Audio cues for multi-party videoconferencing on an information handling system

• US 8,848,028 B2
• Filed: 10/25/2010
• Issued: 09/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Stedman, Roy, Andrews, Carlton
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Duc
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ndje, Theodore
• Application Number:
  US12/911,349
• Publication Number:
  US 20120098921A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,436 Days
• Field of Search: 348/14.01, 348/14.07, 348/14.08, 348/14.02
• US Class Current: 348/14.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/568 audio processing specific to telephonic conferencing, e.g. spatial distribution, mixing of participants echo suppression in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/02; sound field processing per se H04S7/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

Stereo audio cues are provided at an information handling system to associate audio with its source based upon the characteristics of the image of the source as presented at a display of the information handling system. For example, in one embodiment, a location on a display of a window having a videoconferencing participant is used to create a stereo audio location that correlates audio associated with the participant to the window location. In another embodiment, the size on a display of a window having a videoconferencing participant is used to determine the volume of audio that is associated with the participant.

Claims

1. An information handling system comprising:

a processor operable to execute an application;

memory interfaced with the processor and operable to store information associated with execution of the application;

a display operable to present visual information as images;

plural speakers operable present audio information as sounds;

a network module interfaced with the processor and operable to support communication over a network with plural network locations, each network location having a network address;

a video conferencing application operable present videoconferencing information as images at the display and sounds at the speaker; and

a multi-party conferencing module associated with the video conferencing application and operable to present visual information of each of plural videoconferencing participants as a visual image in an associated display space, each display space having a display location on the display, and to present audio information for each video conferencing participant as a sound having a stereo characteristic based upon the display location of the associated video conferencing participant visual image, the audio information received as monoaural information and altered to have the stereo characteristic by associating network address information of the audio information with network address information of visual information presented in each display space.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the stereo characteristic comprises a different volume at each of the plural speakers.

3. The information handling system of claim 2 wherein the different volume comprises a louder volume at a first of the plural speakers having a closer proximity to the display space than a second of the plural speakers.

4. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the display space comprises a window.

5. The information handling system of claim 4 wherein the multi-conferencing module is further operable to detect movement of a window at the display and to adjust the stereo characteristic according to the movement.

6. The information handling system of claim 4 wherein the multi-party conferencing module is further operable to present audio information sound volume according to the size of the window having visual information associated with the audio information.

7. The information handling system of claim 6 wherein the multi-party conferencing module is further operable to detect an increase in the size of a window and to increase the sound volume of audio information associated with the window in response to the detecting.

8. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the stereo speakers are capable of multiple axis of audio spatial positioning and the multi-party conferencing module is further operable to present multiple videoconference participants, each videoconference participant associated with a position, the multichannel audio characteristic comprising a voice origination location for each participant, the voice origination location of each participant proximate the position of the display associated with each participant.

9. A method for presenting a video conference at an information handling system, the video conference having plural participants, the method comprising:

presenting an image of a first participant at a display in a first window having a first window characteristic, the first image associated with a first network address and having associated monoaural audio information;

presenting an image of a second participant at the display in a second window having a second window characteristic, the second image associated with a second network address and having associated monoaural audio information;

presenting audio of the first participant at one or more speakers, the audio information altered to have a first stereo audio characteristic based upon the first window characteristic, the stereo audio characteristic applied to audio information by association of network address information of the monoaural audio information with the first network address of the first image; and

presenting audio of the second participant at the one or more speakers, the monoaural audio information altered to have a second stereo audio characteristic based upon the second window characteristic, the stereo audio characteristic applied to audio information by association of network address information of the monoaural audio information with the second network address of the second image.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the first and second window characteristics comprise window location and the first and second audio characteristics comprise a stereo location positioned according to the window location.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the first window location is positioned to the right of the second window location and the first audio has a stereo location to the right of the second audio stereo location.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

moving the first window location relative to the second window location by a predetermined distance and in a predetermined direction; and

moving the first stereo location relative to the second stereo location according to the predetermined distance and predetermined direction.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the image of the first participant comprises a video image sent to the information handling system through a network.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the image of the first participant comprises a still image and the audio of the first participant comprises audio information sent to the information handling system through a network.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein the first and second window characteristics comprise a first and second window size and the first and second audio characteristics comprise a first and second volume according to the first and second window size.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

increasing the size of the first window relative to the second window; and

increasing the volume of audio associated with the first window in response to the increasing the size.

17. A system for presenting a videoconference having plural participants, the system comprising:

a non-transitory machine readable medium storing;

a videoconferencing application operable to present a first image of a first participant at a display in a first window, a second image of a second participant at the display in a second window, a first audio of the first participant at one or more speakers, and a second audio of the second participant at the one or more speakers; and

a multiparty conferencing module operable to determine a characteristic of the first window and to alter the first audio in response to the characteristic, the multiparty conferencing module identifying audio as the first audio by associating a network address of audio with a network address of the first image in the first window;

wherein the audio is received as monoaural information and altered to have a stereo characteristic by associating network address information of the audio with network address information of visual information presented in the window.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the characteristic comprises a location of the first window on the display, the multiparty conferencing module altering the first audio by presenting the first audio at a stereo location associated with the location of the first window on the display.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the multiparty conferencing module is further operable to detect movement of the first window from the first location to a second location and to alter the first audio in response to detecting movement by presenting the first audio at a stereo location associated with the location of the first window second location.

20. The system of claim 17 wherein the characteristic comprises a size of the first window on the display, the multiparty conferencing module altering the first audio by presenting the first audio at a volume associated with the size of the first window on the display.