Abstract:
An audio/visual conference station that includes a panoramic lens to capture an image of the panoramic scene surrounding the lens. The station also includes communication mechanisms to compress the panoramic image for transmission to a remote audio/visual conference station for display. Thus, people around the remote audio/visual conference station are able to both hear and see those at the local audio/visual conference station and vice versa. The audio/visual conference stations can also communicate through a server system to increase the number of visual conference stations exchanging or sharing images. In addition the server system can off-load some of the image processing steps from the visual conference stations.

Description:
[0001]    This application claims the benefit of United States Provisional Patent Application serial number: 60/352,779 by Driscoll, filed Jan. 28, 2002. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    This invention relates to the field of video conferencing.  
           [0004]    2. Background  
           [0005]    Video conferencing systems have been difficult to use and setup, and usually require special configurations and multiple cameras. In comparison, even high-quality audio conference telephones have a very small footprint and are simple to use.  
           [0006]    A major problem with conventional (audio-only) teleconferencing systems is that it is difficult to determine who is on the other end of the line and who is speaking or interjecting words. Voices are identifiable only by their sound qualities (accent, pitch, inflection). In addition, the presence of completely silent parties cannot be determined or verified. Brief interjections can even complicate verbal identity determination because they are so short.  
           [0007]    One reason for the slow adoption of video conferencing systems is that these systems are generally not very useful in a conference room setting. For example, a typical meeting includes a number of people, generally sitting around a table. Each of the people at the meeting can observe all of the other participants, facial expressions, secondary conversations etc. Much of this participation is lost using prior art video-conferencing systems.  
           [0008]    One major problem with prior art videoconferencing systems is that they convert a meeting taking place over a table into a theatre event. That is, a meeting where everyone is facing a large television at the end of the room that has a distracting robotic camera on top of it. This is also true of the remote site where another “theatre” environment is set up. Thus, both the local and remote sites seem to be sitting on a stage looking out at the other audience. This arrangement inhibits and/or masks ordinary meeting behavior, where body language, brief rapid-fire verbal exchanges and other non-verbal behavior are critical. It also prevents the parties in each “theatre” from effectively meeting among their own local peers, because they are all forced to keep their attention at the television at the end of the room.  
           [0009]    It would be advantageous to have a visual conferencing system that is simple to use, has only one lens, has a small footprint and can be positioned in the middle of a conference table.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0010]    One aspect of the invention is a visual conference station that includes the facilities of the prior art teleconferencing devices along with a visual component. The lens of the visual component is mounted on the device. The lens captures a panoramic image of the surrounding scene. The captured image is compressed and sent over a network connection to a compatible remote visual conference station (possibly via a conference server) where the panoramic image is presented to the meeting participants at the remote location.  
           [0011]    Other aspects include a device that communicates the visual information that cooperates with an existing audio teleconferencing station.  
           [0012]    One aspect of the invention initializes the visual data communication link from information encoded over a telephone network.  
           [0013]    Another aspect of the invention is a conference server system (and method and program product therefore) that receives visual information from one of the visual conference stations in a conference and distributes that information to other visual conference stations (optionally including the sourcing station).  
           [0014]    The foregoing and many other aspects of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments that are illustrated in the various drawing figures.  
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0015]    [0015]FIG. 1A illustrates a side view of a visual conference station in accordance with a preferred embodiment;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 1B illustrates a top view of the visual conference station of FIG. 1A;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 2A illustrates a side view of the visual conference station of FIG. 1A in use in accordance with a preferred embodiment;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 2B illustrates a top view of FIG. 2A;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 3A illustrates the communications environment of the visual conference station in accordance with a preferred embodiment;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 3B illustrates the communications environment of the visual conference station in accordance with a preferred embodiment  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 4 illustrates the visual conference station system architecture in accordance with a preferred embodiment;  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 5 illustrates an initialization procedure in accordance with a preferred embodiment;  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 6 illustrates a visual receive initialization procedure in accordance with a preferred embodiment;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 7 illustrates a visual send thread procedure in accordance with a preferred embodiment;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 8 illustrates a visual display thread procedure in accordance with a preferred embodiment;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 9A illustrates a conference registration process in accordance with a preferred embodiment; and  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 9B illustrates a visual information distribution process in accordance with a preferred embodiment. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0028]    [0028]FIG. 1A illustrates a side view of a visual conference station  100  that includes a panoramic lens  101  that captures light from substantially 360-degrees around the axis of the lens and that has a vertical field-of-view  103  throughout. The panoramic lens  101  is mounted on the top of a housing  105 . The housing  105  includes a speaker  107 , a microphone  109 , a control unit (keypad)  111 , and a visual display  113 .  
