Video Conference UI Priority Lists for Key Participant Visibility

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing video conference platforms fail to efficiently display video streams of key participants who are not actively speaking, leading to user frustration and increased computing resource consumption due to manual pinning and searching for important participants, which disrupts the conference flow.

Innovation Solution

Implementing a user priority list that persists across conferences, automatically prioritizing and displaying video streams of important participants based on user preferences, reducing the need for manual input and optimizing resource usage.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If manual pinning and searching for important participants is implemented, then key participants can be displayed, but user frustration increases and computing resource consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvevisibility of key participantsVSAvoiduser frustration

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary action by automatically identifying and pinning key participants before users need to search for them. The server proactively determines which participants are important based on conference context and automatically displays their video streams, eliminating the need for users to manually search and pin participants during the conference.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements self-service by automatically managing the display of key participants without requiring user intervention. The server autonomously monitors conference dynamics, identifies important participants, and adjusts video stream presentations accordingly, freeing users from manual pinning operations and reducing computing resource consumption on client devices.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

2Reliability

If manual pinning and searching for important participants is implemented, then key participants can be displayed, but computing resource consumption increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvevisibility of key participantsVSAvoidcomputing resource consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements self-service by automatically managing the display of key participants without requiring user intervention. The server autonomously monitors conference dynamics, identifies important participants, and adjusts video stream presentations accordingly, freeing users from manual pinning operations and reducing computing resource consumption on client devices.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The server acts as an intermediary that centralizes the computational workload for identifying and managing key participants. By performing these operations on the server rather than distributing them across multiple client devices, the system reduces overall computing resource consumption while maintaining reliable visibility of important participants.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Reliability

If manual pinning operations are performed, then key participants can be displayed, but conference flow is disrupted

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvevisibility of key participantsVSAvoidconference flow

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary action by automatically identifying and pinning key participants before users need to search for them. The server proactively determines which participants are important based on conference context and automatically displays their video streams, eliminating the need for users to manually search and pin participants during the conference.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements self-service by automatically managing the display of key participants without requiring user intervention. The server autonomously monitors conference dynamics, identifies important participants, and adjusts video stream presentations accordingly, freeing users from manual pinning operations and reducing computing resource consumption on client devices.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentUS12495087B2Providing video streams for presentation in a user interface of a video conference based on a user priority list

Publication Date: 2025.12.09 GOOGLE LLC

AI summary

Systems and methods for determining video streams for presentation in a user interface (UI) of a video conference are provided. In response to a request of a first user of a video conference platform to participate in video conference, a user priority list associated with the first user is accessed. The user priority list identifies a plurality of users of the video conference platform. Participants of the video conference are identified. The participants include the first user associated with a first client device of client devices of the participants of the video conference. A UI presenting video streams from client devices of at least a subset of the participants is provided for display on the first client device. presentation of each of the video streams in the UI depends on whether a respective participant of the at least the subset of the participants is included in the user priority list.