System and method of self-discovery and self-calibration in a video conferencing system
View Patent ↗A method of self-discovery and self-calibration is provided for allowing arbitrary placement of audio and video components in a multimedia conferencing system. In particular, one or more markers are provided on the audio components (e.g. microphone arrays, etc.) that are detectable by the video components (e.g. cameras). A unique signature (e.g. flashing sequence, color, etc.) characterizes each marker so that its exact location relative to the camera may be calculated. A self-calibration operation is then performed to relate, regulate and standardize dimensions and locations in the conferencing environment to the video system.
1. A method of self-discovery of at least one video component in a multimedia conferencing system having at least one source of directional information, comprising:
detecting the presence of at least one marker on said source of directional information;
activating said marker to generate a unique signature for identifying said source of directional information;
retrieving from a database physical characteristics of the identified source of directional information; and
capturing an image of said source of directional information via said video component and determining the location of the source of directional information within the image based on said physical characteristics and in response determining the location of the source of directional information relative to the video component.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said at least one marker is selected from the group comprising LEDs, IR-LEDs, ultra sound transducers, and magnetic pickup components.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said unique signature comprises a marker flashing sequence.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said unique signature comprises a marker color.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said unique signature comprises the IP address of said source of directional information.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising self-calibration of said video component to relate, regulate and standardize dimensions and locations of said components in the multimedia conferencing system.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said self-calibration further comprises (i) capturing the image of said at least one marker via said video component, (ii) identifying the location of the marker in the image and in response (iii) determining intrinsic physical parameters of the video component, (iv) panning and tilting said video component and repeating steps (i) to (iii).
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said intrinsic physical parameters include at least one of focal length, principal point, skew coefficient, and the lens distortions.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein said step of determining the location of the source of directional information relative to the video component includes determining the center of the source of directional information and its exact direction with respect to the video component, the distance between the video component and the source of directional information, rotation of the source of directional information relative to the video component, and tilt of the source of directional information with respect to the video component.
10. The method according to any one of the preceding claims 1 - 9 wherein said source of directional information is a microphone or a microphone array.