Smart Camera Technology

While meeting and collaborating over video is becoming increasingly popular, video conferences can come with their share of disruptions and frustrations. People fumbling around with cameras, zooming in on participants and making sure the speaker is in the display interrupts the natural flow of a meeting. Our smart camera video conferencing solutions – EagleEye Director II and EagleEye Producer - take care of the camera so you can focus on the business at hand.

Polycom spent years developing collaboration solutions and conferencing technology like voice triangulation, face finding and dual camera configurations, continually making improvements to perfect the user experience. We also leveraged deep human factors expertise to optimize the behavior of these video conferencing solutions. After locating the voice, facial detection algorithms are used to determine if the person is speaking to other people in the room or to meeting participants joining by video. The smart camera then automatically zooms in and positions the speaker optimally within the viewing window. This multi-step process ensures all participants always enjoy a high-impact, immersive experience.

Polycom Ultrasonic Camera Tracking Patent Number 8,249,298

A camera tracking system includes a controllable camera, an array of microphones, and a controller. The microphones are positioned adjacent the controllable camera and are at least responsive to ultrasound emitted from a source. The microphones may additionally be capable of responding to sound in the audible spectrum. The controller receives ultrasound signals communicated from the microphones in response to ultrasound emitted from the source and processes the ultrasound signals to determine an at least approximate location of the source. Then, the controller sends one or more command signals to the controllable camera to direct at least approximately at the determined location of the source. The camera tracking system tracks the source as it moves and continues to emit ultrasound. The source can be an emitter pack having one or more ultrasonic transducers that produce tones that sweep form about 24-kHz to about 40-kHz.

Polycom Ultrasonic Camera Tracking Patent Number 8,248,448

A videoconferencing apparatus automatically tracks speakers in a room and dynamically switches between a controlled, people-view camera and a fixed, room-view camera. When no one is speaking, the apparatus shows the room view to the far-end. When there is a dominant speaker in the room, the apparatus directs the people-view camera at the dominant speaker and switches from the room-view camera to the people-view camera. When there is a new speaker in the room, the apparatus switches to the room-view camera first, directs the people-view camera at the new speaker, and then switches to the people-view camera directed at the new speaker. When there are two near-end speakers engaged in a conversation, the apparatus tracks and zooms-in the people-view camera so that both speakers are in view.