wherein determining the position of each of the points comprises:

for a subset of the points:

decoding the corresponding sequence of bits according to the direct coding mode to determine first position information representing the positions of the subset of the points relative to the one or more reference points, and

scaling the first position information by the first quantization step size, and for the remainder of the points:

decoding the corresponding sequence of bits to determine second position information representing the positions of the remaining of the points according to the tree data structure, and

dequantizing the second position information according to the second quantization step; and

outputting the determined positions of each of the points.

10. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein determining the position of each of the points based on the data structure comprises retrieving an indication of the first quantization step size from a header in the data structure, and

determining the position of each of the points of the subset of points based on the first quantization step size.

11. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the tree data structure is an octree.

12. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , the operations further comprising rendering three-dimensional content based on the determined positions of each of the points, wherein the three-dimensional content is at least one of virtual reality content or augmented reality content.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (32)