Voice Tracking Camera with Speaker Identification
Granted: November 24, 2011
Application Number:
20110285807
A videoconferencing apparatus automatically tracks speakers in a room and dynamically switches between a controlled, people-view camera and a fixed, room-view camera. When no one is speaking, the apparatus shows the room view to the far-end. When there is a dominant speaker in the room, the apparatus directs the people-view camera at the dominant speaker and switches from the room-view camera to the people-view camera. When there is a new speaker in the room, the apparatus switches to…
Videoconferencing Endpoint Having Multiple Voice-Tracking Cameras
Granted: November 24, 2011
Application Number:
20110285808
A videoconferencing apparatus automatically tracks speakers in a room and dynamically switches between a controlled, people-view camera and a fixed, room-view camera. When no one is speaking, the apparatus shows the room view to the far-end. When there is a dominant speaker in the room, the apparatus directs the people-view camera at the dominant speaker and switches from the room-view camera to the people-view camera. When there is a new speaker in the room, the apparatus switches to…
Automatic Camera Framing for Videoconferencing
Granted: November 24, 2011
Application Number:
20110285809
A videoconferencing apparatus automatically tracks speakers in a room and dynamically switches between a controlled, people-view camera and a fixed, room-view camera. When no one is speaking, the apparatus shows the room view to the far-end. When there is a dominant speaker in the room, the apparatus directs the people-view camera at the dominant speaker and switches from the room-view camera to the people-view camera. When there is a new speaker in the room, the apparatus switches to…
Method and System to Add Video Capability to any Voice over Internet Protocol (Vo/IP) Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Phone
Granted: November 24, 2011
Application Number:
20110289201
Systems and methods of configuring an add-on device to augment the capability of existing endpoint infrastructure are disclosed. In one embodiment, a video add-on device is configured to receive, augment or downgrade, and forward messages for an existing SIP audio-only phone. The video add-on device in this embodiment can receive messages from the existing SIP audio-only phone and augment the messages with information regarding the additional video capabilities being provided. The…
Method and System for Adding Translation in a Videoconference
Granted: October 6, 2011
Application Number:
20110246172
A multilingual multipoint videoconferencing system provides real-time translation of speech by conferees. Audio streams containing speech may be converted into text and inserted as subtitles into video streams. Speech may also be translated from one language to another, with the translated speech inserted into video streams as and choose the subtitles or replacing the original audio stream with speech in the other language generated by a text to speech engine. Different conferees may…
CONTROLLING VIDEOCONFERENCE WITH TOUCH SCREEN INTERFACE
Granted: September 29, 2011
Application Number:
20110234746
A videoconferencing system includes a touch screen display device and a videoconferencing unit. The display device displays video data for the videoconference and generates touch data based on user selections relative to the touch screen. The videoconferencing unit is operatively coupled to the touch screen device by a video connection and a data interface connection, for example. The unit establishes and conducts a videoconference with one or more endpoints via a network. The unit sends…
Automatic Audio Priority Designation During Conference
Granted: August 4, 2011
Application Number:
20110187814
During a conference, a multipoint control unit (MCU) designates priority and non-priority endpoints. The MCU forms priority audio from the priority endpoint and sends that audio to the other endpoints at a normal level. However, the MCU forms non-priority audio from the non-priority endpoint and handles that audio based on whether the input audio from the priority endpoint is from speaking or not. If the priority endpoint's audio indicates a participant at that endpoint is speaking, then…
Audio Packet Loss Concealment by Transform Interpolation
Granted: August 4, 2011
Application Number:
20110191111
In audio processing for an audio or video conference, a terminal receives audio packets having transform coefficients for reconstructing an audio signal that has undergone transform coding. When receiving the packets, the terminal determines whether there are any missing packets and interpolates transform coefficients from the preceding and following good frames. To interpolate the missing coefficients, the terminal weights first coefficients from the preceding good frame with a first…
Method and Apparatus to Virtualize People with 3D Effect into a Remote Room on a Telepresence Call for True in Person Experience
Granted: July 28, 2011
Application Number:
20110181685
A video conference system provides “in the room” telepresence to near end participants. The video conference system includes a frameless or bezelless display device placed in front of a front wall for displaying edge-to-edge 3D images of far end participants. Color of the near end front wall is configured to be the same as the color of the far end rear wall. As a result, images displayed on the display device can merge or blend into the near end front wall, giving the near end…
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LOST PACKET RECOVERY WITH CONGESTION AVOIDANCE
Granted: April 28, 2011
Application Number:
20110096776
Devices and techniques for overcoming lost packets and avoiding congestion when conducting media conferences over packet switched networks are described herein. To avoid the problem of lost packets, redundant information is inserted into the media stream that permits the receiver to reconstruct any lost packets from the redundant information. Congestion avoidance techniques include adjusting the bitrate of the media stream to find the highest bitrate that can be supported without packet…
