Granted Patent B1

US 12,627,771 · App. 18/305,214 · Granted May 12, 2026

Inventors: Lara Marie Nelson (San Jose, CA); Brandon Kevin Roper (Washington, UT)

Assignee: Zoom Communications, Inc.

H04N7/157G06T7/194H04N5/272H04N7/152

Abstract

Claims (56)

1 . A method, comprising:

receiving, from a conference participant via a user interface, an indication of a portion of a virtual background associated with dynamic content, wherein the indication comprises a bounding box indicating an area of the virtual background to be populated with the dynamic content;

receiving, from the conference participant, a dynamic content source comprising a whiteboard software and a viewport specification defining a portion of a whiteboard to be used as the dynamic content;

receiving, from the conference participant, a timeout period associated with setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content, wherein the timeout period determines when to stop setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content;

receiving, from the conference participant, representation handling criteria indicating placement of a representation of the conference participant in relation to the dynamic content;

while a condition related to setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content is met, the condition comprising that the timeout period has not expired, performing steps comprising:

obtaining new content from the dynamic content source;

generating an image associated with the conference participant that includes the new content within the portion of the virtual background, wherein generating the image comprises positioning the representation of the conference participant according to the representation handling criteria; and

transmitting the image for display at a device of another conference participant of a conference that includes the conference participant; and

stopping setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content upon expiration of the timeout period.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the new content from the dynamic content source comprises:

querying the dynamic content source for the new content.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the new content from the dynamic content source comprises:

receiving the new content via a push of the new content from the dynamic content source.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the condition related to setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content is met comprises that a device of the conference participant has not disconnected from the conference.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the condition related to setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content is met comprises that an indication to stop including the dynamic content in the portion of the virtual background has not been received from the conference participant.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the portion of the virtual background is co-extensive with the virtual background.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, from the conference participant, a fitting criterion indicating how the new content should be adjusted to fit within the portion of the virtual background; and

adjusting a size of the new content according to the fitting criterion before generating the image.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, from the conference participant, a size setting criterion indicating whether to automatically determine a size of a representation of the conference participant or to set the size of the representation based on a provided size, wherein generating the image comprises adjusting the size of the representation according to the size setting criterion.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the conference comprises an immersive view displaying conference participants in a virtual environment, and the image is generated for display within the immersive view such that the conference participant appears to be physically co-located with other conference participants.

10 . A device, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor, the processor configured to execute instructions stored in the memory to:

receive, from a conference participant via a user interface, an indication of a portion of a virtual background associated with dynamic content, wherein the indication comprises a bounding box indicating an area of the virtual background to be populated with the dynamic content;

receive, from the conference participant, a dynamic content source comprising a whiteboard software and a viewport specification defining a portion of a whiteboard to be used as the dynamic content;

receive, from the conference participant, a timeout period associated with setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content, wherein the timeout period determines when to stop setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content;

receive, from the conference participant, representation handling criteria indicating placement of a representation of the conference participant in relation to the dynamic content;

while a condition related to setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content is met, the condition comprising that the timeout period has not expired, perform instructions to:

obtain new content from the dynamic content source;

generate an image associated with the conference participant that includes the new content within the portion of the virtual background, wherein to generate the image comprises to position the representation of the conference participant according to the representation handling criteria; and

transmit the image for display at a device of another conference participant of a conference that includes the conference participant; and

stop setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content upon expiration of the timeout period.

11 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the instructions to obtain the new content from the dynamic content source comprise instructions to:

query the dynamic content source for the new content.

12 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the instructions to obtain the new content from the dynamic content source comprise instructions to:

receive the new content via a push of the new content from the dynamic content source.

13 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the condition related to setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content is met comprises that a device of the conference participant has not disconnected from the conference.

14 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the condition related to setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content is met comprises that an indication to stop including the dynamic content in the portion of the virtual background has not been received from the conference participant.

15 . The device of claim 10 , wherein the portion of the virtual background is co-extensive with the virtual background.

16 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions operable to cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a conference participant via a user interface, an indication of a portion of a virtual background associated with dynamic content, wherein the indication comprises a bounding box indicating an area of the virtual background to be populated with the dynamic content;

receiving, from the conference participant, a dynamic content source comprising a whiteboard software and a viewport specification defining a portion of a whiteboard to be used as the dynamic content;

receiving, from the conference participant, a timeout period associated with setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content, wherein the timeout period determines when to stop setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content;

receiving, from the conference participant, representation handling criteria indicating placement of a representation of the conference participant in relation to the dynamic content;

while a condition related to setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content is met, the condition comprising that the timeout period has not expired, performing steps comprising:

obtaining new content from the dynamic content source;

generating an image associated with the conference participant that includes the new content within the portion of the virtual background, wherein generating the image comprises positioning the representation of the conference participant according to the representation handling criteria; and

transmitting the image for display at a device of another conference participant of a conference that includes the conference participant; and

stopping setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content upon expiration of the timeout period.

17 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the condition related to setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content is met comprises that a device of the conference participant has not disconnected from the conference.

18 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the condition related to setting the portion of the virtual background based on the dynamic content is met comprises that an indication to stop including the dynamic content in the portion of the virtual background has not been received from the conference participant.

19 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein obtaining the new content from the dynamic content source comprises:

registering a callback function with the whiteboard software to receive notifications of content changes within the viewport specification, wherein the whiteboard software is configured to transmit notifications through the callback function when an edit to the whiteboard results in modifications to any portion of the viewport specification.

Assignments (1)

References Cited (33)