KR20030015765A - Method and system for providing panorama-typed images on the internet - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method and system for supplying a panorama picture on the Internet is provided to supply accurate geographic information linked with a panorama screen by mounting a direction indicator and an angle indicator on a floor plan. CONSTITUTION: A member information DB(231) includes detailed information of an Internet user who is registered as a member. A geographic information DB(232) includes a panorama picture and a map file for displaying geomorphic information such as buildings and roads of a specific area. A server program enables the Internet user to access to a server using a web browser(200). An Internet server(220) displays a map file having a visual angle, a specific visual starting angle, and a screen of a portion corresponded to the panorama picture in accordance with the visual angle to the user. The Internet server(220) rotates the specific visual angle as a predetermined speed. If the user selects a specific visual starting angle on the map, the Internet server(220) displays a screen of a portion corresponded to the panorama picture.

Description

Method and system for providing panorama photos over the internet {Method and system for providing panorama-typed images on the internet}

The present invention relates to a method and a system for providing a panoramic picture on the Internet. More particularly, the present invention relates to providing a screen that is the same as viewing a real image by moving a map image up, down, left, and right as the user moves the mouse on the Internet. will be.

As modernization proceeds, the geography of the region has come to a complex and changing situation. Because of different days, the specialization of the industry, the construction of new buildings, and the opening of new roads became the main factors. Therefore, in the past, such a change was mainly used as a geographic information book which is a booklet or a periphery of a specific region showing only a map. However, when users use this method, it is not easy to reflect the changed geographic information as well as the low cost of conventional printing or printing. This is because not only it takes a lot of time to supplement the existing geographic information and print it, but also requires users to go through various distribution stages before users can obtain such existing print media. Even if the geographic information changed through the distribution stage is in the hands of the user, at the time of acquisition, the geographic information has already been changed so much that it cannot be separated.

It is a technology for providing geographic information on the Internet that has improved such a conventional high cost and low efficiency geographic information providing method. As the Internet develops, this technology is rapidly spreading due to the advantage that it can immediately reflect the changed geographical information and provide it to the user. This example is shown in Figure 1, which has a "search" function so that the user can easily search for geographic information of the desired area, and the right screen shows a map of the searched area. It is equipped with various auxiliary functions such as "Intelligent View", "General Video View", and "3D Video View" to get detailed information about the area. These auxiliary functions make it easy to deliver geographic information to users. Of course, the information can show everything from flat to spatial. In addition, there are usually functions to enlarge and reduce a specific area.

Although the technology for providing geographic information using the Internet solves the disadvantages caused by the conventional type, the problems still remain unresolved. For example, most of the geographic information provided is flat or almost simple even if space is provided. Therefore, the user cannot grasp the geography of the desired area in detail. In addition, the existing geographic information provided by the Internet does not contain the actual terrain, and most of the floor plan is provided, so that the user does not easily find the desired place even if they arrive in the area.

To solve this problem, VRML (virtual reality modeling language) has been adopted. References for such VRML include [1] bemers-Lee, Tine, Robert Cailian, Jean-Francois Groff and Bernd pollerman, "World Wide Web: Information University", Electronic Networkind, vol 2, N. 1, spring 1996, [2] Foley, van Dam, Feiner, and Hughes, "Computer Graphics: Principles and practice", Addison Wesley Publishing Company, 1990, [3] Josie Wernecke, "The Inventor Mentor", Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994, [ 4] Howard Reingold, "Virtual Reality", Summit Books, New York, 1991, [5] G.Bell, A paeisi, M. Pesce, "The Virtual Reality Modeling Language", November 1994, see "http: // www. eit.com/vrml/vrmlspec.html ", [6] SiliconGraphics," WebSpace ", see" http://www.sgi.com/Product/WebFORCE/WebSpace ", [7] SiliconGraphics," Open Inventor ", see "http://www.sgi.com/Techology/Invertor.html", [8] Tim Berners-Lee, "uniform Resource Locator", see "http://infor.cern.ch/hypertext/www/Addressi- ng.html ", [9] SiliconGranphics," VRML v2.0 Spec. ", see" http://vag.vrml.org/vrml2.0/FINAL/ ", [10] Ma rk Pesce, "VRML-Browsing & Building CyberSpece", New Reader Publishing, 1995, [11] 3D sites, Vitrual Reality Modeling Language links, URL: http: //www.lightside.com/, [12] VRML Repository, URL http: //sdsc.sdu/vrml/, [13] VirtualSOMA, Planet 9 Studios, Virtual SOMA, URL: http: //www.hyperion/com, [14] Cyberspace, Mark D.pesce et al., Cyberspace URL: http: //vrml/wired.com/comcept.

