Virtual Canvas Video Conferencing Latency Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current web-based conferencing solutions limit real-time collaboration across multiple locations, especially when handling live video feeds, as they often require cloud-based storage and synchronization, which can lead to delays and are not optimized for live video streaming.
Innovation Solution
Establishing a peer-to-peer connection between computers to create a shared virtual canvas that allows for simultaneous display and manipulation of objects and live video streams without affecting each other, enabling real-time video conferencing and collaboration across multiple locations using a virtual canvas that can be manipulated independently of video conferencing streams.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If cloud-based storage and synchronization are used for real-time collaboration, then document editing and sharing are enabled across multiple locations, but latency increases and live video streaming is not optimized
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the collaboration functionality by creating separate communication channels: one for canvas/object data synchronization and another for live video streaming. This segmentation allows each channel to be optimized independently, with video streams transmitted directly between participants without cloud intermediation, thereby reducing latency while maintaining real-time collaboration capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces a peer-to-peer communication mechanism as an intermediary for video streams, bypassing the cloud server for video transmission. The cloud server acts as a mediator only for canvas state synchronization, while video data flows directly between participants, eliminating the latency associated with cloud-based video processing and synchronization.
2Speed
If the entire screen is streamed to other computers at a refresh rate, then real-time display is achieved, but bandwidth consumption increases and video quality may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of streaming the entire screen uniformly, the system applies local quality by transmitting only the specific region of interest (the canvas area) at high resolution and refresh rate. Other parts of the screen are either not transmitted or transmitted at lower quality, optimizing bandwidth utilization while maintaining the real-time display experience for the collaboration area.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transmits only the necessary portion of the screen content (the canvas and its objects) rather than the entire screen. This partial action approach reduces the total data volume transmitted while maintaining sufficient refresh rate and quality for the collaboration area, thereby reducing bandwidth consumption without sacrificing real-time performance.
3Ease of operation
If video conference windows are integrated on the virtual canvas, then unified display is achieved, but video streams interfere with canvas manipulation
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts video conference windows from the virtual canvas layer, placing them in a separate display layer or overlay. This extraction allows video streams to be displayed simultaneously with the canvas without interfering with canvas manipulation operations. Users can interact with the canvas while video feeds remain visible but non-intrusive, eliminating the harmful interference effect.
Solution Approach 2:
The system resolves the conflict by adding another dimension to the display architecture, separating the canvas manipulation layer from the video display layer. Video conference windows are positioned in a different spatial or hierarchical dimension relative to the canvas, allowing both functions to operate independently without interference while maintaining visual integration for the user.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of collaborating between a first computer associated with a first display at a first location and a second computer associated with a second display at a second location may include establishing a connection between the first and second computers, opening a virtual canvas on the first computer, the virtual canvas to be displayed on the first and second displays simultaneously, and sending an object between the first and second computers by sending data associated with the object on the virtual canvas stored on the first computer to the second computer to be stored locally, thereby creating a shared canvas on which objects are at a single location. Video conferencing may include sending a first live video stream from the first display to the second display to be viewed in a first video conference window separate from the virtual canvas on the second display and vice versa.