US 7,679,639 B2Granted

System and method for enhancing eye gaze in a telepresence system

AssigneeCisco Technology, Inc.

InventorsRandy K. Harrell, Michael J. Dhuey, Richard T. Wales, Philip E. Marechal, Philip R. Graham, Ashok T. Desai, Andrew D. Grunes, Tark Abed, Pete Lombrozo, Peter H. J. How

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Abstract

A system for enhancing eye gaze in a telepresence system includes a plurality of local cameras coupled to at least one local display. Each local camera is directed to at least one respective local user section and operable to generate an image of the respective local user section. The system also includes a plurality of remote displays. Each remote display is operable to reproduce the local video image of the local user section. Within the system the plurality of remote displays and the plurality of local cameras are aligned such that when a first local user within a local user section looks at a target at least one remote display is operable to reproduce the local video image of the first user section comprising the first local user such that the eye gaze of the reproduced image of the first local user is directed approximately at a corresponding target.

Claims30

Dependent claims

A system for enhancing eye gaze in a telepresence system, comprising:

a plurality of local cameras coupled to at least one local display of a plurality of local displays, each local camera directed to at least one unique local user section of a plurality of local user sections and operable to generate a local video image of the at least one unique respective local user section;
a plurality of remote displays, each remote display associated with a respective local camera of the plurality of local cameras and operable to concurrently reproduce the local video image of the at least one unique local user section generated by its respective local camera;
and
wherein the plurality of remote displays and the plurality of local cameras are aligned such that when a first local user within at least one local user section looks at a target at least one remote display of the plurality of remote displays is operable to reproduce the local video image of the at least one local user section comprising at least the first local user such that the eye gaze of the reproduced image of the first local user is directed approximately at a corresponding target.

1 more element

A method for enhancing eye gaze in a telepresence system, comprising:

coupling a plurality of local cameras to at least one local display of a plurality of local displays;
directing each local camera to at least one unique local user section of a plurality of local user sections;
generating a local video image from each local camera of the at least one unique respective local user section;
concurrently reproducing the local video image of the at least one unique local user section generated by its respective local camera on a respective display of a plurality of remote displays, wherein each remote display is associated with a respective local camera of the plurality of local cameras;
and
aligning the plurality of remote displays and the plurality of local cameras such that when a first local user within the at least one local user section looks at a target at least one remote display of the plurality of remote displays is operable to reproduce the local video image of the at least one local user section comprising at least the first local user such that the eye gaze of the reproduced image of the first local user is directed approximately at a corresponding target.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/483,507Filed 10 Jul 2006 · us provisional application
Priority: 20 Apr 2006
Published: US 2007/0263080 A115 Nov 2007
Granted: 16 Mar 2010
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification3 codes

H04N 7/144
Constructional details of the terminal equipment, e.g. arrangements of the camera and the display: camera and display on the same optical axis,…
H04N 7/15
Systems for two-way working: conference systems
H04N
Pictorial communication