Patent ID: 8072481
Filing Date: 2011-12-06
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A telepresence system for connecting a local conferee in his home with a distant conferee, the system comprising: a local telepresence terminal, residing in the local conferees home, having a first codec for encoding video and audio of the local conferee and decoding video and audio of the distant conferee, a first image display for producing a substantially life-size image of the distant conferee residing in an actual distant setting and devoid of an artificial backdrop setting, a first microphone to capture the voice of the local conferee, a first speaker to produce the voice of the distant conferee, a first video camera capturing an image of the local conferee, and a first eye contact system to create the appearance that the local conferee is looking into the eyes of the distant conferee on the first image display camera when the local conferee looks into the first camera; a distant telepresence terminal, configured in commonality with the local telepresence terminal, having a second codec for encoding video and audio of the distant conferee and decoding video and audio of the local conferee, a second image display for producing a substantially life-size image of the local conferee residing in an actual local setting and devoid of an artificial backdrop setting, a second microphone to capture the voice of the distant conferee, a second speaker to produce the voice of the local conferee, a second video camera capturing an image of the distant conferee, and a second eye contact system to create the appearance that the distant conferee is looking into the eyes of the local conferee on the second image display when the distant conferee looks into the second camera; a network connecting the local and the remote terminals for transmitting encoded and decoded video and audio information between the local terminal and the distant terminal; and a telepresence organizational enablement system so that the first conferee and the second conferee can interactively operate at least one of a customer relations management system and a enterprise resource planning system.