Teleconferencing Spotlight Cues for Shared Remote Site Focus
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing teleconferencing technologies struggle with participants unintentionally directing their attention to different areas of a remote site, leading to difficulty in understanding and following discussions, especially when discussing a site that is remote relative to one or more participants.
Innovation Solution
The method involves providing each device with a wide-field-of-view video of a site, allowing users to specify a region of interest using a focus selector, and displaying graphical indicators to direct attention to that region, utilizing neural radiance fields or virtual camera rendering to enhance the video, and adjusting viewports accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If participants are provided with wide-field-of-view video of a remote site, then the field of view and immersion are improved, but participants still cannot easily identify or focus on specific regions of interest within the wide scene
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies visual indicators (such as colored overlays, highlights, or graphical markers) to distinguish regions of interest within the wide-field-of-view video. These visual changes draw participants' attention to specific areas, making it easy to identify and focus on relevant regions without narrowing the overall field of view.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism (visual indicator system) that mediates between the wide-field-of-view video and the participant's attention. This intermediary layer provides contextual guidance by highlighting regions of interest, enabling participants to easily locate and focus on specific areas while maintaining the benefits of the wide field of view.
2Area of stationary object
If participants can view the entire wide-field-of-view scene, then comprehensive site coverage is improved, but participants unintentionally direct attention to different areas leading to difficulty in following discussions
Solution Approach 1:
Visual indicators such as colored overlays or highlights are applied to regions of interest within the wide-field-of-view scene. These visual cues guide participants' attention to the intended focus area, preventing unintentional attention diversion and ensuring that all participants follow the discussion context while maintaining comprehensive scene coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality enhancement by providing different visual treatments to different regions of the scene. Regions of interest receive special visual emphasis (such as highlighting or magnification), while other areas maintain their normal appearance, allowing participants to perceive both the overall scene and the specific focus area simultaneously.
3Ease of operation
If graphical indicators are displayed to indicate region of interest position, then attention direction and understanding are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses simplified graphical indicators that are superimposed on the existing wide-field-of-view video feed. Rather than creating entirely new visual representations, the system copies and annotates the original scene with lightweight visual markers, minimizing additional processing complexity while effectively directing attention to regions of interest.
Data Source
AI summary
Described herein are methods, systems, devices, and processor readable storage devices for use during a teleconference among a plurality of users that each uses a respective device, of a plurality of devices, to participate in the teleconference. Certain such embodiments use positional information to cause displaying, by a device that is provided with the positional information, of a respective graphical indicator that indicates where a region of interest is within or relative to the viewport that is being displayed on the device.