System and method for control of video bandwidth based on pose of a person

• US 8,824,730 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2004
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Jouppi, Norman Paul, Iyer, Subramoniam Narayana, Slayden, April Marie
• Primary Examiner(s): Anyikire, Chikaodili E
• Application Number:
  US10/755,070
• Publication Number:
  US 20050152447A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,889 Days
• Field of Search: 348 1401- 1416, 382/103
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/166 using acquisition arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/136 Incoming video signal characteristics or properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/17 the unit being an image region, e.g. an object
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/59 involving spatial sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. alteration of picture size or resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/698 for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/272 Means for inserting a foreground image in a background image, i.e. inlay, outlay

Abstract

A system and method for control of video bandwidth based on the pose of a person. In one embodiment, a plurality of video streams is obtained that are representative of images at a first location. The video streams are communicated from the first location to a second location. A pose of the head of a person is determined wherein the person is at one of the first location and the second location. The images at the second location are displayed, wherein bandwidth for communication of the video streams is allocated among the video streams based on the pose of the head of the person.

Claims

1. A video display system comprising:

a display apparatus having a first plurality of display areas at a first location for displaying video images to a person at the first location, wherein the display apparatus comprises a second plurality of display areas at a second location for at least displaying video images of the person to the second location; and

a computer system for determining a pose of the head of the person and for controlling quality of the video images displayed by each display area at the first location based on the pose of the head of the person, wherein a quality of video images displayed in a front view of the head of the person is greater than other displayed areas around the person, and wherein the computer system is configured to control quality of the video images of the person displayed by each display area at the second location based on the pose of the head of the person at the first location, wherein a quality of video images displayed at the second location of a front view of the head of the person is greater than other views of the head of the person displayed at the second location.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein a larger portion of bandwidth is used to display images in the front view of the head of the person than bandwidth used to display images at a side view of the head of the person.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein each display screen corresponds to one display area.

4. The system according to claim 2, wherein each display screen includes multiple display areas.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the display areas at the first location completely surround the person.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein quality of the video images displayed by each display area is controlled based on the orientation of the head of the person.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein frame rate of the video images displayed by each display area is controlled based on the orientation of the head of the person.

8. The system according to claim 6, wherein spatial resolution of the video images displayed by each display area is controlled based on the orientation of the head of the person.

9. The system according to claim 6, wherein color resolution of the video images displayed by each display area is controlled based on the orientation of the head of the person.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein contrast of the video images displayed by each display area is controlled based on the orientation of the head of the person.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the quality of the video images displayed in at least a horizontal ninety-degree field of view for the person is higher than other display areas at the first location.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein the first plurality of display areas of the display apparatus comprises four display screens and wherein the quality of the video images displayed by each screen is the same for the entire screen.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein each of the display areas is allocated bandwidth that is approximately equal to (Bt/N)*(1+cos(theta)), where theta is an angle from the front of the user'"'"'s head to a particular display area, N is the number of display areas and Bt is the total bandwidth for all of the display areas.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the pose of the head of the person is determined repeatedly.

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein the computer system determines the pose of the head of the person from images of the person.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the orientation of the head of the person is obtained by assigning values to a plurality of positions in a polar plot using data from the images of the person and computing a centroid based on the assigned values.

17. The system according to claim 1, wherein quality of the video images displayed by each display area is controlled based on the position of the head of the person.

18. The system according to claim 1, wherein the computer system is configured to reduce bandwidth consumption by degrading quality of the video images of the other displayed areas around the person at the first location to below an initial state, and by degrading quality of the video images of the other views of the head of the person displayed at the second location to below an initial state.

19. The system according to claim 1, wherein the pose of the head of the person comprises a distance of the head from a camera.

20. The system according to claim 1, wherein in addition to the computer system being configured to control quality of the video images displayed based on the pose of the head of the person, the computer system is also configured to control quality of the video images displayed based on a distance of the head of the person from a camera.

21. The system according to claim 1, comprising a surrogate disposed at the second location, wherein the surrogate comprises a surrogate of the person at the first location.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein the surrogate comprises the second plurality of display areas.

23. The system according to claim 21, wherein the surrogate displays more than one view of the person.

24. The system according to claim 21, wherein the surrogate comprises a surrogate head, an upper body, and a lower body.

25. The system according to claim 24, wherein the surrogate head comprises a surrogate face display.

26. The system according to claim 24, wherein the upper body of the surrogate is configured to move to simulate height of the person.

27. A video display system comprising:

a display apparatus having a plurality of display areas for displaying video images to a person; and

a computer system comprising a processor and a stored software program, the computer system configured to determine a pose of the head of the person and to control quality of the video images displayed by each display area based on the pose of the head of the person, wherein a quality of video images displayed in a front view of the head of the person is greater than other video images displayed areas around the person, and wherein frame rate of the video images displayed by each display area is controlled based on the pose.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein the computer system is configured to degrade the quality of the other video images displayed around the person via deleting information from only one side of the frames in the other video images to reduce frame rate of the other video images.

29. The system according to claim 27, wherein the computer system is configured to degrade the quality of the other video images displayed around the person via displaying the other video images in monochrome.

30. The system according to claim 27, wherein a larger portion of bandwidth available for displaying images of the person at a remote location is devoted to displaying images at the remote location of the front of the head of the person, and a smaller portion of the bandwidth is devoted to display of images at the remote location of sides and back of the head of the person.

31. The system according to claim 27, wherein the computer system is configured to control quality of video images of the person displayed by remote display areas at a remote location based on the pose of the head of the person, wherein a quality of video images displayed at the remote location of a front view of the head of the person is greater than other views of the head of the person displayed at the remote location, and wherein the computer system is configured to control quality of the video images displayed by each display area based on a distance of the head of the person from a camera.

32. A video display system comprising:

a display apparatus having a plurality of display areas configured to display video images to a person; and

a computer system comprising a video capture card, the computer system configured to determine a pose of the head of the person and to control quality of the video images displayed by each display area based on the pose of the head of the person, wherein a quality of video images displayed in a front view of the head of the person is greater than other displayed areas around the person, and wherein the pose comprises a distance of the head from a camera independent of a direction of the head.

33. The system according to claim 32, wherein the computer system is configured to control quality of the video images of the person displayed by remote display areas at a remote location based on the pose of the head of the person, and wherein a quality of video images displayed at the remote location of a front view of the head of the person is greater than non-front views displayed at the remote location of the head of the person.