Techniques and system for active lighting control in video conferencing

• US 8,665,310 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2011
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Verthein, William, Qiu, Jingyu
• Primary Examiner(s): Ramakrishnaiah, Melur
• Application Number:
  US13/021,341
• Publication Number:
  US 20120200660A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,124 Days
• Field of Search: 348 1401- 1416, 348/164, 348/234, 345/589, 345/426, 715/717, 382/100, 382/103
• US Class Current: 348/14.08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/11 by determining the brightness or colour temperature of ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/175 by remote control
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

Techniques to provide active lighting control for video teleconferencing systems are described. In an embodiment, a video teleconferencing (TVC) device receives lighting data from cameras in a room where a VTC is taking place. The VTC device may access lighting profiles for the lights in the room from a lighting control system. The VTC device may compare the current lighting conditions to a target model. The VTC device may use the lighting profiles to select lights to turn on or off via the lighting control system to improve the lighting. The VTC device may monitor the lighting conditions during the conference and may re-adjust the lights if a large change occurs. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

accessing a lighting control system to turn each light in a room on and off individually;

measuring the effect on lighting data in the room when a light is off and when it is on;

storing the measured effect in a lighting profile for the light;

receiving lighting data from a video camera in the room;

comparing the lighting data to a target model comprising a value for at least one parameter;

calculating an adjustment to make to a light in the room when the lighting data is not within a specified range of the target model to approach the target model by;

selecting a light and loading a lighting profile for the selected light;

generating an estimated effect by subtracting the measured effect of the light being on from the lighting data, when the light is on in the room, or adding the measured effect of the light being on to the lighting data, when the light is off in the room;

comparing the estimated effect to the target model; and

selecting the light to adjust when the estimated effect is closer than the lighting data to the target model; and

accessing a lighting control system to adjust the light according to the calculated adjustment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the lighting data to the target model comprises:

comparing the value of each parameter in the target model to a measured value for the parameter from the lighting data; and

determining whether the measured value is within a specified range of the target model value.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a plurality of lights; and

generating an estimated effect from a combination of turning one or more of the plurality of lights on or off.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically detecting the room in which the video camera is operating; and

loading a room profile for the detected room, the room profile comprising at least one of;

a room identifier, room layout, a lighting profile, and an interface to the lighting control system.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein selecting a light comprises using the room layout to select a light in the vicinity of a source of the lighting data to be adjusted.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

periodically measuring the lighting in the room;

determining if the difference between a new measurement and a previous measurement is greater than a threshold;

comparing the new measurement to the target model when the difference is greater than the threshold; and

calculating and making an adjustment to a light in the room when the new measurement is not within a specified range of the target model.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a detected face;

measuring a lighting condition on the face; and

optimizing lighting on the detected face by adjusting at least one light source in the room via the lighting control system.

8. An article comprising a storage medium containing instructions that when executed cause a system to:

access a lighting control system to turn each light in a room on and off individually;

measure the effect on lighting data in the room when the light is off and when it is on;

store the measured effect in a lighting profile for each light;

compare lighting data, received from a video camera in a room, to a target model comprising a value for at least one parameter;

calculate an adjustment to make to a light in the room when the lighting data is not within a specified range of the target model to approach the target model by;

selecting a light in the room and loading a lighting profile for the selected light;

estimating an effect by applying the measured effect of the light from the lighting profile to the lighting data according to whether the selected light is currently on;

comparing the estimated effect to the target model; and

selecting the light to adjust when the estimated effect is closer than the lighting data to the target model; and

access a lighting control system to adjust the light according to the calculated adjustment.

9. The article of claim 8, wherein the instructions to compare lighting data comprise instructions that when executed cause the system to:

compare the value of each parameter in the target model to a measured value for the parameter from the lighting data; and

determine whether the measured value is within a specified range of the target model value.

10. The article of claim 9, wherein the target model comprises a value or a range of values for at least one of:

brightness, contrast, color warmth, and backlighting.

11. The article of claim 8, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to:

determine if the difference between a new measurement of lighting data and the previous lighting data is greater than a threshold;

compare the new measurement to the target model when the difference is greater than the threshold; and

calculate an adjustment to a light in the room when the new measurement is not within a specified range of the target model.

12. An apparatus, comprising:

a logic device;

a communication interface to communicate with a lighting control system;

a lighting optimizing module operating on the logic device to;

generate a lighting profile for an individually controllable light source by;

measuring the effect on lighting in the room when the individually controllable light source is off and when it is on; and

storing the measured effect in a lighting profile for each individually controllable light source;

receive lighting data from a video camera in a room, the lighting data comprising at least one parameter;

compare the lighting data to an target model comprising a target value for the at least one parameter;

calculate an adjustment to make to a light source in the room to approach the target model by;

selecting an individually controllable light source and loading a lighting profile for the selected light source;

generating an estimated effect by subtracting the measured effect of the light being on from the lighting data when the light is on in the room or adding the measured effect of the light being on to the lighting data when the light is off in the room;

comparing the estimated effect to the target model; and

selecting the light to adjust when the estimated effect is closer than the lighting data to the target model; and

access the lighting control system via the communication interface to adjust the least one light source in the room.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

a video conferencing module to;

transmit video and audio information from the room to other video conferencing modules located in other rooms;

receive video and audio information from the other video conferencing modules; and

display the received video and audio information.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

a video processing module to;

receive the video information from the video camera;

detect faces of participants in the room;

measure lighting information on the faces; and

provide the measured lighting information to the lighting optimizing module as the lighting data.