266 results about "Video communication system" patented technology

A video communication system and method for operating a video communication system are provided. The video communication system has a video communication device, having an image display device and at least one image capture device, wherein the at least one image capture device acquires video images of a local environment and an individual therein, according to defined video capture settings, an audio system having an audio emission device and an audio capture device; and a computer operable to interact with a contextual interface, a privacy interface, an image processor, and a communication controller to enable a communication event including at least one video scene in which outgoing video images are sent to a remote site. Wherein the contextual interface includes scene analysis algorithms for identifying potential scene transitions and capture management algorithms for providing changes in video capture settings appropriate to any identified scene transitions; and wherein the privacy interface provides privacy settings to control the capture, transmission, display, or recording of video image content from the local environment.

Systems and methods for error resilient transmission and for random access in video communication systems are provided. The video communication systems are based on single-layer, scalable video, or simulcast video coding with temporal scalability, which may be used in video communication systems. A set of video frames or pictures in a video signal transmission is designated for reliable or guaranteed delivery to receivers using secure or high reliability links, or by retransmission techniques. The reliably-delivered video frames are used as reference pictures for resynchronization of receivers with the transmitted video signal after error incidence and for random access.

Video communication systems and methods for communicating between an individual in a local environment, and a remote viewer in a remote environment are provided. The system has an image display device; at least one image capture device which acquires video images for fields of view of a local environment, and any individuals therein; an audio system having an audio emission device and an audio capture device; a computer, which includes a contextual interface having a gaze adapting process, and image processor; and a communication controller which transmits and receives video images of the local environment and the remote environment, and data regarding video scene characteristics thereof across a network between the local environment and the remote environment; wherein the gaze adapting process identifies video scene characteristics of the local environment indicative of eye gaze image capture and altering the video images when the characteristics are indicative.

Video communication systems and methods for operating the same are provided with the method determining privacy settings for a video communication event; establishing a video communication link with a video communication system at a remote site; capturing video images of a field of view of at least one image capture device; determining a video context based at least in part upon a determined contextual classification for the communication event; analyzing the captured video images to identify privacy sensitive areas in the captured video images, using a scene analysis algorithm which examines a content of the video images and image context characteristics of the video images based upon the determined privacy settings; modifying the image characteristics in identified privacy sensitive image areas of captured video images, to control the image and image context characteristics to an extent consistent with the determined privacy settings; and transmitting the modified video images.

Video communication systems and methods for operating the same are provided with the method determining privacy settings for a video communication event; establishing a video communication link with a video communication system at a remote site; capturing video images of a field of view of at least one image capture device; determining a video context based at least in part upon a determined contextual classification for the communication event; analyzing the captured video images to identify privacy sensitive areas in the captured video images, using a scene analysis algorithm which examines a content of the video images and image context characteristics of the video images based upon the determined privacy settings; modifying the image characteristics in identified privacy sensitive image areas of captured video images, to control the image and image context characteristics to an extent consistent with the determined privacy settings; and transmitting the modified video images.

An audio-video communication system comprises a wireless exterior module located proximate an entrance, a computerized controller running a software application, and a remote peripheral device. The wireless exterior module includes a proximity sensor for detecting a person at the entrance, a video camera for recording an image of the person at the entrance, a microphone for recording the person at the entrance, a speaker for playing audio to the person at the entrance, a transmitter for communicating sounds and images of the person at the entrance, and a receiver for receiving communications at the wireless exterior module. The computerized controller is disposed in wireless electronic communication with the wireless exterior module via the transmitter and the receiver of the wireless exterior module. The remote peripheral device is configured to electronically communicate with the computerized controller for viewing an image from the video camera communicated from the wireless exterior module.

Systems and methods are provided for performing transcoding in video communication system that use scalable video coding. The systems and methods can be used to transcode or convert input signals having certain characteristics into desired output signals having different characteristics requirements. The systems and methods are based on compressed domain processing, partial decoding-reencoding, or full decoding-reencoding with side information, depending on the specific characteristics of the input and desired output signals.

The invention discloses a method and a device for encoding and decoding a video. The method comprises the following steps: executing a selection of an intra frame predictive mode according to available adjacent blocks, writing in the available marks of each adjacent block in a code stream when the selected intra frame encoding mode is a limited DC predictive mode; thus, determining that the limited DC predictive mode is adopted for encoding by a current block at an decoding end, and then analyzing the available marks for indicating whether adjacent blocks are available, and determining available adjacent blocks according to the available marks of the adjacent blocks so as to perform decoding operation according to available adjacent blocks based on the DC predictive mode. The embodiment of the invention can set availability of left adjacent blocks and upper adjacent blocks of the DC mode when the intra frame encoding mode is the DC predictive mode, thereby ensuring the error recovery performance to improve the performance of encoding and decoding in a video communication system.

