Automatic video conference configuration to mitigate a disability
Video conferences are a common occurrence in many business, academic, and other settings. Systems and methods provided herein enable a participant of a video conference, who has an impairment or disability, such as to hearing, speech, or vision, to have that impairment or disability mitigated by automatically detecting and implementing mitigating actions to the participants local device and/or the devices of the remote participants.
1. A system, comprising:
at least one processor with a memory;
a user input-output device;
a network interface to enable the at least one processor to communicate via a network; and
wherein the user input-output device comprises a camera; and
wherein the at least one processor:
conducts a video conference as a node on a network and communicates via the network with a number of remote nodes associated with a number of remote participants;
receives an image from the user input-output device, the image comprising a local participant of the video conference;
determines that the image comprises indicia of a disability, wherein the disability impairs the local participant for at least one of speech, hearing, and vision;
in response to the determination that the image comprises indicia of the disability, altering an operational characteristic of the user input-output device to mitigate the disability for the video conference with respect to the at least one of speech, hearing, and vision utilized to participate in the video conference.
2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a data storage comprising records, each record comprising a graphical attribute and an associated disability; and
wherein the at least one processor determines that the image comprises the indicia of the disability further comprising the at least one processor determining that the image comprises a captured attribute that matches the graphical attribute of at least one of the records.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein:
the user input-output device further comprises a display visually presenting the video conference; and
wherein the at least one processor determines that the image comprises the indicia of the disability upon the at least one processor further determining that the graphical attribute comprises at least one of a head position or eye position of the local participant associated with the local participant directing their gaze to a location other than towards the display and wherein the disability comprises a vision disability.
4. The system of claim 2 , wherein:
the user input-output device further comprises a display visually presenting the video conference; and
wherein the at least one processor determines that the image comprises the indicia of the disability upon the at least one processor further determining that the graphical attribute comprises at least one of a head position or eye position of the local participant associated with the local participant wearing dark glasses and wherein the disability comprises a vision disability.
5. The system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one processor determines that the image comprises the indicia of the disability upon the at least one processor further determining that the graphical attribute comprises hand gestures while the local participant is speaking and wherein the disability comprises a hearing disability.
6. The system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one processor determines that the image comprises the indicia of the disability upon the at least one processor further determining that the graphical attribute comprises asymmetric facial movement and wherein the disability comprises a speech disability.
7. The system of claim 2 , wherein:
the user input-output device further comprises a microphone receiving speech from the local participant; and
the at least one processor determines that the image comprises the indicia of the disability upon the at least one processor further determining that facial gestures while providing speech to the microphone occur at a pace slower than a previously determined threshold pace and wherein the disability comprises a speech disability.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor alters the operational characteristic of the user input-output device to mitigate the disability for the video conference, further comprising, presenting an image of a first active speaker, of the number of remote participants, on the user input-output device with additional magnification of a mouth region of the first active speaker to facilitate lip reading by the local participant.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor alters the operational characteristic of the user input-output device to mitigate the disability for the video conference, further comprising, continuously presenting an image of a first active speaker and a second active speaker, of the number of remote participants, when engaged in a back-and-forth dialog therebetween, with additional magnification of a mouth region of each of the first active speaker and the second active speaker to facilitate lip reading of each of the first active speaker and the second active speaker by the local participant.
10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor alters the operational characteristic of the user input-output device to mitigate the disability for the video conference, further comprising, generating text from speech received by the number of remote participants and presenting the generated text on the user input-output device.
11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
the user input-output device further comprises a microphone receiving speech from the local participant; and
a data storage comprising records of sound cues associated with speech previously provided by the local participant and associated text; and
wherein the at least one processor alters the operational characteristic of the user input-output device to mitigate the disability for the video conference, further comprising, the microphone receiving a sound cue from the local participant and the at least one processor accessing a record of the sound cues and accessing the associated text and providing the associated text to each of the number of remote participants.
12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the number of remote participants is zero and wherein the at least one processor receives the image from the user input-output device and determines the image comprises indicia of the disability prior to any of the number of remote participants joining the video conference.
13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user input-output devices comprises a plurality of user input-output devices.
14. A method, comprising:
conducting a video conference over a network comprising a local node, utilized by a local participant, and a number of remote nodes associated with a number of remote participants;
receiving an image of the local participant of the video conference;
determining that the image comprises indicia of a disability, wherein the disability impairs the local participant for at least one of speech, hearing, and vision; and
in response the determination that the image comprises indicia of the disability, altering an operational characteristic of a user input-output device to mitigate the disability for the video conference with respect to the at least one of speech, hearing, and vision utilized to participate in the video conference.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein:
accessing a record, of a number of records, from a data storage device, each record comprising a graphical attribute and an associated disability; and
wherein the step of determining that the image comprises the indicia of the disability comprising determining that the image comprises a captured attribute that matches the graphical attribute of the records.
16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
presenting the video conference on a display associated with the local participant; and
determining that the image comprises the indicia of the disability further comprising determining that the graphical attribute comprises at least one of a head position or eye position of the local participant associated with the local participant directing their gaze to a location other than towards a visual display device and wherein the disability comprises a vision disability; and
presenting an image of a first active speaker, of the number of remote participants, on the display with additional magnification of a mouth region of the first active speaker to facilitate lip reading by the local participant.
17. The method of claim 15 , wherein determining that the image comprises the indicia of the disability further comprises determining that the graphical attribute comprises hand gestures while the local participant is speaking and wherein the disability comprises a hearing disability.
18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising presenting an image of a first active speaker, of the number of remote participants, on an input-output device with additional magnification of a mouth region of the first active speaker to facilitate lip reading by the local participant.
19. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
receiving speech from the local participant; and
accessing a record, of a number of records, from a data storage device, each record comprising speech previously provided by the local participant and associated text; and
upon determining the speech comprises a sound cue from the local participant, accessing the text from the record and providing the associated text to each of the number of remote participants.
20. A system comprising:
means to conduct a video conference as a node on a network and communicate via the network with a number of remote nodes associated with a number of remote participants;
means to receive an image of a local participant of the video conference;
means to determine that the image comprises indicia of a disability, wherein the disability impairs the local participant for at least one of speech, hearing, or vision;
means to, in response to the determination that the image comprises indicia of the disability, alter an operational characteristic of a user input-output device to mitigate the disability for the video conference with respect to the at least one of speech, hearing, or vision utilized to participate in the video conference.