Latent-Space Video Transitions for Seamless Stream Switching

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing video-streaming platforms face challenges in providing seamless transitions between diverse videos, leading to visual discontinuity and abrupt changes that negatively affect the user experience.

Innovation Solution

A system and method using generative adversarial networks (GANs) to generate smooth video transitions by identifying key images in source and target videos, embedding them in a latent vector space, and interpolating between these embeddings to create a seamless transition sequence.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If videos are played back-to-back with immediate transitions, then video streaming efficiency is improved, but visual discontinuity and abrupt changes occur that negatively affect user experience

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvevideo streaming efficiencyVSAvoidvisual discontinuity

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an intermediary transition video sequence that mediates between the first video and second video. This transition sequence is generated by extracting end frames from both videos, embedding them in latent space, interpolating between embeddings, and decoding intermediate embeddings to create smooth visual transitions that eliminate abrupt changes while maintaining streaming efficiency

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-processing video frames to extract key end frames and pre-computing their embeddings in latent space. This preparation enables rapid generation of transition sequences during video playback without compromising streaming efficiency, as the heavy computational work is done in advance

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Adaptability or versatility

If diverse videos are selected from different categories, then user viewing diversity is improved, but transition smoothness deteriorates due to lack of visual coherence

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveuser viewing diversityVSAvoidtransition smoothness

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

The patent transforms the transition problem from pixel-space manipulation to latent-space interpolation. By embedding video frames in a high-dimensional latent vector space and performing linear interpolation in this abstract dimension, the system can smoothly transition between visually diverse content while maintaining coherence, then map the interpolated latent vectors back to realistic video frames through the generator network

Inventive Principle:

Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

Data Source

PatentUS12568260B2Systems and methods for generating transitions between videos

Publication Date: 2026.03.03 GOOGLE LLC

AI summary

A method for generating a video transition sequence between a first and a second video is provided. The method first identifies and embeds starting and ending images for the video transition sequence into a latent vector space. The method then interpolates to generate an interpolation trajectory between the starting and ending image embeddings within the latent vector space. The method then reconstructs the interpolation trajectory from the latent vector space to a final video transition sequence in the original image vector space. This video transition sequence is then displayed so as to smoothly transition between two videos.