VRML enables the implementation of a virtual reality panorama that captures realistic photographs of 360-degree shots. However, in the VRML field, due to a significant speed problem due to the bandwidth limit of the Internet, it is difficult to apply it realistically, and the VR panorama technology that can be easily and quickly worked is rapidly developing. However, the most urgent problem of VR panorama technology is that it is very difficult to know where it is shown on the floor plan. In other words, the direction and location are unknown.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a user with accurate location information by interlocking with a panoramic screen by placing a direction indicator and an angle indicator on a floor plan for accurate geographic information on the Internet.

Another object of the present invention is to allow a user to easily obtain geographic information of a desired location by using a pan, pan, zoom, and stop functions such as panning, panning, and panning.

1 is a diagram illustrating a process of acquiring conventional geographic information from the Internet.

2 shows a block diagram of the present invention implemented in a network.

FIG. 3A is a view showing a relationship between an entire screen and an angle, and FIG. 3B is a view showing a panoramic picture corresponding to an angle on a flat map, and FIG. 3C is a view showing a relationship between a panoramic screen and a viewpoint on a flat map. Drawing.

4 is a flowchart showing a process in which the present invention is actually implemented.

The present invention shows a panoramic screen that displays the direction and angle of the area when the user enters the desired area or business name. On this screen, the user can view 360 degrees through the panorama picture as if the user moves the mouse up, down, left, and right. That is, since the panorama picture and the corresponding plane map of the corresponding point react in response to the movement of the mouse, the planar view is recognized by the direction indication with respect to the point shown in the panorama picture. And in the panorama picture, the Internet user has a function to move the panorama screen in left and right directions by using a direction indicator. That is, it has a function of turning the panorama screen to the left with the button function, the function of turning to the right, zooming in on the panorama screen, and stopping the panorama screen moving to the left and right. There is a link function within the panorama screen, so it can move to another panorama screen and call out an Internet site or file.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 shows a block diagram of the present invention implemented in a network.

The system of the present invention is roughly composed of a web browser of a client computer to be used by an Internet user to access the Internet, an Internet server for providing Internet services, and a database server for storing and managing data.

In this case, the client browser 200 is installed on a client computer, and may include a web browser such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, and the like, which are commonly used for personal computers.

The client's web browser 200 is connected to the Internet server 220 by the Internet network 210, and the Internet server is also referred to as an HTTP server that processes requests and responses from the client by using a hypertext transfer protocol (http). . It serves web pages on the Internet. In order to process the corresponding information about the web page and the request by the client browser, the Internet server, which is a server side, is connected to the database server 230 and plays a role of processing a request and a response from the client side.

The database server 230 frequently inputs and outputs data stored in a storage device such as a hard disk drive, and transmits the extracted data to the client's browser through the Internet server 220 or from the client's web browser. Receive and store it.

Such stored data is used in the member information DB 231 which contains detailed information of Internet users registered as members on the Internet site providing the present invention, and panoramic photographs and floor plans showing topographical information such as buildings and roads in a specific area. Geographic information DB (232) containing a picture file (usually, but not limited to, * .jpg extension), and HTML (hypertext markup language) that provides a web page to Internet users for web browsers to read. And a web page file 233 composed of documents. Here, the web page file includes all web page documents provided by the Internet server 220 as well as web page documents that are first encountered when the user connects to the server. In particular, the web page file 233 includes a file created to implement a panorama, such as a VRML file having an extension of "* .wrl", and when a user selects an angle of one point, the panorama photo of the corresponding VRML file is displayed on the web. It is provided to Internet users using a browser.

