Visual Proximity Detection for Private Collaboration Spaces
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing computing systems lack efficient methods for automatically and visually-driven access control to private collaboration spaces, making it difficult for users to easily share digital content with others who are visually proximate, especially in large-scale events where not all attendees are directly visible to each other.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a computing system that uses image capture systems, such as head-mounted displays or camera-enabled devices, to detect visually proximate users and automatically add them to private collaboration spaces, allowing for the sharing of digital content, even if not every user can see each other, through the creation of visual proximity graphs and confirmation mechanisms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual user addition to collaboration spaces is used, then access control is secure and intentional, but the process is time-consuming and requires user intervention
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs automatic user detection and addition to collaboration spaces without requiring manual intervention. The image capture system autonomously identifies visually proximate users and the computing system automatically adds them to appropriate collaboration spaces, eliminating the need for manual user addition while maintaining secure access control through visual proximity verification
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical operations (clicking, typing, navigating menus) with an automated visual detection system. Image capture devices and processing algorithms substitute for manual user addition processes, automatically identifying users in visual proximity and adding them to collaboration spaces based on visual data analysis
2Ease of operation
If visual proximity detection is implemented, then user addition is automated and efficient, but privacy concerns arise from automatic detection and addition
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides visual feedback by displaying detected users and their proximity status to the initiating user. This feedback mechanism allows users to verify who is being detected and added, providing transparency and control over the automatic process while maintaining ease of operation
Solution Approach 2:
The system requires visual confirmation or approval before adding detected users to collaboration spaces. This preliminary anti-action prevents unwanted or erroneous additions by requiring user verification, thereby protecting privacy while maintaining the automated efficiency of the detection process
3Reliability
If direct visual proximity is required for collaboration space access, then access control is precise, but users who are not directly visible cannot collaborate
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary collaboration space that connects users who are not in direct visual proximity. Users can be added to collaboration spaces based on transitive visual relationships or group contexts, allowing indirect collaboration while maintaining controlled access through the collaboration space framework
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extends the collaboration model from direct one-to-one visual proximity to many-to-many group collaboration spaces. This dimensional expansion allows users to collaborate through shared spaces even when not all users are directly visible to each other, maintaining access control through space-based permissions
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure describes a computing system that automatically detects users in visual proximity and adds the users to a private collaboration space enabling the users to share digital content. In one example, the computing system includes a video processing engine configured to detect, from first image data representative of a first physical environment that includes a second user, the second user, wherein the first image data is captured by an image capture system of a head-mounted display (HMD) worn by a first user. The computing system also includes a collaboration application configured to add, in response to detection of the second user, the second user to a set of users associated with a private collaboration space in which the set of users access shared digital content, wherein the set of users includes the first user.