Virtual Relocation in Network Conferences via Host Background Compositing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Network conferences often fail to effectively convey the content and emotion of events like holiday parties or weddings, as individual video streams with different backgrounds can create a disjointed display experience.
Innovation Solution
The method involves a host device requesting attendees to remove their backgrounds from their video streams, allowing the host to relocate and position these streams within their own background, enhancing the visual integration of all participants into a unified setting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If individual video streams with different backgrounds are displayed, then each participant can be shown in their own environment, but the display becomes disjointed and fails to convey event content and emotion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple individual video streams into a unified display by removing backgrounds from attendee streams and compositing them onto the host background. This combines separate visual elements into a cohesive whole, resolving the contradiction between displaying individual environments and maintaining visual coherence.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the background from individual attendee video streams, separating the subject (attendee) from the background element. This extraction allows the attendee to be repositioned and recomposed in the host background, achieving visual coherence while preserving participant identity.
2Stability of the object's composition
If background removal and virtual relocation are performed at the host system, then visual integration is achieved, but network bandwidth requirements increase and processing load concentrates at the host
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by having each attendee device perform background removal locally on their own video stream before transmission. This distributes the image processing workload across all participants rather than concentrating it at the host, reducing host processing load and network bandwidth requirements while achieving visual integration.
3Quantity of substance
If background removal is performed at each attendee device, then network bandwidth requirements are reduced, but image processing operations are distributed increasing system complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies self-service by enabling each attendee device to autonomously perform background removal on their video stream. This distributes processing operations across the network, reducing bandwidth consumption at the host while each participant manages their own processing complexity independently.
Data Source
AI summary
One example method for virtual relocation during network conferences includes joining, by a host client device, a network conference hosted by a network conference provider, the network conference including a plurality of participants connected to the network conference via respective participant client devices; requesting a first modified video stream from a first participant of the plurality of participants, receiving the first modified video stream from the first participant; selecting a location within a background for the modified video stream; and transmitting, to the participant client devices, the background and an instruction to relocate the first modified video stream based on the location within the background.