Google patents method to turn static web images into animations
Google has been granted a patent for a system that converts a single still image into a moving animation on a user's device. The method works by sending the static image along with specific instructions to the web browser, which then slices the image into rows or columns and shifts them slightly between frames to create the illusion of motion.
In the filing’s own words
A multimedia communication system for enabling an end user computing device to render a moving image on a display device. The system has an image render command generator that is arranged to provide an image rendering command that is executable by a web browser of the end user computing device to cause the end user computing device to render the moving image on a frame-by-frame basis from a still image in multimedia content by slicing the still image into a plurality of rows or columns of pixels and modifying a subset of the plurality of rows or columns of pixels between frames, and a multimedia content packager arranged to assemble a multimedia content package having the multimedia content, including the still image and the image rendering command.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A system for enabling an end user computing device to render a moving image on a display device, the system comprising: an image render command generator arranged to provide one or more image rendering commands that are executable at the end user computing device to render the moving image on a frame-by-frame basis from a still image in multimedia content; a multimedia content packager arranged to assemble a multimedia content package comprising the multimedia content; a processor arranged to: receive a content request from the end user computing device; obtain static image content that is responsive to the content request, said static image content comprising the still image; determine whether the still image is to be rendered as the moving image in response to the content request; when it is determined that the still image is to be rendered as the moving image in response to the content request, cause the multimedia content packager to assemble the multimedia content package to comprise the still image and the one or more image rendering commands; when it is determined that the still image is not to be rendered as the moving image in response to the content request, cause the multimedia content packager to assemble the multimedia content package to comprise the still image without image rendering commands; and transmit the multimedia content package to the end user computing device in response to the content request, wherein the one or more image rendering commands are arranged to, when executed, cause the end user computing device to render the moving image on the frame-by-frame basis, and wherein the still image is rendered at the end user computing device when the multimedia content package comprises the still image without image rendering commands.
Facts
- Company
- Google (Google LLC)
- Official title
- Method and system for client-device transformation of static image delivered over distributed computer network
- Patent number
- US12737959B2
- Application number
- 18822968
- Filed
- Sep 3, 2024
- Granted
- Sep 15, 2026
- Inventors
- 1
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G06T 13/80 Physics & computingMore from Google in AI & software
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.