Spatially Unequal VR Streaming for Viewport Quality and Bandwidth
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing technologies fail to efficiently address the quality of visible quality in virtual reality (VR) streaming spatially unequal streaming, leading to high bandwidth requirements and quality degradation during user interaction in VR applications.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system where media segments are selected and retrieved based on predetermined relationships between different qualities of spatial scene portions, using information from the server to manage bandwidth and computational complexity, ensuring higher quality for visible portions and lower quality for non-visible portions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If high resolution video is transmitted for the entire spherical field of view, then the visible quality is improved, but the bandwidth requirements increase tremendously
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by transmitting high-resolution video only for the viewport region that the user is currently viewing, while transmitting lower-resolution video for the remaining spherical field of view. This resolves the contradiction by concentrating bandwidth resources on the visually critical viewport area rather than uniformly distributing high quality across the entire 360-degree scene, thereby maintaining high visible quality while dramatically reducing overall bandwidth requirements.
2Quantity of substance
If only the viewport is transmitted at high resolution, then the bandwidth requirements are reduced, but the visible quality degrades during user interaction when the viewport changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-transmitting or buffering video content for regions surrounding the current viewport before the user actually looks in those directions. This anticipatory approach ensures that when the user rotates their view, the high-quality video for the new viewport region is already available or nearly available, minimizing quality degradation during transitions while still maintaining reduced bandwidth requirements compared to transmitting the entire sphere at high resolution.
3Manufacturing precision
If the DASH client reacts to user movement by downloading new content, then the visible quality is maintained, but there is a time delay causing quality degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by having the DASH client proactively download and buffer video segments for potential future viewport regions before the user actually looks in those directions. This anticipatory buffering eliminates or reduces the reaction time delay, as the content is already available locally when needed, thereby maintaining high visible quality during user interaction without the time loss associated with on-demand downloading.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies dynamics by continuously adapting the viewport region and adjusting the buffer of pre-downloaded content based on user movement patterns and predicted viewing directions. This dynamic adjustment ensures that the buffered content remains relevant and high-quality video is always available for the current and anticipated viewport regions, resolving the time delay issue while maintaining quality.
4Adaptability or versatility
If the spherical video is split into multiple spatial regions with different qualities, then the adaptability is improved, but the device complexity increases due to signaling and selection requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the spherical video into distinct spatial regions (viewport and non-viewport areas) with different quality levels. This segmentation enables the DASH client to selectively download and prioritize high-quality content for the viewport region while using lower-quality content for other areas, thereby improving adaptability to user viewing behavior. The segmentation approach manages device complexity by using standardized DASH signaling mechanisms to indicate the different quality representations available for different spatial regions.
Data Source
AI summary
Various concepts for media content streaming are described. Some allow for streaming spatial scene content in a spatially unequal manner so that the visible quality for the user is increased, or the processing complexity or used bandwidth at the streaming retrieval site is decreased. Others allow for streaming spatial scene content in a manner enlarging the applicability to further application scenarios.