System and Method of Videotelephony with Detection of a Visual Token in the Videotelephony Image for Electronic Control of the Field of View

• US 20090079812A1
• Filed: 09/21/2007
• Published: 03/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Instrument Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Li, Zhiyuan, Jelley, Kevin, Augustine, Bruce, Thiems, Mike, Crenshaw, James
• Granted Patent: US 8,237,769 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/14.10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/142 Constructional details of the terminal equipment, e.g. arrangements of the camera and the display
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

A videotelephony system has an electronically controllable camera with a field of view, a visual token disposed within the field of view, and a camera controller. The camera controller is configured to detect the visual token and reconfigure the field of view relative to a detected position of the visual token.

Claims

1. A videotelephony system, comprising:

a videotelephony camera having an electronically controllable field of view;

a visual token disposed within said field of view; and

a camera controller configured to detect said visual token using an image from said camera and reconfigure said field of view relative to a detected position of said visual token.

2. The videotelephony system of claim 1, wherein said field of view is electronically configured by controlling a pan, tilt, zoom or combination thereof of said camera.

3. The videotelephony system of claim 1, wherein said visual token is selectively activated, said camera controller being configured to detect said visual token upon activation and to reconfigure said field of view relative to a detected position of the activated visual token.

4. The videotelephony system of claim 1, wherein said camera comprises a wide-angle lens.

5. The videotelephony system of claim 4, wherein said field of view is electronically configured by selecting a portion of a larger image from said camera with said wide-angle lens.

6. The videotelephony system of claim 1, wherein said visual token comprises a pulse of optical energy.

7. The videotelephony system of claim 1, further comprising one or more predetermined field of view settings from said camera, wherein said camera is set to a said predetermined field of view setting based on location of said visual token.

8. The videotelephony system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of visual tokens.

9. The videotelephony system of claim 8, further comprising a system that prevent more than one of said plurality of visual tokens from being activated simultaneously.

10. A videotelephony system, comprising:

a videotelephony camera having an electronically controllable field of view;

a remote electronic device configured to selectively provide a visual token within said field of view; and

a camera controller configured to detect said visual token and reconfigure said field of view of said camera relative to a detected position of said visual token.

11. The videotelephony system of claim 10, wherein said remote electronic device comprises an optical source.

12. The videotelephony system of claim 11, wherein said visual token comprises a pulse of optical energy emitted from said optical source.

13. The videotelephony system of claim 10, wherein said remote electronic device is configured to selectively provide said visual token in response to a particular user action.

14. The videotelephony system of claim 10, wherein said camera comprises a wide-angle lens.

15. The videotelephony system of claim 14, wherein said camera controller is configured to reconfigure said field of view by selecting a portion of a larger image detected by camera with said wide-angle lens and transmitting said portion to an intended recipient device.

16. The videotelephony system of claim 10, wherein said field of view is electronically configured by controlling a pan, tilt, zoom or combination thereof of said camera.

17. The videotelephony system of claim 16, wherein said remote electronic device further comprises fine tuning controls configured to selectively control said pan, tilt or zoom in response to input from a user.

18. A method of videotelephony, said method comprising:

activating a visual token within a field of view of a camera;

detecting said visual token using an image output by said camera; and

reconfiguring said field of view of said camera relative to a detected position of said visual token.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising using a plurality of visual tokens corresponding to different points of interest within said field of view, said plurality of visual tokens being in communication with a system that prevents more than one of said tokens from being active at any particular time.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising reconfiguring said filed of view by cropping a wide-angle image output by said camera.