System and method for providing an awareness of remote people in the room during a videoconference

摘要

A system and method are provided to track and convey the presence of all participants in video conferencing. The system is configured to generate a video locator output and an audio locator output to determine the presence of all participants. Initially, the system focuses on a person who is speaking and conveys a close-up view of that person based on the video and audio locator outputs. Thereafter, if the person speaking continues to speak or becomes silent for a predetermined time period, the system operates to adjust the camera setting to display other participants in sequence who are not speaking or zooms out the camera by a specified amount to include all participants, so that the presence, including facial expressions and reactions, of all participants can be conveyed to the remote receiving end. The system is also configured to capture a new person entering or an existing participant exiting during the course of a video conference session.