Hierarchical Image Tile Storage for Cloud Rendering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Legacy approaches for rendering high-resolution images in cloud-based storage systems are limited by slow file access and retrieval times due to the need for large numbers of pre-rendered images at various zoom levels, leading to performance bottlenecks and inefficiencies in computer memory and processing power usage.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of image tiling and hierarchical image tile storage structures, where high-resolution images are partitioned into tiles and mapped to filenames and directories based on zoom levels and positions, allowing for efficient storage and retrieval in a multi-level hierarchical file structure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If high-resolution images are stored as single large files in cloud-based storage, then the images can be accessed from any device through a web browser, but the file access and retrieval becomes slow and consumes significant computing and communication resources
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides high-resolution images into multiple smaller image tiles organized in a hierarchical directory structure. Each tile represents a portion of the original image at a specific zoom level, allowing the system to retrieve and transmit only the necessary tiles rather than entire large images, thereby improving access speed while maintaining cloud-based accessibility
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a hierarchical directory structure that adds organizational dimensions (zoom levels and tile positions) to the flat storage approach. This multi-dimensional organization enables efficient navigation and retrieval by mapping zoom levels and positions to specific directories, transforming the single-file access model into a structured tile-based access model
2Ease of operation
If pre-rendered zoom images are stored in a single folder to allow retrieval of subsets, then navigation through zoom levels becomes possible, but storage of large numbers of pre-rendered images introduces performance bottlenecks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the single folder structure into multiple hierarchical directories organized by zoom level and tile position. Instead of storing all zoom images in one folder, each zoom level has its own directory, and each directory contains only the tiles needed for that specific zoom level, dramatically reducing the number of files any single directory must manage and improving access efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds hierarchical dimensions to the flat folder structure by organizing tiles into multiple levels based on zoom level and position. This transformation from a single-dimensional folder to a multi-dimensional hierarchical structure enables efficient navigation while avoiding the performance bottlenecks of managing thousands of files in a single directory
3Adaptability or versatility
If many pre-rendered higher resolution images are stored in a base folder, then complete image traversal is enabled, but file access and retrieval becomes particularly slow as images become larger and higher resolution
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the large-scale image storage into a hierarchical tile structure where each directory contains a manageable subset of tiles. This segmentation allows the system to traverse complete images by navigating through organized directories rather than searching through a single base folder, significantly reducing retrieval time while maintaining full traversal capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the flat base folder approach into a multi-dimensional hierarchical structure where directories are organized by zoom level and tile position. This dimensional organization enables efficient traversal by providing direct paths to required tiles, eliminating the need to search through all files in a single folder and dramatically reducing retrieval time for large high-resolution images
Data Source
AI summary
Systems for computer graphics rendering using a web browser to access a cloud-based storage system. Processing commences upon receipt by the cloud-based storage system, of an image file. The image file is sized, and then enumerated into a series of images to be made available for shared access, and viewed in accordance with user commands. The received image is used to generate a plurality of image tiles, wherein the image tiles correspond to particular portions of the image, and wherein the image tiles are associated with respective tile positions. The plurality of image tiles are organized into a multi-level hierarchical file storage structure. The multi-level hierarchical file storage structure comprises two or more hierarchically-related levels to contain image tile files at respective two or more zoom levels. The multi-level hierarchical filepaths and names of the files follow a naming convention pertaining to the respective zoom levels and tile positions.