Method and apparatus for controlling a remote video camera in a video conferencing system

• US 20020044201A1
• Filed: 10/18/2001
• Published: 04/18/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Alexander, Theresa A., Rothrock, Lewis V.
• Granted Patent: US 6,614,465 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/14.08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/142 Constructional details of the terminal equipment, e.g. arrangements of the camera and the display
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

An apparatus for use within a video conferencing system comprising an image analysis circuit and a control circuit is presented. As described herein, the image analysis circuit is operative to analyze at least a video frame of video conferencing signals of a video conference. The control circuit, coupled to the image analysis circuit, is operative to control a remote video camera of a remote conferencing apparatus communicatively coupled to the video conferencing apparatus to conduct the video conference, responsive to the results of said analysis.

Claims

1. A video conferencing apparatus comprising:

an image analysis circuit operative to analyze at least a video frame of video conferencing signals of a video conference; and

a control circuit, coupled to the image analysis circuit, operative to control a remote video camera of a remote conferencing apparatus communicatively coupled to the video conferencing apparatus to conduct the video conference, responsive to the results of said analysis.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a cursor detect circuit, coupled to the microcontroller, operative to identify cursor position upon receiving an interrupt from a user input device.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein image analysis circuit is operative to analyze a subset of the image surrounding the identified cursor position.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image analysis circuit is operative to analyze the image for pixel disparity.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein pixel disparity is a measure of the standard deviation of pixel characteristics between pixels comprising the image.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein color attributes of each pixel are used as the pixel characteristics in determining pixel disparity.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is operative to adjust a field of focus of the remote video camera.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is operative to adjust a focal length of the remote video camera.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image analysis circuit is operative to ascertain center coordinates of the identified object.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the apparatus is operative to adjust a field of focus of the remote video camera to center the identified object within a video conferencing window based, at least in part, on the ascertained center coordinates of the identified object.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image analysis circuit is operative to ascertain minimum and maximum coordinates of the identified object.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus is operative to adjust a focal length of the remote video camera to substantially fill a video conference window with the identified object based, at least in part, on the ascertained minimum and maximum coordinates of the identified object.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein (a) comprises:

(a.1) identifying a test region within the image displayed within a video conference window;

(a.2) determining pixel disparity for image pixels comprising the image within the test region; and

(a.3) determining whether the pixel disparity has reached a predetermined threshold corresponding to object identification.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

(a.4) repeating steps (a.1) through (a.3) until the pixel disparity has reached the predetermined threshold.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein pixel disparity is a measure of the standard deviation of a pixel characteristic between the image pixels comprising the image within the test region.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein pixel color attributes represent an example of pixel characteristics from which a calculation of pixel disparity is made.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein (b) comprises:

(b.1) determining center coordinates of the object identified as a result of said analysis;

(b.2) determining minimum and maximum coordinates of the object identified as a result of said analysis; and

(b.3) issuing commands to the remote video camera to feature the object identified as a result of said analysis based, at least in part, on the center coordinates and the minimum and maximum coordinates of the identified object.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

(b.1.1) adjusting a field of focus of the remote camera based, at least in part, on the determined center coordinates of the identified object; and

(b.2.1) adjusting a focal length of the remote camera based, at least in part, on the determined minimum and maximum coordinates of the identified object.

13. A method of positioning a remote camera comprising:

(a) analyzing at least a subset of an image displayed within a video conference window to identify an object selected by a user of a local video conferencing system; and

(b) automatically controlling a remote video camera to feature the identified object based, at least in part, on the result of said analysis.

20. A video conferencing system comprising:

a video display unit; and

a video conference controller, communicatively coupled to the video display unit, operative to receive video conference signals from a remote video conference station, the video conference controller including

an image analysis circuit operative to analyze at least a video frame of video conferencing signals of a video conference; and

a microcontroller, coupled to the image analysis circuit, operative to control a remote video camera of a remote conferencing apparatus communicatively coupled to the video conferencing apparatus to conduct the video conference, responsive to the results of said analysis.

21. The video conferencing system of claim 20, wherein the image analysis circuit is operative to analyze at least a subset of the video frame for pixel disparity.

22. The video conferencing system of claim 21, wherein the image analysis circuit is operative to iteratively analyze at least the subset of the video frame for pixel disparity wherein the size of the subset of the video frame analyzed is incrementally increased on each iteration of the analysis.

23. The video conferencing system of claim 21, wherein image analysis circuit is operative to identify an object within the subset of the video frame when the pixel disparity reaches a predetermined threshold.

26. The video conferencing system of claim 25, wherein the image analysis circuit is operative to determine center coordinates of the identified object, and the minimum and maximum coordinates of the identified object, whereupon the microcontroller issues commands to adjust the field of focus and the focal length of the remote camera based, at least in part, on the center coordinates and the minimum and maximum coordinates of the identified object.

28. The machine readable medium of claim 27, wherein the instructions for analyzing the image include instructions for identifying an object within the at least subset of the image by determining pixel disparity between image pixels within the at least the subset of the image.

29. The machine readable medium of claim 27, wherein the instructions for identifying an object within the at least subset of the image include instructions for calculating the center of the identified object, and for determining the minimum and maximum coordinates of the at least subset of the image.

30. The machine readable medium of claim 29, wherein the instructions for controlling the remote video camera include instructions for adjusting the field of focus and/or the focal length of the remote video camera based, at least in part, on the calculated center of the identified object and the minimum and maximum coordinates.

24. A video conferencing system comprising:

a communication channel;

a video conferencing station, operative to send/receive video conference signals to/from a plurality of remote video conferencing stations communicatively coupled to the video conferencing station through the communication channel; and

a multipoint conferencing unit, communicatively coupled to the video conferencing station and the plurality of remote video conferencing stations via the communication channel, the multipoint conferencing unit including

an image analysis circuit operative to analyze at least a video frame of video conferencing signals of a video conference; and

a control circuit, coupled to the image analysis circuit, operative to control a remote video camera of a remote conferencing apparatus communicatively coupled to the video conferencing apparatus to conduct the video conference, responsive to the results of said analysis.

25. The video conferencing system, wherein the image analysis circuit is operative to analyze at least a subset of the video frame of video conferencing signals for pixel disparity between image pixels comprising the image within the at least a subset of the video frame to identify an object.

27. A machine readable device having stored thereon a plurality of machine executable instructions for implementing a video conferencing system, the plurality of machine executable instructions including instructions for analyzing at least a subset of an image displayed within a video conference window to identify an object within the image, and instructions for manipulating an appropriate remote video camera to feature the object identified within the image based, at least in part, on said analysis.