Video communication systems and methods for operating the same are provided. The system has a computer cooperating with at least one image capture device which acquires video images of a local environment having an individual therein, an audio system, an image processor and a communication controller to acquire video images based upon the acquired video images and to cause output video images to a remote individual during the communication event; said computer further providing a contextual interface including an intra-scene analysis algorithm for identifying potential intra-scene transitions during the communication event and a scene capture management algorithm for determining intra-scene adjustments in video capture settings when an intra-scene transition is detected; and the contextual interface further including a transition test with an inter-scene analysis algorithm, for identifying potential inter-scene transitions in the activities of the individuals, and a transition process structure for determining inter-scene adjustments in video capture settings.

Video communication systems and methods for operating the same are provided. The system has a computer cooperating with at least one image capture device which acquires video images of a local environment having an individual therein, an audio system, an image processor and a communication controller to acquire video images based upon the acquired video images and to cause output video images to a remote individual during the communication event; said computer further providing a contextual interface including an intra-scene analysis algorithm for identifying potential intra-scene transitions during the communication event and a scene capture management algorithm for determining intra-scene adjustments in video capture settings when an intra-scene transition is detected; and the contextual interface further including a transition test with an inter-scene analysis algorithm, for identifying potential inter-scene transitions in the activities of the individuals, and a transition process structure for determining inter-scene adjustments in video capture settings.

A method for providing video images to a remote viewer using a video communication system, comprising: operating a a video communication client in a local environment connected by a communications network to a remote viewing client in a remote viewing environment; capturing video images of the local environment; analyzing the captured video images with the video analysis component to detect ongoing activity within the local environment; characterizing the detected activity within the video images with respect to attributes indicative of remote viewer interest; determining whether acceptable video images are available; receiving an indication of whether the remote viewing client is engaged or disengaged; and transmitting the acceptable video images of the ongoing activity to the remote viewing client if the remote viewing client is engaged, or alternately, if the remote viewing client is disengaged, recording the acceptable video images into a memory.

The embodiment of the invention discloses a video communication method, a video communication device and a video communication system and relates to the field of video communication. The invention solves the prior problem for strengthening real feeling only by specially arranging scenes of both communication parties. The embodiment of the invention comprises the following steps: firstly, extracting local target contents; then transmitting the local target contents and depth values of the local target contents to a remote end; synthesizing the received local target contents and a background at the remote end into one scene at the remote end by utilizing a relation of the depth values so as to display the scene, leading a display picture of the remote end and the local background of the display picture to correspond and strengthening the real feeling of users under the condition of no special arrangement of the scenes of both communication parties. The embodiment of the invention can be used for video communication, such as common video chat, office video telephones, video sessions, and the like.

Systems and methods for error resilient transmission, rate control, and random access in video communication systems that use scalable video coding are provided. Error resilience is obtained by using information from low resolution layers to conceal or compensate loss of high resolution layer information. The same mechanism is used for rate control by selectively eliminating high resolution layer information from transmitted signals, which elimination can be compensated at the receiver using information from low resolution layers. Further, random access or switching between low and high resolutions is also achieved by using information from low resolution layers to compensate for high resolution spatial layer packets that may have not been received prior to the switching time.

An audio-video communication system comprises a wireless exterior module located proximate an entrance, a computerized controller running a software application, and a remote peripheral device. The wireless exterior module includes a proximity sensor for detecting a person at the entrance, a video camera for recording an image of the person at the entrance, a microphone for recording the person at the entrance, a speaker for playing audio to the person at the entrance, a transmitter for communicating sounds and images of the person at the entrance, and a receiver for receiving communications at the wireless exterior module. The computerized controller is disposed in wireless electronic communication with the wireless exterior module via the transmitter and the receiver of the wireless exterior module. The remote peripheral device is configured to electronically communicate with the computerized controller for viewing an image from the video camera communicated from the wireless exterior module.

An IP based voice / video communication system and call pickup / forwarding method and a program storage device, readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform the call pickup / forwarding method enables a subscriber can have voice / video communication irrespective of time or place by forwarding voice / video calls between voice / video communication terminals such as a TV, PDA and home pad, or by picking up a incoming call at a nearby terminal if it is difficult for the subscriber to answer the call at the originally called terminal from his / her location.

