Adaptive Rate Allocation for Tile-Based VR Video Streaming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional virtual reality video systems face challenges in delivering high-quality content due to bandwidth constraints, often restricting streams to lower resolutions and disregarding streaming standards, which limits compatibility across different devices and increases storage needs as resolutions increase.
Innovation Solution
The system partitions panorama videos into segments or tiles, assigns priorities based on the user's viewport information, and allocates bit rates accordingly to stream higher quality content where the user is looking and lower quality content elsewhere, employing adaptive rate allocation to maximize bandwidth efficiency and video quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If virtual reality video is streamed at high resolutions (4K, 8K, 12K), then video quality is improved, but bandwidth consumption increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the virtual reality video into multiple tiles or segments corresponding to different regions of the spherical video. Each tile is encoded and transmitted separately, allowing selective quality adjustment based on user viewport position. This segmentation enables the system to allocate bandwidth efficiently by prioritizing tiles within the user's field of view while reducing quality for peripheral tiles.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements differential quality encoding where different regions of the video are transmitted at different resolutions. Tiles within the user's current viewport are transmitted at high quality (e.g., 4K or 8K), while tiles outside the viewport are transmitted at lower quality. This local quality approach maintains high video quality where needed while significantly reducing overall bandwidth consumption.
2Adaptability or versatility
If conventional systems stream virtual reality video using large range of predetermined resolutions, then adaptability to different devices is improved, but storage capacity requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic resolution selection where the system adjusts video quality and resolution in real-time based on the user's viewport position and device capabilities. Rather than pre-storing multiple complete video versions at different resolutions, the system dynamically encodes and transmits tiles at appropriate quality levels, allowing adaptability to different devices without requiring large storage capacities for multiple resolution versions.
3Quantity of substance
If conventional systems restrict streams to lower resolutions, then bandwidth consumption is reduced, but video quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality enhancement by transmitting high-resolution video data only for tiles within the user's current viewport while using lower resolution for peripheral tiles. This approach maintains high video quality where the user is actually looking while significantly reducing overall bandwidth consumption compared to transmitting the entire video at high resolution.
4Quantity of substance
If tile-based streaming with priority allocation is implemented, then bandwidth efficiency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the virtual reality video into a grid of tiles that map to the spherical video geometry. Each tile is independently encoded, prioritized based on its position relative to the user's viewport, and transmitted with appropriate quality levels. This segmentation approach improves bandwidth efficiency by allowing selective quality adjustment while keeping the system complexity manageable through standardized tiling and priority assignment algorithms.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure includes methods and systems for streaming high-performance virtual reality video using adaptive rate allocation. In particular, an adaptive rate allocation system partitions a panorama video into segments or tiles and assigns priorities to each tile or segment based on input (e.g., a viewport of field-of-view) from a user client device. Further, the adaptive rate allocation system streams each tile or segment to the user client device according to the adaptive rate allocation, which maximizes bandwidth efficiency and video quality. In this manner, the adaptive rate allocation system delivers higher quality content to regions in the panorama video where a user is currently looking/most likely to look.