Interactive video conferencing

1. At least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon for supporting region of interest (ROI) signaling between a multimedia telephony services over internet protocol (IP) multimedia subsystems (IMS) (MTSI) receiver and a MTSI sender, the instructions when executed by one or more processors cause the MTSI receiver to perform the following:

defining, at the MTSI receiver, a requested region of interest (ROI);

mapping, at the MTSI receiver, the requested ROI to one or more pan, tilt, zoom and focus (PTZF) commands;

storing, in a memory device, the one or more PTZF commands that are mapped to the requested ROI; and

encoding the one or more PTZF commands for transmission to the MTSI sender via real-time transport protocol (RTP) packets, wherein the one or more PTZF commands represent the requested ROI.

2. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions which when executed by the one or more processors cause the MTSI receiver to perform the following: decoding, at the MTSI receiver, encoded video received from the MTSI sender, wherein the encoded video is within the requested ROI.

3. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the one or more PTZF commands are in accordance with an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) H.281 protocol that supports camera movements for pan, tilt, zoom and focus (PTZF).

4. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:

a pan command is mapped to left or right movements or translations over an image plane when the MTSI sender includes a fixed non-moving camera; or

a tilt command is mapped to up or down movements or translations over the image plane when the MTSI sender includes the fixed non-moving camera.

5. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions which when executed by the one or more processors cause the MTSI receiver to perform the following: signaling the one or more PTZF commands to the MTSI sender in accordance with a far end camera control (FECC) protocol.

6. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions which when executed by the one or more processors cause the MTSI receiver to perform the following: signaling the one or more PTZF commands to the MTSI sender via the RTP packets that carry H.224 frames using a stack internet protocol (IP)/user datagram protocol (UDP)/RTP/H.224/H.281.

7. The at least one non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions which when executed by the one or more processors cause the MTSI receiver to perform the following: zooming into an arbitrary ROI at the MTSI receiver based on the one or more PTZF commands.

8. An apparatus of a local client operable to support an interactive zooming feature, the apparatus comprising:

memory; and

one or more processors configured to:

define, at the local client, a region of interest (ROI) within a field of view of a camera associated with a remote client;

map, at the local client, the ROI to one or more pan, tilt, zoom and focus (PTZF) commands;

store, in the memory, the one or more PTZF commands that are mapped to the ROI; and

encode, at the local client, the one or more PTZF commands for transmission from the local client to the remote client via real-time transport protocol (RTP) packets.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit the one or more PTZF commands from the local client to the remote client via the RTP packets.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

decode encoded video within the ROI received from the remote client, the encoded video including regions within the ROI and excluding regions outside the ROI; and

provide the encoded video within the ROI for rendering and display at the local client.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the one or more PTZF commands are in accordance with an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) H.281/H.224 protocol.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: process the one or more PTZF commands for delivery to the remote client in a single transmission.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: define the ROI based on a received user input.

14. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: send the one or more PTZF commands from the local client to the remote client in accordance with a far end camera control (FECC) protocol.

15. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: define the ROI based on a user selection provided to the local client.

16. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: operate a video conferencing application with the remote client that supports a ROI-based interactive zooming feature.

17. An apparatus of a remote client operable to perform video conferencing with a local client, the apparatus comprising:

memory; and

one or more processors configured to:

process, at the remote client, one or more pan, tilt, zoom and focus (PTZF) commands received from the local client via real-time transport protocol (RTP) packets;

identify, at the remote client, a region of interest (ROI) based on the one or more PTZF commands;

encode video within the ROI at the remote client; and

process, at the remote client, the encoded video within the ROI for transmission to the local client.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit the encoded video within the ROI from the remote client to the local client.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the encoded video includes regions within the ROI and excludes regions outside the ROI.

20. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: store, in a memory of the remote client, the one or more PTZF commands and the ROI that corresponds to the one or more PTZF commands.

21. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: process the one or more PTZF commands received from the local client in a single transmission.

22. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: identify, at the remote client, the ROI to be within a field of view of a camera of the remote client.

23. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: capture the encoded video within the ROI via a fixed non-moving camera in the remote client, wherein a pan command is mapped to left or right movements or translations over an image plane when the remote client includes the fixed non-moving camera, or a tilt command is mapped to up or down movements or translations over the image plane when the remote client includes the fixed non-moving camera.

24. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: decode the one or more PTZF commands received from the local client in accordance with a far end camera control (FECC) protocol.

25. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the one or more PTZF commands are in accordance with an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) H.281/H.224 protocol.