Telepresence Communications

When creating a virtual shared space it is important to maintain consistency between the spaces for communication purposes. Thus user interactions in one space are reflected in another as intended. This facilitates collaboration and enhances the experience. In the prior art this is typically done by requiring that all users in the virtual shared space have identical models of the shared world and only their viewpoints change. This has the disadvantage of not allowing users to customize their views and enhance their experiences in this shared world. The disclosed architecture proposes a method that:

1) Enables customization of a virtual space. Thus a user can add, delete, or move items to create a custom experience while at the same time preserving gaze and direction. Thus users in other virtual spaces see the user interact, gaze, and point to the same corresponding objects.

2) Satisfies the requirement that every endpoint configuration in the virtual space be independent of all others so that modifications made at one location do not have to be communicated to all other endpoints.

[Reference1: Magdi Mohamed, Eric Buhrke, and Julius Gyorfi, "Method and Apparatus to Facilitate a Differently Configured Virtual Reality Experience for Some Participants in a Communication Session", filed application with the United States Patent Office on March 27, 2007],

[Reference2: Eric Buhrke, Mike Danielsen, Richard Li, Magdi Mohamed, and Mark Tarlton, "Method and System for Distributed Collaborative Communications", filed application with the United States Patent Office on December 12, 2006],

[Reference3: Magdi Mohamed, Mark Tarlton, and George Valliath, "Method and Apparatus for Providing an Animated Display with Translated Speech", filed application with the United States Patent Office on October 8, 2002; issued by USPO as Patent No. US006925438-B2 on August 2, 2005].

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Telepresence
• Virtual-Communication
• User-Interfaces
• Motion-Tracking
• Computer-Animations