Display Content Stacking Order for Remote Collaboration Visibility
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In remote collaboration and videoconferencing systems, excessive content on screens can reduce gaze and gesture awareness by obscuring visibility and causing ambiguity, especially when multiple content windows overlap, leading to diminished interaction quality.
Innovation Solution
A display-camera system that manages content display by determining a stacking order of added contents, making the top-most content partially transparent over remote content and opaque to other overlapping contents, thereby maintaining clear visibility of remote users and their gestures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If multiple content windows are displayed on the screen, then information delivery is improved, but gaze and gesture awareness is reduced due to overlapping content obscuring visibility
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the display area into multiple non-overlapping regions, with each region dedicated to displaying specific content. This segmentation prevents content overlap while maintaining comprehensive information delivery across different display zones.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a two-dimensional overlapping content layout to a structured multi-region layout that organizes content in distinct spatial zones. This dimensional reorganization eliminates visual obstruction while preserving all displayed information.
2Loss of information
If content is displayed on the screen, then collaboration information is enhanced, but visibility of remote users and gestures is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent assigns different display characteristics to different regions of the screen. Specific regions are optimized for displaying collaboration content while other regions maintain high visibility for remote users and gestures, allowing each zone to serve its intended purpose with appropriate visual properties.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a structured regional layout that copies and distributes content across designated display zones rather than allowing uncontrolled overlap. This systematic distribution ensures collaboration information is preserved while maintaining clear visibility in user interaction regions.
3Area of stationary object
If content windows overlap on the screen, then space utilization is improved, but interaction clarity is reduced due to ambiguity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the display into distinct non-overlapping regions that efficiently utilize the available screen space. Each region is clearly defined and dedicated to specific content types, eliminating the ambiguity caused by overlapping windows while maintaining high space utilization.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of allowing content to overlap freely to maximize space usage, the patent inverts the approach by organizing content into predetermined non-overlapping regions. This inversion of the traditional overlapping layout achieves both efficient space utilization and unambiguous interaction clarity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method performed by a processing system with content display management includes identifying a first added content in a set of added contents that overlap and forming a display image to include the first added content such that a first portion of the first added content is partially transparent with respect to remote content captured by a remote system and a second portion of the first added content is opaque with respect to at least a portion of second added content in the set of added contents.