Zone-Based Audio Video Stream Control in Virtual Environments
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional videoconferencing technologies face challenges in recreating the social experience of in-person meetings, including loss of spatial awareness, difficulty in private conversations, and performance issues with large participant numbers due to bandwidth and hardware limitations.
Innovation Solution
A system that utilizes a three-dimensional virtual environment to control audio and video streams by predicting user positions and enabling/disabling streams based on proximity and security settings, allowing for more effective audio and video management and access control within zones.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If all audio and video streams are transmitted to all participants in a videoconference, then complete communication coverage is achieved, but system performance degrades with large participant numbers due to bandwidth and hardware limitations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements spatially differentiated audio-video streaming where each participant receives streams only from users within their specific zone or proximity area. Instead of uniform distribution to all participants, the system assigns different stream subsets based on spatial location, thereby reducing overall system load while maintaining adequate communication coverage for each user.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual environment is divided into multiple zones, and audio-video streams are segmented and distributed selectively to participants in each zone. This segmentation allows the system to manage large numbers of participants by organizing streams into zone-specific groups rather than broadcasting to all users simultaneously.
2Loss of information
If video streams from all participants are transmitted, then social connection and spatial awareness are improved, but network bandwidth and computing hardware become overwhelmed with large participant numbers
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides spatial awareness information locally to each participant based on their position in the virtual environment. Instead of transmitting all video streams to all users, each user receives video feeds only from participants in their local zone or proximity area, maintaining spatial context while minimizing data transmission volume.
3Adaptability or versatility
If audio streams from multiple speakers are mixed equally, then all voices are heard by all participants, but private conversations become impossible and social connection opportunities are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The audio system implements zone-based spatial separation where participants in different virtual zones receive different audio streams. Users can engage in private conversations by positioning their avatars in separate zones, while the host or presenters can be heard by all. The system dynamically manages audio routing based on spatial relationships without requiring complex manual mixing controls.
4Loss of information
If the virtual environment accurately reflects real-time user positions, then spatial awareness and social interaction are enhanced, but computing resources increase due to continuous position tracking and stream management
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-establishes zone boundaries and determines which participants belong to which zones in advance, rather than calculating spatial relationships in real-time for every user pair. This preliminary organization of spatial data reduces the computational burden during actual videoconference operation while maintaining accurate spatial awareness.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a web-based videoconference system that allows for video avatars to navigate within the three-dimensional virtual environment. The system and methods provided include those for: (1) using zones in a three-dimensional virtual environment for limiting audio and video, (2) access control using zones, (3) access control of the three-dimensional virtual environment itself, and (4) controlling user connections in a three dimensional virtual environment.