VIDEO ENCODING IN A VIDEO CONFERENCE
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Abstract
Some embodiments provide an architecture for establishing multi-participant video conferences. This architecture has a central distributor that receives video images from two or more participants. From the received images, the central distributor generates composite images that the central distributor transmits back to the participants. Each composite image includes a set of sub images, where each sub image belongs to one participant. In some embodiments, the central distributor saves network bandwidth by removing each particular participant'"'"'s image from the composite image that the central distributor sends to the particular participant. In some embodiments, images received from each participant are arranged in the composite in a non-interleaved manner. For instance, in some embodiments, the composite image includes at most one sub-image for each participant, and no two sub-images are interleaved.
89 Citations
33 Claims
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1-22. -22. (canceled)
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23. A computing device for distributing video image data during a multi-participant conference, said computing device comprising:
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a set of receiving modules for receiving image data from participants of the multi-participant conference; and an encoding module for generating, from the received image data, composite image data that includes sub-images of the participants, wherein the encoding module generates the composite image data by encoding each of the sub-images based on a set of constraints that allow the encoding of the sub-images to be independent of the encoding of any other sub-image. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. A method of distributing video content in a multi-participant conference, the method comprising:
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receiving an inter-encoded video image from a first participant; detecting a condition that an expected inter-encoded video image has not been received from a second participant; requesting an intra-encoded video image from the second participant; receiving the requested intra-encoded video image; and transmitting a composite video image comprising the received intra-encoded image of the second participant to at least said first participant.
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Specification