Edge-Assisted Hologram Rendering Offloads Client Compute Load
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional virtual calling technologies with visual user presence, such as holographic calling, consume excessive computing resources, limiting their practicality on devices with limited capabilities and suffering from latency issues when offloaded to cloud systems, thus restricting the types of systems that can participate and affecting real-time communication.
Innovation Solution
Implementing edge-assisted virtual calling by offloading compute workloads for visual data generation to edge systems, which are selected based on available resources, proximity, and latency criteria, allowing for parallel processing across multiple GPU cores and reducing the burden on end-user devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If visual user presence (holographic calling) is implemented on client devices, then social connectivity and visual communication quality are improved, but computing resource consumption increases excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an edge server as an intermediary between client devices and the visual calling system. The edge server performs the computationally intensive tasks of generating visual user presence (holograms, avatars) from captured images, while client devices only handle lightweight tasks like capturing images and transmitting data. This mediator approach allows visual calling capabilities on resource-constrained devices without excessive computing resource consumption.
2Ease of operation
If visual calling workloads are offloaded to cloud systems, then computing burden on client devices is reduced, but latency increases due to distance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent deploys edge servers in geographically distributed locations closer to end users rather than relying on centralized cloud data centers. This localizes the computing resources to the user's region, reducing the physical distance data must travel. The edge server processes visual calling workloads locally in the user's vicinity, maintaining low latency while reducing client device computing burden.
3Adaptability or versatility
If edge systems are used for visual data generation, then device participation is expanded and latency is reduced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the visual calling system into distinct functional components: client devices (capture and display), edge servers (processing and generation), and network infrastructure (transmission). This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and simplifies the overall system architecture by clearly defining responsibilities. The edge server is provisioned with specific software modules for image processing and visual generation, making the complex tasks manageable and modular.
Data Source
AI summary
Implementations augment images with depth information to support hologram display. An edge system can receive, from a source system, images of a user. For example, the images can be two-dimensional images captured by multiple cameras at different perspectives (e.g., stereoscopic images), or single perspective images. The edge system can estimate depth information using the images, for example by processing the images using an engine and one or more machine learning models, and generate depth encoded images. The edge system can then transmit the depth encoded images to a target system, which can ultimately display a hologram of the user using the depth encoded images. Accordingly, implementations can offload, from end-user devices (e.g., the source system and/or target system), hologram workloads to an edge system loaded with an engine and machine learning model(s).