         [0029]    The housing  105  is shaped and the panoramic lens  101  placed such that the housing  105  does not interfere with the field-of-view of the panoramic lens  101 .  
         [0030]    The speaker  107 , microphone  109 , and control unit (keypad)  111  have similar function to a traditional speakerphone.  
         [0031]    One preferred embodiment uses the panoramic lens  101  (a micro-panoramic lens) such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,175,454 by Hoogland and assigned to Be Here Corporation. Another preferred embodiment uses a panoramic lens such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,341,044 or 6,373,642 by Driscoll and assigned to Be Here Corporation. These lenses generate annular images of the surrounding panoramic scene. However, other types of wide-angle lenses or combination of lenses can also be used (for example fish-eye lenses, 220-degree lenses, or other lenses that can gather light to illuminate a circle). A micro-panoramic lens provides benefits due to its small size. Although the subsequent description is primarily directed towards a panoramic lens that generates an annular image, the invention encompasses the use of wide-angle lenses (such as fish-eye lenses or very-wide angle lenses (for example a 220-degree wide-angle lens)).  
         [0032]    Although not shown in the figure, the visual conference station  100  includes communication ports for connection to the telephone network and/or a high-speed communication network (for example, the Internet). In addition, the visual conference station  100  can include connections for separate speakers, microphones, displays, and/or computer input/output busses.  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 1B illustrates a top view of the visual conference station  100  of FIG. 1A. Note that the visual display  113  is preferably tilted.  
         [0034]    As is subsequently described, the panoramic lens  101  is optically connected to an optical sensor integrated circuit (such as a CCD or MOS device).  
         [0035]    The visual display  113  can be a liquid crystal display, or any other display that can present a sequence of images (for example, but not limited to, cathode ray tubes and plasma displays).  
         [0036]    Like a traditional high-quality conference phone, the visual conference station  100  is placed in the middle of a table around which the people participating in a conference. One visual conference station  100  communicates with another visual conference station  100  to exchange audio information acquired through the microphone  109  and panoramic image information captured by the panoramic lens  101 . When received, the audio information is reproduced using the speaker  107  and the image information is presented using the visual display  113 .  
         [0037]    [0037]FIG. 2A illustrates a side view of the visual conference station  100  in use on a table with two shown people. Note that the vertical field-of-view  103  captures the head and torso or the meeting participants. In some embodiments, the vertical field-of-view  103  can be such that a portion of the table is also captured. FIG. 2B illustrates the placement of the visual conference station  100 . Each of the people around the table is captured by the 360-degree view of the panoramic lens  101 .  
         [0038]    [0038]FIG. 3A illustrates a first communications environment  300  for a local visual conference station  301  and a remote visual conference station  303 . In one preferred embodiment, the local visual conference station  301  and the remote visual conference station  303  communicate using both a telephone network  305  and a high-speed network  307 . The telephone network  305  can be used to communicate audio information while the high-speed network  307  can be used to communicate visual information. In another preferred embodiment, both the visual and audio information is communicated over the high-speed network  307 . In yet another preferred embodiment, both the visual and audio information is communicated over the telephone network  305 . Thus, the conference participants at the one site can view the conference participants at the other site while the conference participants at the other site can also view the conference participants at the one site.  
         [0039]    As is subsequently described the telephone network  305  can be used to send sufficient information from the local visual conference station  301  to the remote visual conference station  303  such that the remote visual conference station  303  can make a connection to the local visual conference station  301  using the high-speed network  307 .  
         [0040]    [0040]FIG. 3B illustrates a second communications environment  308  wherein the remote visual conference station  303  and the local visual conference station  301  communicate with a visual conferencing server  309  over a network. The visual conferencing server  309  connects a multiple of the visual conference station  100  together. The local visual conference station  301  sends its annular (or circular) image to the visual conferencing server  309 . The visual conferencing server  309  then transforms the annular image into a panoramic image and supplies the panoramic image to the appropriate stations in the conference (such as at least one of the remote visual conference station  303  and/or the local visual conference station  301 ). Thus, the visual conferencing server  309  can offload the image processing computation from the stations to the visual conferencing server  309 . The local visual conference station  301  also provides the visual conferencing server  309  with information about the characteristics of the sent image. This information can be sent with each image, with the image stream, and/or when the local visual conference station  301  registers with the visual conferencing server  309 . Thus, the conference participants at the one site can view the conference participants at the other site while the conference participants at the other site can also view the conference participants at the one site.  
