Multiplex communications – Special services – Conferencing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-10
2004-05-18
Nguyen, Brian (Department: 2661)
Multiplex communications
Special services
Conferencing
C348S014080, C709S204000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06738356
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to teleconferencing, and particularly relates to a system for video object merging where the merging is in respect of object oriented video data.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Video conferencing or teleconferencing is also referred to, more broadly, as multimedia conferencing. Any multimedia conferencing system may utilise a variety of media types and sources, but particularly utilises live or real-time video and audio sources from a plurality of remote users. Those remote users may be geographically scattered very widely, ranging from being located in different areas in the same office building, to different cities, and even to different continents.
The present invention is particularly directed to a system where there is a plurality of video streams to be handled, each from one of a plurality of different sources. No consideration is given as to whether the video streams all comply with the same protocol, it being recognized that varying processing units for various video streams can be arranged so as to accommodate differing protocols.
However, in order for the object oriented video merging system of the present invention to be operative, the video streams must be in synchronism, each comprising active video frames and blanking intervals between each pair of consecutive active video frames, where all of the active video frames have essentially the same finite time span and repetition frequency.
In any teleconferencing circumstance , there will be at least two participants, and usually many participants. Generally, the total number of participants in a particular teleconferencing conference may be dynamically configurable.
In any event, each participant will generate a video flow—a screen of video data which is organized in frames and blanking intervals between the frames, with video data being present in each frame. Other informational data may be present or injected into the data stream in the blanking interval between active video frames, or may be otherwise communicated between the participants.
Indeed, as will be discussed hereafter, the blanking interval between video frames whether it be vertical and/or horizontal blanking—may be divided into a plurality of time slots whereby priority, identification, and other data, can be assigned to each video screen in preselected or designated time slots.
A variety of multimedia conferencing systems are known, a particular one of which is described in Jang et al U.S. Pat. No. 6,442,758. That multimedia conferencing system includes a central processing hub; and the object oriented video merging system of the present invention may be employed in the video encoding and processing portions of that multimedia conferencing system.
The present invention provides an object oriented video merging system, the principal feature of which is that there is provided a backplane having a common medium video bus which provides a centralized medium onto which a plurality of video objects may be merged. Of course, it will be understood that each object is a two-dimensional shape which is contained within any active video frame. As to the shape of the object, it may and generally will vary from frame to frame, and it may be a simple object or it may be very complex shape. As such, the object is, however, describable by polynomials which may be simple polynomials; or it may be that a complex algorithm might be required to describe the two-dimensional shape which is the video object to be merged.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Polomski, U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,646, issued Feb. 4, 1997, and its continuation and co-terminous U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,664 each teach a video teleconferencing system where digital transcoding is employed so as to obtain algorithm transcoding, transmission rate matching, and spatial mixing. A multipoint control unit allows multiple terminals to send and receive compressed digital data signals, so as to communicate with each other in a conference. The video processing unit which performs algorithm transcoding, rate matching, and spatial mixing, includes a time division multiplex pixel bus and a plurality of processors. In a receive mode, each processor receives and decodes compressed video signals from its assigned terminal and puts the decoded signal onto the pixel bus. In a transmit mode, each processor receives from the pixel bus uncompressed video signals, which are processed and then coded for transmission to a respective assigned terminal. Video decoding time due to motion displacement search is reduced by passing displacement information from the compressed video signals to the encoder to be used directly, or as seed for further refinements of the motion displacement field.
Two United States Patents issued to Lukacs, U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,096, issued Aug. 12, 1997 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,011, issued Apr. 7, 1998, each teach a real time video conferencing system and method where a central multimedia bridge is used to combine multimedia signals from a plurality of conference participants into a single composite signal for each participant. Here, each conference participant is given the ability to customize their own individual display of the other participants, including the ability to key in and out selective portions of the display and overlapping display images, together with the ability to identify individual images in a composed video stream by click and drag operations. A chain of video composing modules is employed, to combine video signal streams from any number of conference participants in real time. Each participant in a conference may dynamically change the right of access of other participants to the information that they provide to the conference.
Bruno et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,784,561, issued Jul. 21, 1998, is concerned with on-demand, real-time video conferencing, and provides a system which includes at least one video control system. That control system received an on-demand request for a video conference from a user and then, in real time, allocates video conferencing resources and connects the user with at least one other video conference participant through a circuit switched communications network. Each user is connected with at least one other video conference participant, based on the number of total participants that there are, the number of video ports which are available in the video conference control system, and the available connection paths in the circuit switched communications network.
Ely et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,424, issued Aug. 18, 1998, describes a system and method for providing video conferencing services where a broadband switch network, a broadband session controller, and a broadband service control point are provided. Here, connections are provided between information senders and receivers in response to instructions from the broadband service control point or in response to requests which are originated by any remote information sender/receiver. The broadband service control point provides processing instructions and/or data to the broadband controller and to each remote sender/receiver. The system is particularly directed to video-on-demand utilization. Whenever a user requires a video from a video information provider, the broadband session controller establishes communication between the set top controller at the remote user's location and the video information provider, requesting processing information from the broadband service control point in response to predetermined triggers. A broadband connection between a video information provider and a specific user is established under control of the broadband session controller. If the system is to be used in video conferencing, the set top controller will control cameras, microphones, and so on. Telephone services may also be provided over the same integrated network.
Aras, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,653, issued Feb. 2, 1999, teaches a method and apparatus for multi-cast based video conferencing. Here, a multi-cast server sets up a multi-cast over a point-to-multipoint connection, which
Geofroy Paul Joseph
Russell Paul Robert
Wu Wai Ho
(Marks & Clerk)
Convedia Corporation
Nguyen Brian
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