Abstract:
The present invention discloses a method for connecting one or more systems to a user for automatic determination of which system the user may use to participate in a call. A predefined list of video conferencing systems and/or locations for each user is predefined and arranged in a prioritized order. When scheduling a meeting and/or a video conference, the predefined user lists are taken into account when selecting end-points and other resources involved in the meeting/conference. The selection process may be controlled by predefined rules also taking various system availability, network resources and the routes required for connecting the other systems in the conference into account. The present invention also introduces presence applications to facilitate scheduling and set up of ad hoc meetings/conferences.
Abstract:
The present invention discloses a method for fractional pixel interpolation in video coding. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a symmetric 4-tap filter is used to calculate intermediate ½ pixel values. Further, the ¼ pixel values are calculated by averaging two values of neighboring pixel positions including at least one ½ pixel position in the horizontal and/or vertical direction, e.g. between a ½ pixel position and an integer pixel position. The discrete impulse response of the 4-tap filter for calculating ½ pixel values and the impulse response derived from which for calculating ¼ pixel values, correspond to respective frequency responses which are combined with weights according to the ratio of ½ and 1/4 pixel occurrences. The characteristics of the first impulse response, which in the preferred embodiment only have one degree of freedom, are tuned in such a way that the combined frequency response approaches an ideal frequency response being substantially flat close to one at low frequencies, and approaching zero at high frequencies. The present invention is especially useful in motion compensation in connection with inter prediction in video compression similar to the one defined in H.264/AVC.
Abstract:
The present invention relates to video conferencing and multimedia messaging, and takes advantage of the capabilities of the communication system to which the audio participants are connected, in order to increase the performance of all the participants in a mixed conference. In a preferred embodiment, the audio participants are provided with a MMS device, and a MMS Engine captures periodically, or at certain events, video conference data attached to MMS messages and addressed to the MMS device. In the opposite direction, the MMS device provides multimedia data to the conventional video conference participants by attaching the multimedia data to MMS messages, which are sent to the IP-addressable MMS Engine. The MMS Engine separates the multimedia data and converts it to a format compatible with the video conference. The converted multimedia data is then provided to video conference participants, and treated like any other multimedia stream included in the video conference.
Abstract:
The present invention applies to video coding and discloses a method for removing transform coding noise especially in flat areas of a frame, which appears as remaining parts of moving objects in a video picture. This is provided by forcing a macroblock to be intra coded instead of inter coded when certain criteria are fulfilled. The purpose is to reveal whether the macroblock contains annoying quantization generated noise and to detect if an equalization is necessary.
Abstract:
The present invention discloses a method of detecting overproduction of data when an H.323 endpoint is transmitting more video or other data than initially negotiated, and makes it produce less by utilising standard flow control procedures. Flow control messages are sent periodically, incrementally instructing the H.323 endpoint to transmit lower amounts of bit rates, until the video rate received from the endpoint is equal to or lower than the initially negotiated rate, or some other fixed rate.
Abstract:
A video encoder/decoder device, method, and computer program product combine to enhance entropy encoding by using different calculation approaches for assessing costs of using different encoding modes for a video encoding. Moreover, frames in a sequence, and/or sub-frames within a frame may have lowest cost coding modes selected using different cost calculation approaches. One exemplary cost calculation is SAD and another is SSD. A net effect is better subjective video quality for a given bitrate, with reduced encoder complexity, especially when recognizing the lesser amount of computational resources required to support SAD as opposed to SSD.
Abstract:
The present invention relates to video conferencing and data collaboration, and in particular to pairing personal computers and video conferencing appliances. The invention discloses a method and a computer readable storage medium in a computer for pairing the computer and a video conferencing appliance (endpoint, terminal, client) by emitting encoded and/or modulated sound from the computer's loudspeaker being captured by microphones of the video conferencing appliances in the proximity. The encoded/modulated sound includes a special signature recognizable for pairing compatible appliances followed by a randomly generated identification token generated by the computer. Assuming that both the computer and the nearby endpoints are connected to the same communication network like a LAN, WLAN or WAN, video conference entities will be able to identify, be aware of and access each other, enabling a user to control and transfer data to the video conference appliance from a User Interface provided by an application installed on the computer.
Abstract:
A video teleconferencing directional microphone includes two microphone elements arranged coincidentally on vertical axis. The two microphone elements are placed on a supporting surface so that a first microphone element is on the surface, and the second microphone elements are elevated above the supporting surface. The directional microphone also includes filters, an adder assembly, and an equalizer, which are used to shape the directivity pattern of the directional microphone into a toroid sensitivity pattern. The toroid sensitivity pattern increases sensitivity in the direction of a sound source of interest, while simultaneously reduces sensitivity to any sound waves generated by noise sources from certain elevation angles. The microphone can be configured to have low sensitivity at angles where noise sources are located.
Abstract:
The presented invention relates to a device and method for controlling the operation of one or more cameras associated with a video conference endpoint in a video conference call. A camera control unit (remote control) according to the present invention is a touch enabled end user component that presents to the user graphical objects representing video conference endpoints currently connected in a conference call, and/or one or more live video feeds currently captured by the video conference endpoint's cameras, and allows the user to manipulate a camera's pan, tilt and zoom using a touch screen display embedded in said camera control unit.
Abstract:
The present invention is related to implementation of early skip of transform coefficients related to video compression systems in computer devices.