Bandwidth reduction system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9035999-B2
Application number	US-201213688959-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 29, 2012
Priority date	Sep 17, 2012
Publication date	May 19, 2015
Grant date	May 19, 2015

Abstract

A method and computing system for receiving an indication of a first user participating in a videoconference. A determination is made concerning whether bandwidth compression is preferable for the first user of the videoconference. If bandwidth compression is preferable for the first user of the videoconference: an unprocessed video stream associated with the first user is processed to generate a reduced bandwidth video stream, and the reduced bandwidth video stream is provided to a video encoder. Processing the unprocessed video stream includes performing an edge detection procedure on the unprocessed video stream.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving an indication of a first user participating in a videoconference;
determining if bandwidth compression is preferable for the first user of the videoconference;
if bandwidth compression is preferable for the first user of the videoconference:
processing an unprocessed video stream associated with the first user to generate a reduced bandwidth video stream, and
providing the reduced bandwidth video stream to a video encoder;

if bandwidth compression is not preferable for the first user of the videoconference, providing the unprocessed video stream to the video encoder;

wherein processing the unprocessed video stream includes performing an edge detection procedure, performing a temporal blurring procedure, and one or more of:
performing a resolution reduction procedure on the unprocessed video stream,
performing a spatial blurring procedure on the unprocessed video stream,
performing an image quantization procedure on the unprocessed video stream, and
performing a negating procedure on the unprocessed video stream.

2. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving an indication of a first user participating in a videoconference;
determining if bandwidth compression is preferable for the first user of the videoconference; and
if bandwidth compression is preferable for the first user of the videoconference:
processing an unprocessed video stream associated with the first user to generate a reduced bandwidth video stream, and
providing the reduced bandwidth video stream to a video encoder;

wherein processing the unprocessed video stream includes performing an edge detection procedure and a temporal blurring procedure on the unprocessed video stream.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 further comprising:
if bandwidth compression is not preferable for the first user of the videoconference, providing the unprocessed video stream to the video encoder.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein processing the unprocessed video stream further includes performing a resolution reduction procedure on the unprocessed video stream.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein processing the unprocessed video stream further includes performing a spatial blurring procedure on the unprocessed video stream.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein processing the unprocessed video stream further includes performing an image quantization procedure on the unprocessed video stream.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein processing the unprocessed video stream further includes performing a negating procedure on the unprocessed video stream.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein bandwidth compression is preferable for the first user of the videoconference if one or more performance statistics associated with the first user do not meet a minimum performance threshold for the video conference.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the minimum performance threshold includes one or more of a minimum computational threshold and minimum bandwidth threshold.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein the videoconference is executed within a social network.

11. A computing system including a processor and memory configured to perform operations comprising:
receiving an indication of a first user participating in a videoconference;
determining if bandwidth compression is preferable for the first user of the videoconference;
if bandwidth compression is preferable for the first user of the videoconference:
processing an unprocessed video stream associated with the first user to generate a reduced bandwidth video stream, and
providing the reduced bandwidth video stream to a video encoder;

wherein processing the unprocessed video stream includes performing an edge detection procedure and a temporal blurring procedure on the unprocessed video stream.

12. The computing system of claim 11 further configured to perform operations comprising:
if bandwidth compression is not preferable for the first user of the videoconference, providing the unprocessed video stream to the video encoder.

13. The computing system of claim 11 wherein processing the unprocessed video stream further includes performing a resolution reduction procedure on the unprocessed video stream.

14. The computing system of claim 11 wherein processing the unprocessed video stream further includes performing a spatial blurring procedure on the unprocessed video stream.

15. The computing system of claim 11 wherein processing the unprocessed video stream further includes performing an image quantization procedure on the unprocessed video stream.

16. The computing system of claim 11 wherein processing the unprocessed video stream further includes performing a negating procedure on the unprocessed video stream.

17. The computing system of claim 11 wherein bandwidth compression is preferable for the first user of the videoconference if one or more performance statistics associated with the first user do not meet a minimum performance threshold for the video conference.

18. The computing system of claim 17 wherein the minimum performance threshold includes one or more of a minimum computational threshold and minimum bandwidth threshold.

19. The computing system of claim 11 wherein the videoconference is executed within a social network.

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Carpenter Thor
• Chew Chee

Classifications

• H04N19/164

  Feedback from the receiver or from the transmission channel · CPC title

• H04N7/148

  Interfacing a video terminal to a particular transmission medium, e.g. ISDN · CPC title

• H04N19/103

  Selection of coding mode or of prediction mode · CPC title

• H04N19/169

  characterised by the coding unit, i.e. the structural portion or semantic portion of the video signal being the object or the subject of the adaptive coding · CPC title

• H04N19/162

  User input · CPC title