Method and System for Adapting A CP Layout According to Interaction Between Conferees
Granted: April 21, 2011
Application Number:
20110090302
A system and method is disclosed for adapting a continuous presence videoconferencing layout according to interactions between conferees. Using regions of interest found in video images, the arrangement of images of conferees may be dynamically arranged as displayed by endpoints. Arrangements may be responsive to various metrics, including the position of conferees in a room and dominant conferees in the videoconference. Video images may be manipulated as part of the arrangement,…
Detection and Suppression of Returned Audio at Near-End
Granted: March 24, 2011
Application Number:
20110069830
Audio from a near-end that has been acoustically coupled at the far-end and returned to the near-end unit is detected and suppressed at the near-end of a conference. First and second energy outputs for separate bands are determined for the near-end audio being sent from the near-end unit and for the far-end audio being received at the near-end unit. The near-end unit compares the first and second energy outputs to one another for each of the bands over a time delay range and detects the…
Speaker with Acoustic Damped Port
Granted: March 24, 2011
Application Number:
20110069848
Systems, methods, and devices for improving speaker performance with an acoustic damped port are disclosed. In accordance with various embodiments of the present invention, a damping material is placed around a vented frame of a speaker driver, and substantially covers or fills the vents of the frame. In some embodiments, the damping material results in improved impedance matching with acoustic delay, without required dimensional tuning (as with conventional ports). In some embodiments,…
DISTANCE LEARNING VIA INSTRUCTOR IMMERSION INTO REMOTE CLASSROOM
Granted: March 3, 2011
Application Number:
20110050842
A distance learning scenario includes a local classroom having a local videoconferencing device communicating with a remote videoconferencing device at a remote classroom. A first local camera captures images of the local participants, a second local camera captures images of an instructor, and a local display screen displays images of remote participants. At the remote location, a first remote camera captures images of remote participants, a first remote display screen displays images…
ARCHIVING CONTENT IN A CALENDARED EVENT
Granted: February 17, 2011
Application Number:
20110040834
Systems and methods of providing access to meeting content via an interface to meeting scheduling software are described. A meeting organizer schedules a meeting or conference meeting with selected participants. The meeting is held with the available participants and meeting content is automatically maintained as an association to a calendar entry in the meeting scheduling software. After the meeting is completed, available participants may review content and unavailable participants…
USING DUAL HDVICP COPROCESSOR TO ACCELERATE DM6467 H.264 DECODER
Granted: February 10, 2011
Application Number:
20110032996
Systems and methods are disclosed for utilizing multiple co-processors, of a multiprocessor processing device, in tandem to improve performance for H.264 video decoding operations. The video decoding operation may be split across the multiple High Definition Video Image Co-Processors (HDVICPs) of a multiprocessor device such as Texas Instrument's DM6467 utilizing a spatially shifted temporal split to improve overall performance of the video decoding operation while conforming to the…
INTRA BLOCK WALK AROUND REFRESH FOR H.264
Granted: February 3, 2011
Application Number:
20110026592
An apparatus and method for digital video encoding is disclosed. The disclosed system provides for an improved way of correcting divergence of a reference block in a decoder while minimizing the overhead required to update the reference block.
Method and System for Providing Continuous Presence Video in a Cascading Conference
Granted: January 27, 2011
Application Number:
20110018960
Disclosed herein are methods and systems for providing continuous presence video stream in a cascading video conference, i.e., a video conference that is conducted over more than one MCU. A cascading continuous presence composition controller (CCCC) selects which endpoints from among all of the endpoints participating in the conference should be displayed in the layout, regardless of which endpoints are associated with which MCU. The CCCC can be resident on one of the MCUs, resident on a…
Method and System for Preparing Video Communication Images for Wide Screen Display
Granted: January 13, 2011
Application Number:
20110007126
A system and method is disclosed for composing a video layout having an aspect ratio of 16:9 from a plurality of video segments having an aspect ratio other than 16:9. For example, the plurality of video segments might have an aspect ratio of 4:3. To create a composite frame having an aspect ratio of about 16:9, the disclosed system scales each one of the segments and places each scaled segment in the layout in such a way that the composite layout has an aspect ratio of about 16:9.
Method and System for Composing Video Images from a Plurality of Endpoints
Granted: December 30, 2010
Application Number:
20100328422
The present application discloses a method and apparatus for a multipoint video conferencing system that can offer a wide variety of layouts and the ability to support a large number of conferees. A received stream of NALs from a plurality of endpoints can be processed by an exemplary NAL Processor Module (NPM) and be arranged into a stream of NALs that are referred to in this disclosure as organized NALs (ONALs). Two or more streams of compressed video organized into ONALs can be…