In addition, the web page file DB 233 may additionally include a document showing various forms for electronic commerce. The web page document here does not have to be an HTML file, but it can be a web page file in another language, such as Java, personal home page tools (php), or active server pages (asp). The following is an example of inserting VRML file with * .wrl extension into HTML file. This is schematically shown for the purpose of illustrating the invention and depends on the manner of writing the program.

<html>

<head>

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE = "javascript">

<!-

function openEvent (no) {

switch (no) {

case 1: url = 'pixel5.wrl';

eventWin1 = window.open (url, 'ew1', 'width = 340, height = 280, left = 200, top = 100, scrollbars = no, resizable = no');

eventWin1.window.focus ();

break;

}}

->

</ SCRIPT>

.......,

The example above shows that HTML for VRML viewing is created in a popup window. We added the script part to the head of the html to make it appear a popup window. "case 1: url = 'pixel5.wrl';" represents the panorama and "eventWin1 = window.open (url, 'ew1', 'width = 340, height = 280, left = 200, top = 100, scrollbars = no, resizable = no '); "is the syntax that specifies the size of the new window (popup) for displaying this panorama. Of course, you can download a specific viewer and install it in the web browser's plug-in to run panoramas. In addition, by using Windows's active-x and JAVA, a viewer can be provided together so that users of web browsers can view panoramas without setting other functions. It can be changed accordingly.

And a simple example of the VRML file of * .wrl is as follows.

#VRML V2.0 utf8

NavigationInfo {headlightTRUE

speed100

type ""}

Background {leftUrl "left.jpg"

rightUrl "right.jpg"}

Viewpoint {position 0 0 0 fieldOfView1.2}

....,

Here, "NavigationInfo" node includes driving speed and horizontal movement function in the corresponding panorama picture, "Background" defines the corresponding panorama picture for the screen, and "Viewpoint" sets the size of the displayed screen. do.

FIG. 3A is a view showing a relationship between an entire screen and an angle, and FIG. 3B is a view showing a panoramic picture corresponding to an angle on a flat map, and FIG. 3C is a view showing a relationship between a panoramic screen and a viewpoint on a flat map. Drawing.

VR panorama technology is based on photo still images. Of course, it is not only possible to make a real-life image, and even a 3D or 2D image can be VR panorama technology without any additional work. And because VR panorama technology has its technical foundation in general video or picture format, it can be interconnected and moved. Therefore, in order to achieve the present invention, the region is photographed at a predetermined angle and pasted in an unfolded form. That is, the pasted picture (called full screen) is divided into image files containing information related to perspective using a technique called tiling.

The configuration of the image file used in the present invention will be described. For example, a 360-degree picture is pasted together to form a panoramic view. That is, as shown in Fig. 3A, a panorama image having a horizontal edge of 3600 pixels and a vertical edge of 360 pixels is generated. Dividing 3600 pixels by 360 degrees, 10 pixels are allocated every degree. If this is generalized, it is as in Formula (1).

Pixels per Angle = Total Pixels on Horizontal Side of Full Screen / 360

In some cases, it is impossible or impossible to take a 360-degree panoramic picture, for example, may take a panoramic picture of 270 degrees. In this case, the denominator in Equation 1 may be used instead of the actual angle of the panoramic picture.

When the pixel value per angle is calculated by Equation 1, the screen portion on the panoramic picture corresponding to the viewing angle on the plane map may be calculated. This will be described with reference to FIG. 3C.

In FIG. 3C, A is defined as a reference point, B is a screen start point, C is a screen end point, a is a viewing angle, and b is a viewing angle. The panoramic photograph 310 is taken by rotating 360 degrees clockwise starting from the reference point A. FIG.