         [0041]    Another capability of the system shown in FIG. 3B is that it allows one-way participation. That is, participants from the one site can be viewed by a multitude of other sites (the station at the one site sending audio/visual information to the server that redistributes the information to the remote visual conference station  303  at each of the other sites). This allows many observer sites to monitor a meeting at the one site.  
         [0042]    One skilled in the art will understand that the network transmits information (such as data that defines a panoramic image as well as data that defines a computer program). Generally, the information is embodied within a carrier-wave. The term “carrier-wave” includes electromagnetic signals, visible or invisible light pulses, signals on a data bus, or signals transmitted over any wire, wireless, or optical fiber technology that allows information to be transmitted over a network. Programs and data are commonly read from both tangible physical media (such as a compact, floppy, or magnetic disk) and from a network. Thus, the network, like a tangible physical media, is a computer usable data carrier.  
         [0043]    [0043]FIG. 4 illustrates a visual conference station system architecture  400  that includes an image sensor  401  on which the panoramic lens  101  is optically (and in a preferred embodiment also physically) attached. The panoramic lens  101  captures light from a 360-degree panoramic scene around the lens that is within the vertical field-of-view  103 . This light from the panoramic scene is focused on the image sensor  401  where an annular or wide-angle image of the panoramic scene is captured. The image sensor  401  can be any of the commercially available image sensors (such as a CCD or CMOS sensor). The visual conference station system architecture  400  also includes a memory  403 , a control processor  405 , a communication processor  407 , one or more communication ports  409 , a visual display processor  411 , a visual display  413 , a user control interface  415 , a user control input  417 , an audio processor  419 , a telephone line interface  420  and an electronic data bus system  421 . One skilled in the art will understand that this architecture can be implemented on a single integrated circuit as well as by using multiple integrated circuits and/or a computer.  
         [0044]    The panoramic lens can be a wide-angle lens or a catadioptric lens and in a preferred embodiment is a miniature lens. In a preferred embodiment, the field-of-view of the panoramic lens extends through the horizon line.  
         [0045]    The memory  403  and the control processor  405  can communicate through the electronic data bus system  421  and/or through a specialized memory bus. The control processor  405  can be a general or special purpose programmed processor, an ASIC or other specialized circuitry, or some combination thereof.  
         [0046]    The control processor  405  communicates to the image sensor  401  to cause a digitized representation of the captured panoramic image (the captured visual information) to be transferred to the memory  403 . The control processor  405  can then cause all or part of the panoramic image to be transferred (via the communication processor  407  and the one or more communication ports  409  or the telephone line interface  420 ) and/or presented using the visual display processor  411  as conditioned by the user control input  417  through the user control interface  415 .  
         [0047]    In addition, a panoramic image can be received by the one or more communication ports  409  and/or the telephone line interface  420 , stored in the memory  403  and presented using the visual display processor  411  and the visual display  413 .  
         [0048]    In one preferred embodiment of the visual conference station system architecture  400 , the local visual conference station  301  and the remote visual conference station  303  directly exchange their respective panoramic images (either as an annular representation or as a rectangular representation) as well as the captured audio information.  
         [0049]    In another preferred embodiment, the remote visual conference station  303  and the local visual conference station  301  communicate with the visual conferencing server  309  as previously discussed.  
         [0050]    One skilled in the art would understand that although the visual conference station  100  illustrated in FIG. 1A incorporates the speaker  107 , the microphone  109 , and the visual display  113 , other preferred embodiments need only provide interfaces to one or more of these devices such that the audio and visual information is provided to the audio/visual devices through wire, wireless, and/or optical means. Further, that the functions of the control unit (keypad)  111  can be provided by many different control mechanisms including (but not limited) to hand-held remote controls, network control programs (such as a browser), voice recognition controls and other control mechanisms. Furthermore, such a one would understand that the audio processor  419  typically is configured to include both an audio output processor used to drive a speaker and an audio input processor used to receive information from a microphone.  
