IP Library Granted Patent US 12,250,448
Granted Patent B2
US 12,250,448 · App. 17/953,543 · Granted Mar 11, 2025

Intelligent video conference cropping based on audio and vision

Inventors: Christian Schubert (Schandelah, DE); Matthew W. Remijn (Grand Rapids, MI)
Assignee: GENTEX CORPORATION
H04N23/62G06F3/167G06V20/597G06V40/164G06V40/20H04L12/1813H04N5/2628
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,250,448
App. No.
17/953,543
Granted
Mar 11, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

A video conferencing system for a vehicle includes a display device disposed in a passenger compartment of the vehicle, the display device comprising a screen, a first imager configured to capture a first image data corresponding to a field of view of a passenger compartment of the vehicle, at least one microphone configured to collect audio data from within the passenger compartment, and a controller. The controller is configured detect a display prompt within the image data corresponding to a portion of the image data received from the first imager, detect an audio prompt within a predetermined zone of the passenger compartment of the vehicle, and selectively crop the first image data according to the portion of the image data corresponding with the display prompt in response to determining a correlation between the portion of the image data and the zone of the passenger department associated with the audio prompt.

Claims (19)

1. A video conferencing system for a vehicle comprising:

a first imager configured to capture a first image data corresponding to a field of view of a passenger compartment of the vehicle;

a plurality of microphones in respective predetermined locations corresponding with respective ones of a plurality of seating locations within the passenger compartment and configured to collect audio data from within the passenger compartment, wherein one of the plurality of seating locations corresponds with a driver seat location; and

a controller in communication with a vehicle network and configured to:

receive information related to a vehicle motion state from the vehicle network and determine that the vehicle is not in a motion state;

monitor for a display prompt within the image data corresponding to a portion of the image data received from the first imager;

monitor for an audio prompt at least primarily from one of the plurality of microphones within one of the seating locations;

determine a correlation between the portion of the image data and the seating area of the passenger compartment associated with the audio prompt, including if the seating area of the passenger compartment associated with the audio prompt is the driver seating location;

responsive to the vehicle being in a motion state, selectively crop the first image data according to the portion of the image data corresponding with the display prompt, only if the seating area of the passenger compartment associated with the audio prompt is not the driver seating location; and

responsive to the vehicle not being in a motion state, selectively crop the first image data according to the portion of the image data corresponding with the display prompt.

2. The video conferencing system of claim 1 , further comprising a display device disposed in a passenger compartment of the vehicle, the display device comprising a screen, wherein:

the controller is further configured to transmit the cropped portion of the image data and at least a portion of the audio data to an external conference server; and

the controller is further configured to receive video and audio data from the conference server.

3. The video conferencing system of claim 1 , wherein the display prompt corresponds to a detection of a movement of one or more features of an occupant of the vehicle identified in the first image data.

4. The video conferencing system of claim 1 , wherein the audio prompt corresponds to a detection of a sound identifiable as speech.

5. The video conferencing system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to detect at least one of a gesture and a motion of an occupant in the portion of image data to identify the display prompt.

6. The video conferencing system of claim 1 , wherein the portion of the image data and includes a facial region of the occupant.

7. The video conferencing system of claim 6 , wherein the portion of the image data includes an area surrounding the facial region according to one of a predetermined fixed border or a proportion of recognized features defining the facial region.

