PERSONAL CONTROLS FOR PERSONAL VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20080297586A1
• Filed: 05/31/2007
• Published: 12/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Monument Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Inventors: Kurtz, Andrew F., Blose, Andrew C., Border, John N., Costello, Kathleen M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,159,519 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/14.08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

Video communication systems and methods for operating the same are provided with the method determining privacy settings for a video communication event; establishing a video communication link with a video communication system at a remote site; capturing video images of a field of view of at least one image capture device; determining a video context based at least in part upon a determined contextual classification for the communication event; analyzing the captured video images to identify privacy sensitive areas in the captured video images, using a scene analysis algorithm which examines a content of the video images and image context characteristics of the video images based upon the determined privacy settings; modifying the image characteristics in identified privacy sensitive image areas of captured video images, to control the image and image context characteristics to an extent consistent with the determined privacy settings; and transmitting the modified video images.

Claims

1. A method for operating a video communication system at a local site, the method comprising the steps of:

determining privacy settings for a video communication event;

establishing a video communication link with a video communication system at a remote site;

capturing video images of a field of view of at least one image capture device;

determining a video context based at least in part upon a determined contextual classification for the communication event;

analyzing the captured video images to identify privacy sensitive areas in the captured video images, using a scene analysis algorithm which examines a content of the video images and image context characteristics of the video images based upon the determined privacy settings;

modifying the image characteristics in identified privacy sensitive image areas of captured video images, to control the image and image context characteristics shared with the remote viewer, to an extent consistent with the determined privacy settings; and

transmitting the modified video images to the remote site.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said image context characteristics are analyzed to determine a correlation with the predetermined privacy settings.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of determining the privacy settings based upon human perceptible privacy settings, said privacy setting parameters defining data that can be used to automatically analyze the video image content and video image context to identify content that may be related to the privacy settings.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the video images are captured in a sequence and wherein the scene analysis algorithm evaluates both current and prior video images in the sequence.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the scene analysis algorithm evaluates image data for objects in the video imagery to identify the privacy sensitive areas.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of linking the identification of the privacy sensitive area to an object in a first video image so that the presence of the object in subsequent images can be detected and used to identify the privacy sensitive area in the subsequent images.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein privacy settings establish field of view limits that control the ranges of panning, tilting, or zooming of the at least one image capture device.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the remote viewer can direct image capture within the local site, but only within the field of view limits.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the portions of the video images corresponding to the limited portions of the field of view are modified by image altering methods, including cropping, blurring, or shading.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein privacy settings are determined during a preview mode.

27. The system according to claim 10, wherein the privacy settings are applied for users at the local site based an identity of a user of another video communication device.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein a user of another video communication device can over-ride privacy settings made by a user of the communication device.

11. A video communication system for controlling audio or video content shared between a video communication device at a local site, and a remote a video communication device, the system comprising:

at least two video communication devices, each having;

an image display device;

at least one image capture device which acquires video images of the local environment, and individuals therein, according to defined video capture settings,

an audio system having both an audio emission device and an audio capture device; and

a computer, which is operable to enable a privacy interface, a contextual interface including a scene analysis algorithm, an image processor, and a communication controller;

wherein the privacy interface allows a user to establish provides privacy settings that control the capture, transmission, display, or recording of video image content from the local environment; and

wherein the contextual interface is adapted to use the scene analysis algorithm to assess the image content and image context characteristics of the video images captured by the at least one image capture device and to determine modifications of an image content of video images to be transmitted by the communication device to other ones of the plurality of communication devices.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the computer adjusts the operation of the at least one image capture device or the image processor to control the video image content in accordance with the determined modifications.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein the privacy settings are expressed as privacy setting metrics, which are to used by the scene analysis algorithm to correlate the privacy settings with the image content and context characteristics.

14. The system according to claim 11, wherein the modification defines a limit of a field of view captured by the at least one image capture device.

15. The system according to claim 11, wherein said modification causes a portion of a captured field of view of the at least one image capture device not to be displayed, transmitted, or recorded.

16. The system according to claim 11, wherein the computer causes said image display device to present a split screen image, wherein one portion of the image display device shows images of the local environment as they are transmitted to another one of the video communication devices, and another portion of the image display device shows images from the other one of the other communication device.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the split screen image portion showing images of the local environment further depicts the limits on the captured field of view provided by the privacy settings.

18. The system according to claim 11, wherein shared video image content originating with the remote viewer is modified to conform to privacy settings provided at the local site.

19. The system according to claim 11, wherein a privacy language is used to communicate privacy settings between the plurality of communication devices.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the privacy language communicates privacy settings that control video transmission between the local system and the remote system.

21. The system according to claim 19, wherein the privacy language communicates privacy settings that control the recording of video from the local system by the remote system.

22. The system according to claim 11, wherein different privacy settings are provided for different communication events.

23. The system according to claim 11, wherein access to the privacy interface, and the privacy settings therein, is limited in a variable way relative to different individuals at the local site.

24. The system according to claim 11, wherein the computer limits access to the privacy interface can be limited to users who can be authenticated by way of providing appropriate passwords, by way of face recognition, or voice recognition.

25. The system according to claim 11, wherein the contextual interface associates the privacy settings of an individual in the local environment with the identity of the individual.

26. The system according to claim 25, wherein privacy settings are different for different users.

29. The system according to claim 11, wherein the privacy interface enables visual or audio alerts to indicate the occurrence of local image capture, image transmission environment to a remote viewer, or local or remote recording of the local image content.

30. A video communication system comprising:

at least two video communication devices, each having;

an image display means for displaying video images;

at least one image capture means for acquiring video images of a local environment and any individuals therein, with said acquiring being performed according to defined video capture settings,

an audio system having both audio emission means and audio capture means; and

a means for enabling a privacy interface, a contextual interface including a scene analysis algorithm, an image processor, and a communication controller;

wherein the privacy interface enables a user to make privacy settings and the privacy settings are used to control the capture, transmission, display, or recording of video image content from the local environment; and

wherein the contextual interface is adapted to use the scene analysis algorithm to assess the image content and image context characteristics of the video images captured by the at least one image capture device and to determine modifications of an image content of video images to be transmitted by the communication system to other ones of the plurality of communication devices.