Adjusting relative left-right sound to provide sense of an avatar's position in a virtual space, and applications thereof
AssigneeKatmai Tech Holdings LLC
InventorsGerard Cornelis Krol, Erik Stuart Braund
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed herein is a web-based videoconference system that allows for video avatars to navigate within the virtual environment. The system has a presented mode that allows for a presentation stream to be texture mapped to a presenter screen situated within the virtual environment. The relative left-right sound is adjusted to provide sense of an avatar's position in a virtual space. The sound is further adjusted based on the area where the avatar is located and where the virtual camera is located. Video stream quality is adjusted based on relative position in a virtual space. Three-dimensional modeling is available inside the virtual video conferencing environment.
Claims21
A computer-implemented method for providing a virtual conference including a plurality of participants, comprising:
- from a perspective of a virtual camera of a first user, rendering for display to the first user a three-dimensional virtual space, the three-dimensional virtual space including an avatar with texture mapped video of a second user, the virtual camera at a first position in the three-dimensional virtual space and the avatar at a second position in the three-dimensional virtual space;
- receiving an audio stream from a microphone of a device of the second user, the microphone positioned to capture speech of the second user;
- and
- adjusting a volume of the received audio stream to determine a left audio stream and a right audio stream to provide a sense of where the second position is in the three-dimensional virtual space relative to the first position;
- and
- outputting the left audio stream and the right audio stream to be played to the first user in stereo.
A non-transitory, tangible computer-readable device having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one computing device, causes the at least one computing device to perform operations for presenting in a virtual conference including a plurality of participants, the operations comprising:
- from a perspective of a virtual camera of a first user, rendering for display to the first user a three-dimensional virtual space, the three-dimensional virtual space including an avatar with texture mapped video of a second user, the virtual camera at a first position in the three-dimensional virtual space and the avatar at a second position in the three-dimensional virtual space;
- receiving an audio stream from a microphone of a device of the second user, the microphone positioned to capture speech of the second user;
- and
- adjusting a volume of the received audio stream to determine a left audio stream and a right audio stream to provide a sense of where the second position is in the three-dimensional virtual space relative to the first position;
- and
- outputting the left audio stream and the right audio stream to be played to the first user in stereo.
A system for providing a virtual conference including a plurality of participants, comprising:
- a processor coupled to a memory;
- a renderer, implemented on the processor, configured to render for display to a first user a three-dimensional virtual space from a perspective of a virtual camera of the first user the three- dimensional virtual space including an avatar with texture mapped video of a second user, the virtual camera at a first position in the three-dimensional virtual space and the avatar at a second position in the three-dimensional virtual space;
- a network interface configured to receive an audio stream from a microphone of a device of the second user, the microphone positioned to capture speech of the second user;
- an audio processor configured to adjust a volume of the received audio stream to determine a left audio stream and a right audio stream to provide a sense of where the second position is in the three-dimensional virtual space relative to the first position;
- and
- a stereo speaker that outputs the left audio stream and the right audio stream to be played to the first user in stereo.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.