In this case, a case where a screen is viewed from the point B rotated by the starting point a from the reference point A to the point C rotated by the viewing angle b is described. If the size of the screen displayed on the web page (between B and C) is 240 pixels and the field of view a is 100 degrees, starting from the point B on the panoramic picture 310, the horizontal side is 100 × 10 = 1000 pixels. The portion (hatched portion 310) ending at the point C having a horizontal side of 1240 may be displayed on the screen.

Generalizing this is as follows.

Starting point of view B = a × number of pixels per angle,

Field of view endpoint C = B + b × number of pixels per angle.

In this case, the pixel values corresponding to the main angles of the panorama may be pre-programmed in order to reduce the calculation error for the angle of the direction indicator of the corresponding point of the panorama image and the planar map or the difference between the actual landscape and the panorama image. . For example, the horizontal pixel on the screen corresponding to 100 degrees may be designated as 1000.

In this case, when the reagent starting angle a is 100 degrees or more, the starting point B = (a-100) x the number of pixels per angle + 1000 may be calculated.

In this case, the reference point A may be arbitrarily determined, such as 0 degrees in the east direction or 0 degrees in the north direction. In addition, you may use the direction of an angle either clockwise or counterclockwise. It is also possible to set the starting point not to be limited to 0 degrees but to start at 45 degrees, for example. Of course, in each case, the panorama should be prepared according to the set criteria.

The field of view starting angle may be automatically rotated from 0 degrees to 360 degrees, or the user may select and specify an angle at a specific point 301 of FIG. 3B. The method of selecting an angle may be performed by clicking the mouse at a desired point or by inputting a desired angle with a keyboard. Accordingly, the designated selected angle is calculated in pixels and the panorama picture 310 of the corresponding portion is displayed as described above.

4 is a flowchart showing a process in which the present invention is actually implemented.

An internet user executes a web browser 200 to access an internet server 220 having a main homepage on a website. Of course, the Internet server follows a process of undergoing an authentication process such as a login process to confirm whether the user is a member. In some cases, if the user is a non-member, the process of providing a procedure such as membership registration may also be rough. Of course, the present invention may be used without this authentication process. This is just a difference in how the service is provided. Detailed information of the Internet user to be filled in during the authentication process is stored in the member information DB 231. However, the authentication process, that is, the login process may be performed only at the initial main homepage, but may be performed even during the process of browsing each web page.

After this authentication process, it is assumed that a certain Internet user wants to know the geographic information around Daehakro Station, and the flow chart is explained assuming that the login process is performed at the initial screen.

As the Internet user logs in from the initial main web page, the Internet server 220 transmits the corresponding web page from the web page file 233 to the web browser 200, and the web browser displays a screen similar to that of FIG. 1 to the Internet user. Done. That is, it consists of a screen for searching and selecting a specific area and a flat map screen showing geographic information of the selected area.

In such a screen, a region that a web browser user on the client side wants to know is selected and designated (step S400). In the present invention, for convenience of understanding, it will be described with an example of "around the university road station". If a specific region, i.e., "around the university road station" is selected in the web browser, the internet server 220 transmits a flat map picture file showing a map around the university road station desired by the internet user to the web browser 200 (step S420). Of course, the plane map picture file shows the point where the angle can be selected, and the angle display function can be selected by the Internet user to select it. When the picture file is transmitted, the web browser displays a flat map 300 of the corresponding area, that is, around the university road station, on the screen. On this displayed screen, the Internet user selects an angle (for example, 164 degrees) by selecting a desired time (step S420). The specified angle information is transmitted to the Internet server 220 together with the corresponding geographic information, and the Internet server checks whether a screen corresponding to the angle specified in the transmitted information exists in the database (step S430). If the corresponding panorama does not exist, the Internet server may send an error message (for example, "No data available. Please specify a new angle"). Select and select the angle. In this case, the Internet user re-provisions from step S420 to step S430 by specifying a new angle. Unlike this, if the screen corresponding to the angle specified in step S430 exists in the database, the Internet server transmits the panorama picture (step S440). It is a VRML file and is provided to the Internet user in a new window in a web browser, that is, in a pop-up manner, and the screen example thereof is the panoramic picture 310 in FIG. 3B. It is shown to the Internet user including an angle display 311 indicating the range to show and a direction indication 312 indicating the direction.

