Proposal of a Spherical Heat Map in 360-Degree Internet Live Broadcasting Using Viewers' POV

摘要

In this paper, we propose a viewers' POV (points of view) visualization method in 360-degree Internet live broadcasting using a spherical heat map. A critical problem of the 360-degree Internet live broadcasting is that the broadcaster cannot be aware of the viewers' POV which mean directions where the viewers are watching on the 360-degree video. In order to solve this problem, we use the spherical heat map which visualizes density of the viewers' POV on the sphere handling the POV data as vector data from the center point of the sphere. The spherical heat map enables the broadcaster to grasp viewers' POV easily and communicate with the viewers smoothly in the 360-degree Internet live broadcasting. This paper shows our prototype system of the spherical heat map for the viewers' POV and effectiveness of the prototype system by conducting an initial evaluation.