         [0051]    In yet another preferred embodiment, the video information from the image sensor  401  can be communicated to a computer (for example using a computer peripheral interface such as a SCSI, Firewire®, or USB interface). Thus, one preferred embodiment includes an assembly comprising the panoramic lens  101  and the image sensor  401  where the assembly is in communication with a computer system that provides the communication, audio/visual, user, and networking functionality.  
         [0052]    In still another embodiment, the visual conference station  100  can include a general-purpose computer capable of being configured to send presentations and other information to the remote stations as well as providing the audio/visual functions previously described. Such a system can also include (or include an interface to) a video projector system.  
         [0053]    [0053]FIG. 5 illustrates an ‘initialization’ procedure  500  that can be invoked when the visual conference station  100  is directed to place a visual conference call. The ‘initialization’ procedure  500  initiates at a ‘start’ terminal  501  and continues to an ‘establish audio communication’ procedure  503  that receives operator input. The visual conference station  100  uses an operator input mechanism (for example, a keypad, a PDA, a web browser, etc.) to input the telephone number of the visual conference station  100  at the remote site. The ‘establish audio communication’ procedure  503  uses the operator input to make a connection with the remote visual conference station. This connection can be made over the traditional telephone network or can be established using network telephony.  
         [0054]    Once audio communication is established, the ‘initialization’ procedure  500  continues to a ‘start visual receive initialization thread’ procedure  505  that starts the visual receive initialization thread that is subsequently described with respect to FIG. 6.  
         [0055]    Once audio communication is established, audio information can be exchanged between the stations over the telephone line or the high-speed link. Thus, captured audio information captured by a microphone at the local site is sent to the remote site where it is received as received audio information and reproduced through a speaker.  
         [0056]    A ‘send visual communication burst information’ procedure  507  encodes the Internet address of the local visual conference station along with additional communication parameters (such as service requirements, encryption keys etc.) and, if desired, textual information such as the names of the people in attendance at the local visual conference station, and/or information that identifies the local visual conference station. Then a ‘delay’ procedure  509  waits for a period of time (usually  1 - 5  seconds). After the delay, a ‘visual communication established’ decision procedure  511  determines whether the remote visual conference station has established visual communication over a high-speed network with the local visual conference station. If the visual communication has not been established, the ‘initialization’ procedure  500  returns to the ‘send visual communication burst information’ procedure  507  to resend the visual communication information. Although not specifically shown in FIG. 5, if the visual communication is not established after some time period, this loop ends, and the visual conference station operates as a traditional audio conference phone.  
         [0057]    However, if the ‘visual communication established’ decision procedure  511  determines that visual communication has been established with the remote visual conference station, the ‘initialization’ procedure  500  continues to a ‘start display thread’ procedure  513  that initiates the display thread process as is subsequently described with respect to FIG. 8.  
         [0058]    The ‘initialization’ procedure  500  exits at an ‘end’ terminal  515 .  
         [0059]    One skilled in the art will understand that there exist other protocols for establishing communication between the local visual conference station  301  and the remote visual conference station  303  other than the one just described. These other protocols will be useful in homogeneous networking environments where both audio and visual information are transmitted over the same network (for example, the internet or the telephone network).  
         [0060]    [0060]FIG. 6 illustrates a visual receive initialization procedure  600  that is invoked by the ‘start visual receive initialization thread’ procedure  505  of FIG. 5 and that initiates at a ‘start’ terminal  601 . The visual receive initialization procedure  600  waits at a ‘receive visual communication burst’ procedure  603  for receipt of the visual communication burst information sent by the other visual conference station. Once the visual communication burst information is received, it is parsed and the information made available as needed. An establish visual communication procedure  605  uses information received from the ‘receive visual communication burst’ procedure  603  to initiate communication of visual information with the visual conference station that sent the visual communication burst information. This establishment of communication between the visual conference stations can be accomplished by many protocols (such as by exchange of UDP packets or by establishment of a connection using an error correcting protocol and can use well-established Internet streaming protocols).  
         [0061]    Once the visual communication between the visual conference stations is established, the visual receive initialization procedure  600  continues to a ‘start visual send thread’ procedure  607  that initiates the visual send thread that is subsequently described with respect to FIG. 7. Then the visual receive initialization procedure  600  completes through the ‘end’ terminal  609 .  
