Methods And Apparatus For Optimized Stitching Of Overcapture Content

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for optimized stitching of overcapture content. In one embodiment, the optimized stitching of the overcapture content includes capturing the overcapture content; producing overlap bands associated with the captured overcapture content; downsampling the produced overlap bands; generating derivative images from the downsampled overlap bands; generating a cost map associated with the generated derivative images; determining shortest path information for the generated cost map; generating a warp file based on the determined shortest path information, the generated warp file being utilized for the optimized stitching of the overcapture content. Camera apparatus and a non-transitory computer-readable apparatus are also disclosed.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for optimized stitching of overcapture content, the method comprising:
 receiving the overcapture content;   receiving a warp file comprising metadata based on a stitch line of the overcapture content;   producing a displacement map based on the metadata in the warp file; and   stitching the overcapture content based on the displacement map creating stitched content.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , where:
 the overcapture content comprises a first overlap band and a second overlap band, and   the displacement map indicating how portions of the first overlap band should be shifted relative to the second overlap band.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , where areas of the displacement map correspond to locations on the first overlap band. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , reprojecting the overcapture content. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , where:
 the overcapture content comprises fisheye content, and   reprojecting the overcapture content comprises reprojecting the fisheye content into an equirectangular projection.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , where reprojecting the overcapture content comprises applying a warp based on the displacement map. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising displaying the stitched content. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the overcapture content comprises receiving the overcapture content from a capture device while the capture device generates the warp file. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , where:
 producing the displacement map comprises determining first values in the displacement map based second values in the metadata in the warp file, and   the first values and the second values corresponding to a frame of the overcapture content.   
     
     
         10 . An apparatus comprising:
 a processor; and   a non-transitory computer readable medium in data communication with the processor, the non-transitory computer readable medium comprising one or more instructions configured to, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to:
 receive overcapture content comprising a first overlap band and a second overlap band, the first overlap band and the second overlap band comprising an area of overlap of content captured by a plurality of capture devices; 
 generate a displacement map indicating how portions of the first overlap band should be shifted relative to the second overlap band; and 
 warp the overcapture content based on the displacement map creating warped overcapture content. 
   
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 10 , where the displacement map indicates x and y direction displacements of pixels in the first overlap band. 
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 10 , where:
 the warped overcapture content does not include duplicative features based on warping the overcapture content, and   the warped overcapture content does not contain objects of incorrect depth based on warping the overcapture content.   
     
     
         13 . The apparatus of  claim 10 , where the one or more instructions are further configured to, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to stitch the overcapture content based on the warped overcapture content. 
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 10 , where the one or more instructions are further configured to, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to generated projected content based on based on the warped overcapture content. 
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 10 , where the one or more instructions are further configured to, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to receive a warp file comprising metadata based on a stitch line of the overcapture content, and
 where the displacement map is generated based on the metadata.   
     
     
         16 . A non-transitory computer-readable apparatus comprising a storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, the computer program comprising a plurality of instructions configured to, when executed by a processor apparatus, cause an apparatus to:
 receive overcapture content;   receive a warp file comprising metadata, the metadata comprising a string of integer values based on a stitch line of the overcapture content;   produce a displacement map based on the metadata in the warp file, the displacement map indicating locations and magnitudes of shifts along the stitch line; and   stitch the overcapture content along the stitch line based on the displacement map creating stitched content.   
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer-readable apparatus of  claim 16 , where the plurality of instructions are further configured to, when executed by the processor apparatus, cause the apparatus to convert the string of integer values in the warp file to floating point values. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer-readable apparatus of  claim 17 , where converting the string of integer values to floating point values comprises interpolation between first integer values of the string of integer values to generate the floating point values. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer-readable apparatus of  claim 16 , where the displacement map comprises a plurality of floating point displacement values corresponding to shift portions of an overlap band of the overcapture content. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer-readable apparatus of  claim 16 , where stitching the overcapture content comprises a look up to the warp file without a determination of the stitch line by the non-transitory computer-readable apparatus.