8. The video conferencing system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to digitally scale the selectively cropped first image data to an image size on an order of the first image data before the first image data is selectively cropped.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 27, 2022
From: SCHUBERT, CHRISTIAN; REMIJN, MATTHEW W.
To: GENTEX CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 061223/0911 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 63250495 · Sep 30, 2021
Related Publication 20230104622A1 · Apr 6, 2023
References Cited (95)
US 5334969A · Abe et al. · 1994 [cited by applicant]
US 5825527A · Forgette et al. · 1998 [cited by applicant]
US 5883605A · Knapp · 1999 [cited by applicant]
US 5917430A · Greneker, III et al. · 1999 [cited by applicant]
US 5978519A · Bollman · 1999 [cited by examiner]
US 6170956B1 · Rumsey et al. · 2001 [cited by applicant]
US 6265968B1 · Betzitza et al. · 2001 [cited by applicant]
US 6346698B1 · Turnbull · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 6407468B1 · Levesque et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 6420800B1 · Levesque et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 6552326B2 · Turnbull · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 6572233B1 · Northman et al. · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 6737630B2 · Turnbull · 2004 [cited by applicant]
US 6870655B1 · Northman et al. · 2005 [cited by applicant]
US 7403101B2 · Kropinski et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 7447320B2 · Bryson et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 7570155B2 · Horii · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 7852369B2 · Cutler et al. · 2010 [cited by applicant]
US 7983817B2 · Breed · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 8111282B2 · Cutler et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 8564662B2 · Busch et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 8582052B2 · Ockerse · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 8766846B2 · Kiehne · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 8903130B1 · Carceroni et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 9106789B1 · Shipman, Jr. et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 9376059B2 · Mauderer et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 9641585B2 · Kvaal et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 9674453B1 · Tangeland et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 9769419B2 · Tangeland et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 9800983B2 · Wacquant et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 9978389B2 · Buck et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 10666901B1 · Zheng et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 10769434B2 · Weller et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 20010013835A1 · Hsu et al. · 2001 [cited by applicant]
US 20020101505A1 · Gutta · 2002 [cited by examiner]
US 20030169339A1 · Allen · 2003 [cited by examiner]
US 20040037436A1 · Rui · 2004 [cited by applicant]
US 20040090525A1 · Eichmann · 2004 [cited by applicant]
US 20050075770A1 · Taylor et al. · 2005 [cited by applicant]
US 20050134441A1 · Somuah · 2005 [cited by applicant]
US 20050190048A1 · Yagyu et al. · 2005 [cited by applicant]
US 20050270620A1 · Bauer et al. · 2005 [cited by applicant]
US 20060050356A1 · Varaprasad et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 20060087582A1 · Scharenbroch et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 20060167595A1 · Breed et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 20060176160A1 · Zoratti et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 20070109104A1 · Altan et al. · 2007 [cited by applicant]
US 20070159531A1 · Anderson · 2007 [cited by applicant]
US 20080195273A1 · Matsuura et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 20080204556A1 · De Miranda et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 20090010494A1 · Bechtel et al. · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20090040306A1 · Foote et al. · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20090096937A1 · Bauer et al. · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20090116097A1 · Mccabe et al. · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20100046059A1 · Mccabe et al. · 2010 [cited by applicant]
US 20100066534A1 · Takeichi et al. · 2010 [cited by applicant]
US 20120162430A1 · Heslin et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20120212571A1 · Wang et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20120310547A1 · Cristoforo · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20140015971A1 · Dejuliis · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20140112554A1 · Chiu et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20140139655A1 · Mimar · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20140168435A1 · Tuhro et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20140207344A1 · Ihlenburg et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20140340516A1 · Vojtisek et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20150054934A1 · Haley et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150070156A1 · Milburn, Jr. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150085121A1 · Englander et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150201161A1 · Lachapelle et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150331519A1 · Lindahl et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20160029111A1 · Wacquant et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20170324933A1 · Alrod et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170347067A1 · Bostrom · 2017 [cited by examiner]
US 20180099612A1 · Weller et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
US 20180376108A1 · Bright-Thomas · 2018 [cited by examiner]
US 20200213560A1 · Zhang · 2020 [cited by examiner]
US 20210211603A1 · Shih et al. · 2021 [cited by applicant]
US 20220068140A1 · Brandon · 2022 [cited by examiner]
US 20220198774A1 · Wang · 2022 [cited by examiner]
CN 202608663U · 2012 [cited by applicant]
CN 105657329B · 2018 [cited by applicant]
CN 212696104U · 2021 [cited by applicant]
EP 2179586B1 · 2017 [cited by applicant]
JP 2004136761A · 2004 [cited by applicant]
JP 2006205923A · 2006 [cited by applicant]
JP 2007125963A · 2007 [cited by applicant]
JP 2008186793A · 2008 [cited by applicant]
JP 2019505429A · 2019 [cited by applicant]
KR 101900470B1 · 2018 [cited by applicant]
WO 2015174383A1 · 2015 [cited by applicant]
WO 2016021302A1 · 2016 [cited by applicant]
Durbin, Dee-Ann, AP, “New Ford System Helps Warn Police of Approaches,” USA Today, Jul. 19, 2013, 4 pages, Web, <https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/07/19/ford-system-warns-police/2568397/>. [cited by applicant]
Marshall, Aarian, “Dodge's Charger Gives Cops Eyes in the Backs of Their Heads,” Wired, Feb. 11, 2017, 41 pages, Web, <https://www.wired.com/2017/02/dodges-charger-gives-cops-eyes-backs-heads/>. [cited by applicant]
Hogan, Mack, “Dodge to Use its Parking Tech to Protect Police From Ambush Attacks,” CNBC, Feb. 10, 2017, 4 pages, Web, <https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/10/dodge-to-use-its-parking-tech-to-protect-police-from-ambush-attacks… [cited by applicant]
“Dodge's New Police Cars Have a Feature That Make Them a Cops Best Friend,” Alt Driver, Jul. 27, 2017, 7 pages, Web, <http://altdriver.com/good-guy-bad-guy/dodge-charger-pursuit-cop-car-ambush-sensors/>. [cited by applicant]
Cited By (1)
US 12,728,801