Techniques for stereoscopic online web content creation and rendering

Abstract

Improved techniques are presented for generating stereoscopic image of 2D web pages. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, a stereo-enhancing annotation tool is provided and used to generate intermediate HTML source code. The intermediate HTML source code—together with the normal HTML code that is served when a user's browser makes a URL call—are used by a computer processing unit to generate stereoscopic images. Algorithms optimize the look and feel of stereoscopically-imaged web-page content using a number of known presentation optimized parameters that are automatically determined based on a priori assumptions of depth cues.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer implemented method of automatic creation and rendering of stereoscopic webpages derived from a 2D webpage downloaded from a remote server, comprising the computer performed steps of:
 identifying intermediate source code generated by, either a remote device or by the computer itself, for stereo enhancing 2D webpage source code associated with the 2D webpage,   where stereo enhancing involves adding stereoscopic identifiers having properties and arithmetic values defined from a known set of stereo annotated convention rules which when placed in the 2D webpage source allows a browser configured to process the stereo enhanced 2D webpage to render the 2D webpage as a pair of stereoscopic images; and   processing the intermediate source code to generate the pair of stereoscopic images in response to a browser instruction from the computer to render the 2D webpage as a stereoscopic webpage.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the stereoscopic identifiers are related to depth cue functions which when processed by the computer causes the pair of stereoscopic images to be rendered for viewing by the browser. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising identifying a set of user profiles that define user preferences relating to the rendering of the pair of stereoscopic images, the generating of the intermediate code involvesing assigning values to the stereoscopic identifiers in part based on the set of user profiles. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the generation of the intermediate source code from the 2D webpage source code is performed automatically by the computer in response to detecting the browser instruction from the computer to render the 2D webpage as a stereoscopic webpage. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein processing the intermediate source code involves first receiving the intermediate source code from the remote device, where the remote device is configured to:
 receive the 2D webpage source code, along with any set of user profiles that may have been received by the remote device from the computer to be used for customizing the intermediate source code to specific user profile preferences, in response to a browser initiated request from the computer to convert a 2D webpage,   process the 2D webpage source code associated with the 2D webpage using any received set of user profiles to generate the intermediate source code, and   then to finally transmit the processed intermediate source code to the browser of the computer that initiated the request.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising automatically adding stereoscopic identifiers in the 2D webpage source code received from the remoter server to facilitate the process of creating the intermediate source code by the computer, wherein the adding of stereoscopic identifiers is added automatically at run time by at least one of a plug-in, add-on, driver, software module, and digital processing unit of the computer. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein at least some of the stereoscopic identifiers included in the 2D webpage source are added by a website designer when developing the 2D webpage to facilitate the remote device creating the intermediate source code used by the computer to display the pair of stereoscopic images. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising identifying from a known set of stereo annotated convention rules a user-initiated instruction to perform the stereo enhancing of the 2D webpage source. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the known set of stereo annotated convention rules are a set of HTML extension rules, the method further comprising identifying user-defined HTML convention rules to implement stereo annotation in connection with the process of creating the intermediate source code. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein at least some of the stereoscopic identifiers included in the 2D webpage source are added by a website designer when developing the 2D webpage to facilitate the remote device creating the intermediate source code used by the computer to display the pair of stereoscopic images. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising identifying a user-initiated instruction to perform the stereo enhancing of the 2D webpage source. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the known set of stereo annotated convention rules are a set of HTML extension rules, the method further comprising identifying user-defined HTML convention rules to implement stereo annotation in connection with the process of creating the intermediate source code. 
     
     
         13 . A computer implemented method for generating intermediate source code for rendering stereoscopic webpages derived from a 2D webpage downloaded from a remote server, comprising:
 receiving 2D webpage source code associated with the 2D webpage; and   stereo enhancing the 2D webpage, where stereo enhancing involves adding stereoscopic identifiers having properties and arithmetic values defined from a known set of stereo annotated convention rules which when placed in the 2D webpage source allows a browser configured to process the stereo enhanced 2D webpage to render the 2D webpage as a pair of stereoscopic images.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , where the stereoscopic identifiers are related to depth cue functions. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising storing previously stereo enhanced 2D websites, and determining whether the intermediate source code for a 2D webpage is already available in the library before performing stereo enhancing 2D webpages. 
     
     
         16 . A server configured to generate intermediate source code for rendering stereoscopic webpages derived from a 2D webpage downloaded from a remote server, comprising:
 means for receiving 2D webpage source code associated with the 2D webpage; and   means for stereo enhancing the 2D webpage to generate the intermediate source code, where stereo enhancing involves adding stereoscopic identifiers having properties and arithmetic values defined from a known set of stereo annotated convention rules which when placed in the 2D webpage source allows a browser configured to process the stereo enhanced 2D webpage to render the 2D webpage as a pair of stereoscopic images.   
     
     
         17 . The server of  claim 16 , where the stereoscopic identifiers are related to depth cue functions. 
     
     
         18 . The server of  claim 17 , wherein the server includes a library of previously stereo enhanced 2D webpages, wherein the means for stereo enhancing includes means for determining whether the intermediate source code for a given 2D page is available in the library. 
     
     
         19 . The server of  claim 18 , wherein the means for stereo enhancing to generate the intermediate source code involves:
 receiving from a computer a request to generate intermediate code of a 2D webpage;   identifying when any set of user profiles are provided by the computer to be used to customize the intermediate source code to the requesting computer's user profile preferences;   stereo enhancing the 2D webpage source code associated with the 2D webpage using any identified set of user profiles to generate the intermediate source code; and   transmitting the intermediate source code to the computer that initiated the request.   
     
     
         20 . A non-transitory computer readable medium having encoded thereon instructions to generate intermediate source code for rendering stereoscopic webpages derived from a 2D webpage downloaded from a remote server, wherein the instructions, when executed by a computing apparatus, cause the computing apparatus to:
 receive 2D webpage source code associated with the 2D webpage; and   stereo enhance the 2D webpage to generate the intermediate source code, where stereo enhancing involves adding stereoscopic identifiers having properties and arithmetic values defined from a known set of stereo annotated convention rules which when placed in the 2D webpage source allows a browser configured to process the stereo enhanced 2D webpage to render the 2D webpage as a pair of stereoscopic images.