Multimedia Telecommunication Apparatus With Motion Tracking

1 . Apparatus comprising:

a dock for a personal wireless communication terminal;

a base;

a motorized mount joining the dock to the base and configured to rotate the dock about a vertical axis in response to a pan signal and about a horizontal axis in response to a tilt signal;

a sensor array comprising at least two spatially separated microphones and configured to produce output signals indicative of the location of a user;

a processor configured to process the sensor output signals, thereby to at least partially convert the sensor output signals to tracking signals; and

a controller electrically connected to the motorized mount and configured to convert the tracking signals to pan and tilt signals, thereby to aim a camera that is permanently or removeably attached to the dock.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a personal wireless communication terminal emplaced in the dock.

3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the camera is part of the personal wireless communication terminal.

4 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the personal wireless communication terminal is configured to receive tracking signals from a remote location for conversion to pan and tilt signals.

5 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the conversion of sensor output signals to tracking signals is done, at least in part, by a processor within the personal wireless communication terminal.

6 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the controller is implemented, at least in part, by a processor within the personal wireless communication terminal.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sensor array further comprises a thermal sensor and an ultrasonic sensor.

8 . A method performed using a personal wireless communication terminal emplaced in a dock, comprising:

transmitting a local user's voice from the terminal;

transmitting, from the terminal, a video signal produced by a camera; and

controlling, from the terminal, pan and tilt orientations of the camera, wherein the controlling step comprises:

receiving tracking signals indicative of a desired motion of the camera from at least one of: a local sensor array, a local manual control device, and a remote manual control device;

processing the tracking signals to produce pan and tilt signals; and

directing the pan and tilt signals to a motorized mount for the dock.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the step of receiving tracking signals comprises receiving output signals from the sensor array and processing the sensor output signals to determine desired rotational displacements for the camera.

10 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising displaying, on a screen of the personal communication terminal, a video image of a remote user.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising displaying, on the screen, an inset image representing the video signal being transmitted by the camera.

12 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising switching the transmitted video signal on and off in response to signaling from a remote location indicating respectively that the local user is or is not a currently designated speaker.

13 . A system comprising two or more personal wireless communication terminals that are situated at respective geographically separated locations and are interconnected by a communication network, wherein:

one or more of the personal wireless communication terminals are emplaced in respective docking apparatuses as recited in claim 1 ;

at least one of the geographically separated locations includes a stereophonic loudspeaker array arranged to reproduce user speech detected by the sensor array of said docking apparatus;

at least one of the personal wireless communication terminals: (a) is situated at a location that includes a stereophonic loudspeaker array, and (b) is configured so that in response to local user input, it will transmit tracking signals to at least one personal wireless communication terminal emplaced in a remote one of the docking apparatuses in order to aim a remote camera; and

the system further comprises a server configured to select at most one speaker at a time for video display by the personal wireless communication terminals.