Personal controls for personal video communications

1. A method for operating a video communication system at a local site, the method comprising the steps of:

determining initial privacy settings for a video communication event;

establishing a video communication link with a video communication system at a remote site;

capturing video images of a field of view of at least one image capture device, and transmitting the video images in accordance with the initial privacy settings;

using a scene analysis algorithm to automatically determine a video context based at least in part upon a determined contextual classification for the communication event based upon the video images;

determining a video context based upon the contextual classification and the video images;

automatically determining new privacy settings in accordance with the determined video context;

analyzing the captured video images to identify privacy sensitive areas in the captured video images, using a scene analysis algorithm which examines a content of the video images and image context characteristics of the video images based upon the determined privacy settings;

modifying the image characteristics in the identified privacy sensitive image areas in the captured video images, to control the image and image context characteristics shared with the remote viewer, to an extent consistent with the determined privacy settings; and

transmitting the modified video images to the remote site.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said image context characteristics are analyzed to determine a correlation with at least one of the initial and the determined privacy settings.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the video images are captured in a sequence and wherein the scene analysis algorithm evaluates both current and prior video images in the sequence to at least determine a video context.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein privacy settings establish field of view limits that control the ranges of panning, tilting, or zooming of the at least one image capture device.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the remote viewer can direct image capture within the local site, but only within the field of view limits.

6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the portions of the video images corresponding to the limited portions of the field of view are modified by image altering methods, including cropping, blurring, or shading.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the initial privacy settings are at least one of default privacy settings and are settings determined during a preview mode.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the video context is determined from by identifying contextual cues in the video images that include at least one of event classifications, user classifications, user identity, user gestures, and user behaviors.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein the video context is determined with respect to defined automatic video capture modes that each specify a range of defined video capture settings, the automatic video capture modes including at least one of a fully automatic mode, a semi-automatic mode, a preview mode, a lock and follow mode, a hierarchical mode, a portable mode, a media space, and a mode selected based upon an event classification.

10. The method according to claim 1 wherein the privacy settings relating to video content, define or are defined by, factors including image display, audio usage, body gestures, personal body privacy, user identity, remote viewer identity, or objects present in a capture field of view.

11. A video communication system for controlling audio or video content shared between a video communication device at a local site, and a remote a video communication device, the system operating during a communication event and comprising:

at least two video communication devices, each having:

an image display device;

at least one image capture device which acquires video images of the local environment, and individuals therein, according to defined video capture settings;

an audio system having both an audio emission device and an audio capture device; and

a computer, which is operable to enable a privacy interface, a contextual interface including a scene analysis algorithm, an image processor, and a communication controller which enables transmission between local and remote video communication devices during a communication event;

wherein the privacy interface allows a user to establish provides privacy settings that control the capture, transmission, display, or recording of video image content from the local environment; and

wherein the contextual interface is adapted to use the scene analysis algorithm to assess the video images captured by the at least one image capture device and to automatically determine a contextual classification for the communication event based upon the video images and to determine a video context based at least in part using a determined contextual classification for the communication event and the video images, and

wherein the contextual interface further automatically determines new privacy settings in accordance with the determined video context, and wherein the image processor modifies outgoing transmitted video in accordance with both the new and user provided privacy settings.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the computer adjusts the operation of the at least one image capture device or the image processor to control the video image content in accordance with the determined modifications.

13. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the privacy settings are expressed as privacy setting metrics, which are to used by the scene analysis algorithm to correlate the privacy settings with the video context.

14. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the modification defines a limit of a field of view captured by the at least one image capture device.

15. The system according to claim 11 , wherein said modification causes a portion of a captured field of view of the at least one image capture device not to be displayed, transmitted, or recorded.

16. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the image display device at the local site displays with a split screen, a split screen image portion showing images of the local environment that includes both the outgoing image and at least some image portions effected by privacy settings, including at least one captured field of view omitted by the current privacy settings.

17. The system according to claim 11 , wherein shared video image content originating with the remote viewer is modified to conform to privacy settings provided at the local site.

18. The system according to claim 11 , wherein access to the privacy interface, and the privacy settings therein, is limited in a variable way relative to different individuals at the local site.

19. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the privacy interface enables visual or audio alerts to indicate the occurrence of local image capture, image transmission environment to a remote viewer, or local or remote recording of the local image content.

20. The system according to claim 11 wherein the video context is determined by identifying contextual cues in the video images that include at least one of event classifications, user classifications, user identity, user gestures, and user behaviors.

21. The system according to claim 11 wherein the video context is determined with respect to defined automatic video capture modes that each specify a range of defined video capture settings, the automatic video capture modes including at least one of a fully automatic mode, a semi-automatic mode, a preview mode, a lock and follow mode, a hierarchical mode, a portable mode, a media space, and a mode determined based upon an event classification.

22. The system according to claim 11 wherein the privacy settings relating to video content, define or are defined by, factors including at least one of image display, audio usage, body gestures, personal body privacy, user identity, remote viewer identity, and objects present in a capture field of view.