Dynamic media rendering

• US 8,031,891 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2005
• Issued: 10/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ball, Steven J., Rowe, Stephen C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wassum; Luke S
• Application Number:
  US11/170,844
• Publication Number:
  US 20070011196A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,287 Days
• Field of Search: 707/791, 707/793, 707/794, 381/303
• US Class Current: 381/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/45 for identifying users
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4318 by altering the content in the rendering process, e.g. blanking, blurring or masking an image region image enhancement or restoration in general G06T5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4415 using biometric characteristics of the user, e.g. by voice recognition or fingerprint scanning cryptography using biological data H04L9/3231; authentication in networks using biometric H04L63/0861
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4852 for modifying audio parameters, e.g. switching between mono and stereo
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4854 for modifying image parameters, e.g. image brightness, contrast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4858 for modifying screen layout parameters, e.g. fonts, size of the windows
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/74 Projection arrangements for image reproduction, e.g. using eidophor

Abstract

Media may be dynamically rendered by receiving signals from one or more types of sensors sensing in an area, and obtaining from the signals information about one or more locations of furniture, or one or more locations of persons or heads or ears thereof, or identities of one or more persons in common with other data such as time of day, season, or other external metadata. Audio and/or video data may be rendered based on the locations or identities. The identity of a person can be automatically obtained and used to automatically select a rendering profile which is then used to render digital audio and/or video media. A dynamically changing spatial location of a head and/or or ears may be automatically determined and how an audio stream is rendered may be dynamically changed based on the spatial location.

Claims

1. A method of dynamically rendering media with a device, the method comprising:

receiving or sampling signals from one or more sensors sensing in an area;

processing the signals to determine that objects in the area are pieces of furniture, and to obtain locations of the pieces of furniture, wherein the locations of the pieces of furniture are determined by sensing the pieces of furniture independent of whether they are occupied; and

using an audio rendering process, which allows steering of an audio sweet spot in the area, to render audio data based on the locations of the pieces of furniture, wherein the audio sweet spot is steered to cover an area defined by one or more of the obtained locations of the pieces of the furniture determined to be occupied, the steering comprising repeatedly;

automatically determining which of the pieces of furniture are currently occupied and automatically adapting the sweet spot to include an area defined by the locations of the occupied pieces of furniture.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the signals are received from at least a microphone array and a camera.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein a signal from one sensor is used to refine a search of a signal from another sensor.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising combining profiles of two identified persons, respectively, and using the combination of the profiles to perform the video and audio rendering, the combining comprising selecting rendering parameters from a first profile, selecting rendering parameters from a second profile, and forming a third profile with the selected parameters.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein the combination of the profiles comprises a plurality of rendering parameters, values of which are provided from both of the user profiles.

6. A method of dynamically rendering an audio stream, the method comprising:

in an environment having a plurality of pieces of furniture, automatically determining that objects in the environment are pieces of furniture, automatically determining locations of the pieces of furniture, and repeatedly automatically determining which pieces of furniture are currently occupied and which pieces are currently unoccupied; and

rendering the audio stream to cause a sweet spot of the rendered audio stream to dynamically adapt to fit the locations of the pieces of furniture determined to be currently occupied, and during the rendering, when an occupancy/unoccupancy state of a piece of furniture is determined to have changed, automatically changing how the audio stream is rendered to cause the sweet spot to adapt according to the location and occupancy/unoccupancy state of the piece of furniture, wherein when a piece of furniture becomes occupied, the sweet spot is dynamically adapted to encompass the piece of furniture, and when a piece of furniture becomes unoccupied, the sweet spot is dynamically adapted to fit the remaining pieces of occupied furniture.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein means for sensing provides a signal upon which the determining is based.

8. A method according to claim 6, wherein the determining the pieces of furniture currently occupied is based on location information about furniture.

9. One or more computer readable storage media storing information to enable a computing device to perform a process, the process comprising:

in an environment having a plurality of pieces of furniture, automatically determining that objects in the environment are pieces of furniture, automatically determining locations of the pieces of furniture, and repeatedly automatically determining which pieces of furniture are currently occupied and which pieces are currently unoccupied; and

rendering an audio stream to cause a sweet spot of the rendered audio stream to dynamically adapt to fit the locations of the pieces of furniture determined to be currently occupied, and during the rendering, when an occupancy/unoccupancy state of a piece of furniture is determined to have changed, automatically changing how the audio stream is rendered to cause the sweet spot to adapt according to the location and occupancy/unoccupancy state of the piece of furniture, wherein when a piece of furniture becomes occupied, the sweet spot is dynamically adapted to encompass the piece of furniture, and when a piece of furniture becomes unoccupied, the sweet spot is dynamically adapted to fit the remaining pieces of occupied furniture.