System and method for teleinteraction

In a teleconference system in which images originating at a first teleconference site are displayed at a second teleconference site and images originating at a second teleconference site are displayed at said first teleconference site, a system for teleinteractively pointing within an image displayed at a site local to conferee that originated at a site remote to said conferee, comprising:

• at least one local imaging means to capture images within a target space at said local site;
• at least one remote imaging means to capture images within a target space at said remote site;
• at least one local display means to display images captured by said local imaging means and images captured by said remote imaging means;
• at least one remote display means to display images captured by said remote imaging means and images captured by said local imaging means;
• selectively activated pointer means at said local site where said pointer means is directed by a local conferee to point within a selected one of said local image and said remote image to define a local pointer-overlaid image, and said local pointer-overlaid image is displayable by said local and remote display means;
• and
• selectively activated pointer means at said remote site where said pointer means is directed by a remote conferee to point within a selected one of said remote image and said local image to define a remote pointer-overlaid image, and said remote pointer-overlaid image is displayable on said local and remote display means.

In a video teleconference site in which local images originate at said site and are displayable at a remote teleconference site and in which remote images originating at said remote teleconference site are displayable at said teleconference site, an apparatus for interactively pointing within either of said local and remote images, comprising:

• at least one imaging means to continuously capture said local images within a target space at said teleconference site;
• at least one display means to display said local and said remote images;
• switching means at said teleconference site for selectively designating for output from said teleconference site one of said local and remote images input to said switching means;
• input signal splitting means for distributing an incoming signal from said remote teleconference site to said display means and to said switching means;
• selectively activated pointer means where said pointer is directed by a teleconference conferee to point within the selected output image designated by said switching means to define a pointer-overlaid image;
• and
• output signal splitting means at said teleconference site to enable display of said pointer-overlaid image at said teleconference site and at said remote teleconference site.

In a teleconferencing system in which a first set of images originating at a local teleconference site are displayable at a remote teleconference site and a second set of images originating at said remote teleconference site are displayable at said local teleconference site, an apparatus for teleinteractively pointing within at least one of said first or second set of images displayed at said local teleconference site, comprising:

• switching means for selectively designating for output from said local teleconference site one of said images from said first set or said second set of video images input to said switching means;
• input signal splitting means for distributing an incoming signal from said remote teleconference site to each of a display means and said switching means;
• selectively activated pointer means where said pointer is directed by a teleconference conferee to point within the selected output image designated by said switching means to define a pointer-overlaid image;
• and
• output signal splitting means to enable said pointer-overlaid image to be displayed on the local teleconference site display means and to enable transmission to said remote teleconference site.

In a N-site teleconference system in which images originating at one of said N teleconference sites are displayed at each of said N teleconference sites and images originating at each of said N teleconference sites are displayed at a particular teleconference site, a system for teleinteractively pointing within an image displayed at a site local to a conferee that originated at a site remote to said conferee, comprising:

• imaging means at each of said N teleconference sites to capture images within a target space;
• at least one display means at each of said N teleconference sites to display images captured by said imaging means;
• and
• selectively activated pointer means at each of said N teleconference sites where said pointer means is directed by a local conferee to selectively point within a selected one of said images to define a pointer-overlaid image, and said pointer-overlaid image is displayable on each of said display means.

In a teleconference system in which images originating at a first teleconference site are displayed at a second teleconference site and images originating at a second teleconference site are displayed at said first teleconference site, a method for teleinteractively pointing within an image displayed at a site local to an operator that originated at a site remote to said operator, comprising the steps of:

• capturing video images within a target space at said local teleconference site;
• capturing video images within a target space at said remote teleconference site;
• displaying at each teleconference site said images captured at said local site and said images captured at said remote site;
• switchably selecting locally at each teleconference site for output one of said captured video images;
• and
• selectively activating locally at each teleconference site pointer means to overlay a pointer within said selected output image to define a pointer-overlaid video image.

In a teleconferencing system in which images originating at one of N teleconference sites are displayable at each of said N teleconference sites, and images originating at each of said N teleconference sites are displayed at said one teleconference site, a method for teleinteractively pointing within any image displayed at a site local to an operator, comprising the steps of:

• capturing video images within a target space at each of said N teleconference sites;
• displaying at each of said N teleconference sites said captured images;
• switchably selecting for output at each of said N teleconference sites one of said captured video images;
• and
• selectively activating at each of said N teleconference sites pointer means to overlay a pointer within said selected output image to define a pointer-overlaid video image.