Combining views of a plurality of cameras for a video conferencing endpoint with a display wall
First Claim
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1. A telepresence apparatus comprising:
- a display wall;
a plurality of synchronized video cameras substantially co-planar with the display wall providing respective camera views together covering a scene;
an interface to accept the camera views;
a camera view processor system to generate a synthetic particular view from a particular point on the opposite side of the display wall than the scene and at a substantial distance therefrom, the camera view processor system including;
a depth map creator module to create an integrated depth map;
a view synthesizer module to combine the camera views according to the integrated depth map, including warping of particular camera views to form the synthetic particular view at a viewpoint, including scaling the sizes of objects or participants to maintain perspective and the relationship of object sizes according to their respective distances to the display wall; and
a video forming module to form video for transmission to one or more remote endpoints.
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Abstract
A telepresence apparatus, a method of operating a telepresence apparatus, and a tangible computer readable storage medium in a telepresence apparatus that is configured with instructions that when executed cause operating of the telepresence apparatus. The telepresence apparatus includes video cameras districted co-planar with a display wall and capturing camera views of a scene. The camera views from the video processor combined to form a video signal for transmission to one or more remote endpoints, the video signal corresponding to a synthetic view from a point that is substantially behind the wall and as if the wall was not there.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A telepresence apparatus comprising:
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a display wall; a plurality of synchronized video cameras substantially co-planar with the display wall providing respective camera views together covering a scene; an interface to accept the camera views; a camera view processor system to generate a synthetic particular view from a particular point on the opposite side of the display wall than the scene and at a substantial distance therefrom, the camera view processor system including; a depth map creator module to create an integrated depth map; a view synthesizer module to combine the camera views according to the integrated depth map, including warping of particular camera views to form the synthetic particular view at a viewpoint, including scaling the sizes of objects or participants to maintain perspective and the relationship of object sizes according to their respective distances to the display wall; and a video forming module to form video for transmission to one or more remote endpoints. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method of operating a videoconference apparatus, comprising:
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accepting camera signals from a plurality of time synchronized cameras aimed at a scene; processing the camera signals to create video signals representing a particular view of the scene as viewed from particular point at a particular distance from the scene; compressing the created video signals to form a compressed video for transmission to one or more remote endpoints; and transmitting the compressed video to the one or more remote endpoints; wherein the cameras are distributed substantially co-planar with and along a substantially planar display wall that is made up of one or more flat screen displays or one or more projections displays, wherein the particular distance of the particular point is at least the width of the display wall, and wherein processing the camera signals includes scaling of parts of the scene to create the signal of the particular view, wherein objects in camera signals from a particular camera that are further away from the particular camera are enlarged relative to objects in camera signals from another camera that are close to the other camera, such that for two objects or participants that are in at least one camera view, the difference in size of the two objects or participants due to difference in their respective distance from the display wall is less in the particular view than in any single camera view in which the two objects or participants are present. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A tangible computer readable storage medium in a telepresence apparatus, the tangible computer readable storage medium including instructions that when executed by one or more processors in the telepresence apparatus, the instructions being configured to operate the telepresence apparatus, the storage medium including;
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one or more portions storing code that when executed causes accepting camera signals from a plurality of time synchronized cameras aimed at a scene; one or more portions storing code that when executed causes processing the camera signals to create video signals representing a particular view of the scene as viewed from particular point at a particular distance from the scene; and one or more portions storing code that when executed causes compressing the created video signals to form a compressed video for transmission to one or more remote endpoints, wherein the cameras are distributed substantially co-planar with and along a substantially planar display wall that is made up of one or more flat screen displays or one or more projections displays, wherein the particular distance of the particular point is at least the width of the display wall, and wherein processing the camera signals includes scaling of parts of the scene to create the signal of the particular view, wherein objects in camera signals from a particular camera that are further away from the particular camera are enlarged relative to objects in camera signals from another camera that are close to the other camera, such that for two objects or participants that are in at least one camera view, the difference in size of the two objects or participants due to difference in their respective distance from the display wall is less in the particular view than in any single camera view in which the two objects or participants are present.
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Specification