Method and apparatus for motion based participant switching in multipoint video conferences

• US 9,106,793 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2013
• Issued: 08/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bright-Thomas, Paul, Bebbington, Conrad
• Primary Examiner(s): El-Zoobi, Maria
• Application Number:
  US13/733,718
• Publication Number:
  US 20140184731A1
• Time in Patent Office: 950 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/139 Analysis of motion vectors, e.g. their magnitude, direction, variance or reliability
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/152 Multipoint control units therefor

Abstract

In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises a memory that stores executable instructions and a processor that executes the instructions in order to determine, for plural received compressed video inputs, at least one motion vector included in each of the plural compressed video inputs; calculate, based on the determined motion vectors, a motion value corresponding to each of the plural compressed video inputs, the motion values representing a level of motion over several frames for each of the plural compressed video inputs; and select, based on the calculated motion values, at least one of the plural compressed video inputs to be displayed.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a memory that stores executable instructions; and

a processor that executes the instructions in order to;

determine, for plural received compressed video inputs, at least one motion vector included in each of the plural compressed video inputs;

calculate, based on the determined motion vectors, a motion value corresponding to each of the plural compressed video inputs, the motion values representing a level of motion over several frames for each of the plural compressed video inputs;

select a highest motion value based on the calculated motion values and a corresponding one of the plural compressed video inputs to be displayed; and

identify one of the received plural compressed video inputs having a largest magnitude audio signal strength to be displayed at a same time as the at least one of the plural compressed video inputs selected to be displayed based on the calculated motion values.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor scales the motion values based on a temporal distance from a current frame of the compressed video input to a reference frame corresponding to the at least one motion vector.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor generates an ordered list of the motion values, the ordered list being based on relative magnitudes of the calculated motion values.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the calculated motion value represents a measure of motion contributed to a video conference by a received compressed video input,

for each frame in the plural compressed video inputs, the processor calculates the motion value by averaging the motion vectors included in the frame, and

for a predetermined number of successive frames included in the received compressed video input, the processor averages the motion values derived from individual frames to provide a stabilized motion value.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein following the calculation of the motion values, the processor determines a set of first scaled values by scaling each calculated motion value based on a resolution of a corresponding one of the plural compressed video inputs.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the processor determines a set of second scaled values by scaling the first scaled values based on a floating average of minimum and maximum motion values.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, the processor is further configured to:

display the identified decompressed video input having the largest corresponding audio signal strength simultaneously with the at least one of the plural compressed video inputs selected to be displayed based on the calculated motion values.

5. An apparatus comprising:

a memory that stores executable instructions; and

a processor that executes the instructions in order to;

determine, for plural received compressed video inputs, at least one motion vector included in each of the plural compressed video inputs;

calculate, based on the determined motion vectors, a motion value corresponding to each of the plural compressed video inputs, the motion values representing a level of motion over several frames for each of the plural compressed video inputs; and

select, based on the calculated motion values, at least one of the plural compressed video inputs to be displayed,

wherein in response to a macroblock of one of the compressed video inputs not including a motion vector, the processor uses a dummy value as a motion value for the macroblock, said dummy value being based on motion properties of macroblocks temporally adjacent to the macroblock.

9. A method comprising:

determining, by a processor for plural received compressed video inputs, at least one motion vector included in each of the plural compressed video inputs;

calculate, by the processor based on the determined motion vectors, a motion value corresponding to each of the plural compressed video inputs, the motion values representing a level of motion over several frames for each of the plural compressed video inputs;

selecting, by the processor based on the calculated motion values, at least one of the plural compressed video inputs to be displayed;

selecting the compressed video input, of the received plural compressed video inputs, having a largest magnitude corresponding audio signal strength, and

displaying the selected video input having the largest corresponding audio signal strength simultaneously with the at least one of the plural compressed video inputs selected to be displayed based on the calculated motion values.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the processor selects one of the plural compressed video inputs with a largest calculated motion value.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the processor scales the motion values based on a temporal distance from a current frame of the compressed video input to a reference frame corresponding to the at least one motion vector.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the processor determines at least one motion vector, of at least one of the plural compressed video inputs, during inter prediction processing.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the processor generates an ordered list of the motion values, the ordered list being based on relative magnitudes of the calculated motion values.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the calculated motion value represents a measure of motion contributed to a video conference by a received compressed video input, and

for each frame in the plural compressed video inputs, the processor calculates the motion value by averaging the motion values included in the frame.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to detecting that a macroblock included in one of the compressed video inputs does not include a motion vector, using, with the processor, a dummy value as the motion value for the macroblock, said dummy value being based on motion properties of macroblocks temporally adjacent to the macroblock.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein following the calculation of the motion values, the processor determines a set of first scaled values by scaling each calculated motion value based on a resolution of a corresponding one of the plural compressed video inputs.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the processor determines a set of second scaled values by scaling the first scaled values based on a floating average of minimum and maximum motion values.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored therein that when executed by a processor causes a computer to perform a method comprising:

determining, for plural received compressed video inputs, at least one motion vector included in each of the plural compressed video inputs;

calculate, based on the determined motion vectors, a motion value corresponding to each of the plural compressed video inputs, the motion values representing a level of motion over several frames for each of the plural compressed video inputs;

performing a comparison of the calculated motion values;

selecting a highest of the calculated motion values for one of the plural compressed video inputs to be displayed; and

identifying one of the received plural compressed video inputs having a largest magnitude audio signal strength to be displayed at a same time as the at least one of the plural compressed video inputs selected to be displayed based on the calculated motion values.