HMD Locator Pixel Compression via Run-Length Encoding
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Solution Overview
Problem
The transmission of images from a head-mounted display (HMD) to a console for determining its position and orientation consumes significant bandwidth and time, leading to discrepancies between the physical and calculated orientation or position.
Innovation Solution
The imaging device captures images of the HMD, identifies pixels with a threshold brightness, and performs run-length encoding to generate a compressed representation of the image, which includes brightness values and consecutive pixels with lower brightness, reducing the data transmission while maintaining accurate locator positioning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If full-resolution images are transmitted from the imaging device to the console, then the position and orientation determination accuracy is maintained, but the bandwidth consumption increases significantly and transmission time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential information from the full-resolution images by identifying and transmitting only the locator pixels and their brightness values, rather than transmitting the complete image data. This extraction approach maintains the necessary positioning information while dramatically reducing the data volume transmitted over the communication channel.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a simplified copy or representation of the image data that contains only the critical locator information. Instead of transmitting the original full-resolution image, a compressed representation is created that preserves the essential positioning data through run-length encoding of brightness values at locator positions.
2Measurement precision
If full-resolution images are transmitted from the imaging device to the console, then the position and orientation determination accuracy is maintained, but the transmission time increases causing discrepancies between physical and calculated orientation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential information from the full-resolution images by identifying and transmitting only the locator pixels and their brightness values, rather than transmitting the complete image data. This extraction approach maintains the necessary positioning information while dramatically reducing the data volume transmitted over the communication channel.
Solution Approach 2:
The imaging device performs image processing and compression locally before transmission, pre-identifying locator positions and encoding brightness values in advance. This preliminary processing reduces the amount of data that needs to be transmitted, thereby reducing transmission time and eliminating delays between physical movement and calculated position updates.
3Loss of energy
If image compression is applied to reduce bandwidth consumption, then the data transmission efficiency improves, but the complexity of image processing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the image processing task into distinct steps: identifying locator pixels, extracting their brightness values, and applying run-length encoding. This segmentation allows the complex compression process to be broken down into manageable operations that can be performed efficiently by the imaging device without requiring excessive computational resources.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the representation parameters of the image data by transforming pixel-by-pixel brightness information into run-length encoded sequences. This parameter transformation compresses the data by replacing repeated pixel values with counts and representative values, reducing bandwidth consumption while maintaining processing efficiency through standardized encoding algorithms.
Data Source
AI summary
An imaging device captures images of a head-mounted display (HMD), or other object, including locators providing a pattern of light. The imaging device compresses captured images of the locators of the HMD by identifying pixels of a captured image having at least a threshold brightness and additional pixels within a threshold distance of the identified pixels. To generate a compressed image, the camera performs run-length encoding of pixels other than the identified pixels and additional pixels. The compressed image is provided by the imaging device to a console or other computing device. In some embodiments, the imaging device also determines whether a segment of adjacent pixels in a captured image is above the threshold brightness and sets the segment of adjacent pixels to a specific value and performs run-length encoding on the segment of adjacent pixels above the threshold brightness.