A video communication system and method for operating a video communication system are provided. The video communication system has a video communication device, having an image display device and at least one image capture device, wherein the at least one image capture device acquires video images of a local environment and an individual therein, according to defined video capture settings, an audio system having an audio emission device and an audio capture device; and a computer operable to interact with a contextual interface, a privacy interface, an image processor, and a communication controller to enable a communication event including at least one video scene in which outgoing video images are sent to a remote site. Wherein the contextual interface includes scene analysis algorithms for identifying potential scene transitions and capture management algorithms for providing changes in video capture settings appropriate to any identified scene transitions; and wherein the privacy interface provides privacy settings to control the capture, transmission, display, or recording of video image content from the local environment.

An audio / video communication system displays the status of participants in a video chat session. The system includes multiple video chat capable (VCC) information handling systems (IHSs) that display video images of the participants. In this manner, each user may see the user's own video image as well as the video images of other users in the video chat session. When a user speaks, that user's VCC IHS detects audio, thus designating a speaker participant. This user's VCC IHS includes a gaze direction detector that determines at which particular user video image the user gazes, thus determining a target participant. The VCC IHS sends speaker participant ID information and target participant ID information to other VCC IHSs in the video chat session. In response, the other VCC IHSs display an indicator that designates one user video image as the speaker participant and another user video image as the target participant.

Video communication systems and methods for communicating between an individual in a local environment, and a remote viewer in a remote environment are provided. The system has an image display device; at least one image capture device which acquires video images for fields of view of a local environment, and any individuals therein; an audio system having an audio emission device and an audio capture device; a computer, which includes a contextual interface having a gaze adapting process, and image processor; and a communication controller which transmits and receives video images of the local environment and the remote environment, and data regarding video scene characteristics thereof across a network between the local environment and the remote environment; wherein the gaze adapting process identifies video scene characteristics of the local environment indicative of eye gaze image capture and altering the video images when the characteristics are indicative.

A method for multichannel video communication comprises the following steps of (1) detecting network condition information and more than two long-distance client attributes, and setting up video communication connection; (2) choosing video coding parameters corresponding to each long-distance client according to the network condition information and each long-distance client attribute; (3) separately coding video data according to the video coding parameters; (4) transmitting the separately coded video data to each long-distance client. In the method for the multichannel video communication, the step two ensures that the coded video data received by each long-distance client is in conformity with the network bandwidth and the equipment attribute, thereby improving the quality of the multichannel communications. In addition, a multichannel video communication system is further provided.

The present invention relates to a 3-dimensional (3D) video communication method, a 3D video sending device, a 3D video communication system, an image reconstruction method, and an image reconstruction system. The 3D video communication method includes: obtaining video image data of a scene collected by image collecting apparatuses, where the video image data includes at least one depth image and at least two color images; and encoding the video image data and sending the encoded video image data. The system includes a sending device and a receiving device. The sending device obtains at least one depth image and at least two color images of the scene through the image collecting apparatuses, the obtained depth images are accurate and reliable, and the collection of the video images is highly real-time. At the time of reconstructing the images at the viewpoints, the receiving device can repair the reconstructed images by using the obtained color images, thus improving the effect of reconstructed images and making the reconstructed images highly practical and real-time.

A caption display method in a video communication includes the following steps. A video communication is established. Speech signals of a speaker are recognized and converted to text signals. The text signals and picture video signals that need to be received by and displayed to other conference participators are superposed and encoded, and are sent through the video communication. A video communication system and device are also described. Users directly decode display pictures and character information corresponding to a speech. The method is simple, and a real-time performance is high.

The invention discloses a video communication system, a device and a caption display method thereof. The system or the device comprises a voice picking module, an image picking module, and a voice recognition module and a video encoder module which are mutually connected, when video communication is set up, the voice recognition module and the voice picking module are connected and transmit a received speech signal after being converted into a text signal to the video encoder module, the video encoder module is connected with the image picking module, and the text signal and the video signal received by the image picking module are transmitted after being superimposed and encoded by the video encoder module,. By adopting the video communication system, the device and the caption display method thereof, a user can directly decode a displayed image and word information corresponding to voice by encoding and sending the voice signal after being recognized into the text signal and being directly superimposed onto the video signal, therefore, the method is simple, and the real-time is high.

