User interface for video observation over the internet

This paper presents the design and application of a system for live video transmission and remote camera control over the World Wide Web. Extensive testing of the Internet Video Server (IVS) prompted us to improve its user interface. The GlobalView extension of IVS was developed which enables the generation of panoramic images of the environment and a more intuitive control of the camera. The live video frame is superimposed on a 360 degrees static panoramic picture. By interactively moving a rectangular frame in the panoramic picture, the user locally selects the new direction of the camera. Once the view is selected the users prompts the selection and the command is issued over the Internet to the remotely-controlled camera. The static panoramic image is constantly updated in areas where new live video information gets available. Two methods are described for static panoramic image generation: one uses geometric transformation and the other is the brute-force scanning approach. We discuss how visual summaries of activities on an observed location can be generated and custom queries made with a similar intuitive user interface. (C) 1998 Academic Press.