Volumetric Avatar Rendering with Background Exclusion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional videoconferencing technologies lack the social interaction and spatial awareness of in-person meetings, with limitations in avatar representation, privacy concerns due to real-world background display, and lack of depth in video avatars, which hinder effective communication and relationship building in virtual environments.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method for rendering volumetric avatars in a three-dimensional virtual environment, where configuration settings and video streams are used to exclude backgrounds, allowing for the rendering of front, back, and side surfaces of avatars, enhancing spatial awareness and privacy while maintaining a realistic and immersive experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If video streams with real-world backgrounds are displayed in conventional videoconferencing, then users can see each other's physical surroundings, but privacy is compromised and the virtual environment becomes less immersive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the real-world background from the video stream, separating the user's image from their physical surroundings. This allows the user's video to be displayed without compromising privacy, while still maintaining visibility of the user themselves. The background removal technique isolates the user from their environment, solving the contradiction between privacy protection and visibility.
2Loss of information
If flat 2D video avatars are used in virtual environments, then implementation is simple, but spatial awareness and depth perception are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from 2D flat video avatars to 3D volumetric avatars by adding depth information. The system captures video from multiple angles (front, back, and side surfaces) and renders these as a three-dimensional volumetric representation. This dimensional upgrade restores spatial awareness and depth perception in the virtual environment, allowing users to perceive distance and orientation more accurately while maintaining manageable system complexity through efficient rendering techniques.
3Loss of information
If multiple participants are displayed in conventional videoconferencing, then all users can be seen, but natural spacing and social interaction are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent arranges multiple participants in a three-dimensional virtual space rather than flattening them into a 2D grid. Each user's volumetric avatar occupies its own spatial position, allowing natural spacing and positioning similar to physical meetings. This spatial arrangement restores social interaction dynamics, enabling users to perceive relative positions, distances, and orientations of other participants, thereby recreating the natural social dynamics of in-person gatherings.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are aspects for altering avatar backgrounds and rendering volumetric avatars in a three-dimensional virtual environment. An aspect begins by receiving, from a first device of a first user, configuration settings specifying how a background of a first user's avatar is to be presented to a second user in the 3D virtual environment. The aspect continues by capturing a video stream of the first user and altering portions of the video stream. The configuration settings and the video stream with the altered background are used to render the first user's avatar. Another aspect begins by receiving configuration settings and a video stream with a background. The aspect continues by rendering a front surface, back surface, and side surface of an avatar based on the configuration settings and video stream.