The invention relates to a video encoding and decoding method which is used in a video communication system, wherein the predictive encoding type and reference frame type of a video encoding device are controlled according to the network state and a notice message of a video decoding device. When a network is congested, the video encoding device utilizes a reference frame as a long-term reference frame to perform interframe prediction encoding and judges whether the video decoding device receives the corresponding reference frame according to the notice message of the video decoding device, thus the video encoding device and the video decoding device can utilize the same reference frame. The invention also provides the video encoding device and video decoding device which are used in the method in the invention. The video encoding and decoding method, video encoding device and video decoding device provided by the invention are used to encode and decode a video image by determining the long-term reference frame, thus the video encoding device and the video decoding device can utilize the same reference frame, the decoding error phenomenon caused by packet loss can be avoided and the quality of the video image in video communication can be increased.

A video conference system based on Soft-MCU includes a server, a video conference terminal BHU-ICT, a computer terminals and video communication system procedures, wherein, the video conference terminal BHU-ICT is composed by a digital video camera, a microphone, and an audio and video encoder. The digital video camera and the microphone are respectively connected to the audio and video encoder, the encoder, the server and the computer terminal are connected on the network, and the procedures are respectively running in the server and the computer terminal. The digital video camera and the microphone acquire the audio and video information of the meeting place, and use the encoder to execute hardware coding. A media control procedure runs on the computer terminal, and an MCU service procedure run on the server terminal, uses the Ethernet to exchange the audio and video information with the encoder, for performing audio and video communications. All of the texts, requests, commands and other information formats in the system control signaling system conform to the XML standard. The invention constructs a remote network video communications platform with high-quality, high stability and high security, which can be widely used in party and government organs and enterprises and institutions. The invention has advantages of reduced system cost, reduced travel costs, shortened decision cycles and enhanced work efficiency.

A virtual camera pose determiner is configured to determine a position and an orientation of a virtual camera. The position of the virtual camera is determined on the basis of a display position of a displayed representation of a remote participant on a display. The orientation of the virtual camera is determined on the basis of a geometrical relation between the display position of the remote participant on the display, and a position of a local participant. The virtual camera is configured to transmit an image or a sequence of images to the remote participant, so that an image provided by the virtual camera has the view on the local participant as is if viewed from the display position. Further embodiments provide a video communication system having a virtual camera pose determiner for providing a virtual camera pose on basis of the display position and the position of the local participant.

A video display terminal includes a wireless communication interface, a display interface, an operation interface, and a control unit. The control unit causes the wireless communication interface to wirelessly transmit a video transmission request to a video transmission terminal joining a wireless network constructed by the own video display terminal if the operation interface receives a video display instruction when the own video display terminal operates as an access point constructing the wireless network, causes the display interface to display a video for the own video display terminal wirelessly transmitted from the video transmission terminal in response to the video transmission request and wirelessly received by the wireless communication interface, and causes the wireless communication interface to wirelessly transmit the video for the own video display terminal to another video display terminal joining the wireless network constructed by the own video display terminal.

The embodiment of the invention provides a voice volume prompting method and terminal as well as a video communication system, wherein the voice volume prompting method comprises the following steps that: a first terminal receives voice collected by a far end and obtains a characterization value of the voice of the far end according to the voice; the first terminal multiplies the characterization value of the voice of the far end with an echo proportion of the first terminal so as to obtain the indicating data of the voice of the far end at the first terminal, wherein the echo proportion is the ratio of the volume of voice which is received by the first terminal, then is played by a playback device and picked by a sound pick-up device to the received voice volume; and the first terminal sends voice information about voice volume indication data towards the far end so as to enable the far end to be informed of the playing effect of the own voice at the first terminal. By adopting the technical scheme, the terminal can be informed of the self collected volume effect playing at the far terminal playing side.

This invention discloses a video communication system with sound position information including multiple microphones used in collecting multiple sounds, a camera head receiving control orders to rotate or regulate focus and a processor connected with the camera head and multiple microphones, in which, the processor computes the position information of the sound source based on the phones collected by the microphones and regulates the position information of the source based on the control information of the camera head, which solves the problem of non-match of the speaker position and the collected sound orientation information.

Video communications systems and methods video communications between user terminals in networks that are separated by a firewall. A first user terminal establishes a persistent connection with its proxy that is on the other side of a firewall protecting the terminal. Other terminals can conduct video calls or conferences with the first user terminal via the persistent connection. A terminal database server maintains information about each terminal, such as their addresses, and assists with establishing each video call or conference.