| Recent developments in immersive media have made possible the rise of new multimedia applications and services that complement the traditional ones, such as media streaming and conferencing. Omnidirectional video (a.k.a. 360-degree video) is enabling one of such new services that are progressively made available also by large media distribution portals (e.g., YouTube). With the aim of creating a standardized solution for 360-degree video streaming, the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) has developed the Omnidirectional MediA Format (OMAF) second edition, or version 2, which is close to completion. The major new features of OMAFv2, compared to the first version, include (but are not limited to) the capability of using overlays and multiple omnidirectional cameras situated at different physical points (i.e., viewpoints). This paper focuses on the description of two of the new OMAFv2 features, the overlays and the multi-viewpoints, including the 360-degree video use cases enabled by these two features.
Keywords - Immersive media, MPEG OMAF, multimedia streaming, multi-viewpoints, omnidirectional video, overlays. |