In the present invention, only a direction and an angle have been described using the panoramic picture, but various additional functions may be provided using the panorama picture. For example, it can be used in various fields such as e-commerce, real estate information, shop information, tourism information, education information.

As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated with drawing and Example, this invention is not limited to a specific Example, The person of ordinary skill in the art, Many corrections and a deformation | transformation are possible, without deviating from the range of this invention. It will be understood that it can be done. In addition, the protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the appended claims.

According to the present invention, the location information can be grasped by the direction indicator on the planar map included in the panoramic picture information, and the coordinate values of the angle indicator linked to the panoramic picture can be read to recognize a very precise point of the appointment place.

In addition, since the updated geographical information can be posted on the Internet with the latest information, the management cost and the maintenance cost are low.

In addition, it is possible to intuitively recognize the geographical information by allowing the user to search the geographical information using the pan, pan, zoom, and stop functions of the panoramic screen on the Internet.

In addition, since the actual screen is displayed on the Internet as it is, the application of the technology is applied in various fields such as e-commerce, real estate information, and store information by recognizing the exact location beyond the simple function of showing.

Claims (8)

A member information database containing detailed information of Internet users registered as members; A geographic information database containing panorama photos and map picture files showing topographical information such as buildings and roads in specific areas; Server program that allows Internet users to access the server using a web browser A storage device comprising: An Internet server showing a map picture file showing a viewing angle and a screen of a corresponding portion of the panoramic picture according to a specific viewing start angle and viewing angle displayed in the picture file. Panorama photograph providing system comprising: a. The method of claim 1, And the Internet server rotates the specific field of view starting angle at a constant speed. The method of claim 1, And the internet server displays a screen of a corresponding portion of the panoramic picture as a user selects a specific viewing angle starting angle on the map. The method according to claim 1, wherein The screen of the corresponding portion of the panoramic picture is a panoramic picture providing system, characterized in that the starting point of the field of view and the end point of view of the horizontal side is calculated by the following equation: Field of view start point in pixels = number of pixels per angle × field of view start angle, Field of view end point (pixels) = field of view start point + field of view × pixels per angle, Where pixels per angle = pixels on the horizontal side of the panorama / total viewing angle of the panorama. Member information DB that contains detailed information of Internet users registered as members, geographic information DB that contains panorama pictures and map picture files showing topographical information such as buildings and roads in specific areas, and Internet users A storage device including a server program for accessing a server by using the same; and a map picture file displaying a viewing angle, and a screen of a corresponding portion of the panoramic picture according to a specific viewing start angle and viewing angle displayed in the drawing file. In the method of providing a panoramic picture in a system having an Internet server to show, Create and store a web page file including a panoramic photo file containing a screen and direction indications of a specific region in a database server and a flat map file having a protractor showing a visible range of the panoramic photo file on a flat map of the specific region. Steps, Sending the web page file to a client's web browser as an internet user designates and selects an angle to view and access the system Method for providing a panoramic picture on the Internet comprising a. The method of claim 5, The system transmits the web page file to the client's web browser as the Internet user designates and selects an angle to view and access the system. The system determining whether there is a panorama photo file corresponding to the designated angle; If the panorama photo file exists, transmitting the web page file to the web browser. Method for providing a panoramic picture on the Internet comprising a. The method of claim 6, If the panorama photo file exists, in the step of transmitting the web page file to the web browser, And a direction indicator and an angle are displayed on the corresponding web page file. The method of claim 5, Create and store a web page file including a panoramic photo file containing a screen and a direction indication of a specific region in the database server and a flat map file having a protractor showing a visible range of the panoramic photo file on a flat map of the specific region. In the positioning stage, The formula for connecting the visible range of the panoramic photo file with a protractor Pixels per angle = number of pixels on the horizontal side of the panorama / total angle of view of the panorama How to provide a panoramic picture on the Internet characterized in that.