         [0062]    [0062]FIG. 7 illustrates a visual send thread  700  that initiates at a ‘start’ terminal  701  after being invoked by the ‘start visual send thread’ procedure  607  of FIG. 6. A ‘receive annular image’ procedure  703  reads the annular (or wide angle) image captured by the panoramic lens  101  from the image sensor  401  into the memory  403 . Then an ‘unwrap annular image’ procedure  705  transforms the captured visual information (the annular or wide-angle image) into a panoramic image (generally, rectangular in shape). A ‘compress panoramic image’ procedure  707  then compresses the panoramic image or the captured visual information (either by itself, or with respect to previously compressed panoramic images). A ‘send compressed panoramic’ procedure  709  then sends the compressed visual information to the other visual conference station for display (as is subsequently described with respect to FIG. 8. A ‘delay’ procedure  711  then waits for a period. The visual send thread  700  returns to the ‘receive annular image’ procedure  703  and repeats until the visual portion of the conference call is terminated (for example, by ending the call, by explicit instruction by an operator etc.) In addition, an operator at the local visual conference station can pause the sending of visual images (for example, using a control analogous to a visual mute button).  
         [0063]    The ‘unwrap annular image’ procedure  705  need not be performed (hence the dashed procedure box in FIG. 7) if this function is provided by a server (such as the visual conferencing server  309 ).  
         [0064]    The ‘compress panoramic image’ procedure  707  can compress the panoramic image using MPEG compression, JPEG compression, JPEG compression with difference information or any techniques well known in the art to compress a stream of images. In addition, one skilled in the art will understand that the ‘unwrap annular image’ procedure  705  and the ‘compress panoramic image’ procedure  707  can be combined into a single step.  
         [0065]    [0065]FIG. 8 illustrates a display thread  800  used to display the visual information sent by the ‘send compressed panoramic’ procedure  709  of FIG. 7. The display thread  800  is invoked by the ‘start display thread’ procedure  513  of FIG. 5 and initiates at a ‘start’ terminal  801 . A ‘receive compressed panorama’ procedure  803  then receives the compressed panorama information (the received visual information) sent by the other visual conference station. Once the panorama information is received, the display thread  800  continues to a ‘present panorama’ procedure  805  that expands the compressed information and displays the resulting visual on the visual display  413 .  
         [0066]    One skilled in the art will understand that FIG. 5 through FIG. 8 describe aspects of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3A. Such a one would also understand how to adapt these aspects for the embodiment shown in FIG. 3B. One adaptation is that the local visual conference station  301  and the remote visual conference station  303  do not communicate directly but instead each communicates with the visual conferencing server  309 . Another adaptation can be that neither the local visual conference station  301  nor the remote visual conference station  303  transform the annular or wide-angle image to a panoramic image. Instead, the annular or wide-angle image is compressed and sent to the visual conferencing server  309  where the image is decompressed and transformed into a panoramic image. The visual conferencing server  309  then compresses the panoramic image and sends it to the remote visual conference station  303  (or more than one remote station). Such a one will also understand how to automatically determine whether the local visual conference station  301  is connecting directly with the remote visual conference station  303  or to a visual conferencing server  309  and appropriately condition the procedures. Further, one skilled in the art after reading the forgoing will understand that the visual information exchanged between the visual conference stations can include computer-generated visual information (for example, a computer-generated presentation that generates images corresponding to that projected onto a screen).  
         [0067]    [0067]FIG. 9A illustrates a ‘conference registration’ process  900  that can be used by the visual conferencing server  309  to establish a conference. The ‘conference registration’ process  900  can be used with Internet, local area network, telephone or other protocols. The ‘conference registration’ process  900  initiates at a ‘start’ terminal  901  and continues to a ‘receive conference join request’ procedure  903  that receives and validates (verifies that the provided information is in the correct format) a request from a visual conference station to establish or join a conference. Generally, the information in the request includes a conference identifier and an authorization code (along with sufficient information needed to address the visual conference station making the request).  
         [0068]    Next, a ‘conference established’ decision procedure  905  determines whether the provided information identifies an existing conference. If the identified conference is not already established, the ‘conference registration’ process  900  continues to an ‘establish conference’ procedure  907  that examines the previously validated join request and verifies that the visual conference station making the join request has the capability of establishing the conference. The ‘establish conference’ procedure  907  also determines the properties required for others to join the conference. One skilled in the art will understand that there are many ways that a conference can be established. These include, but are not limited to, the conference organizer including a list of authorized visual conference station addresses, providing a conference name and password, and other validation schemas known in the art. If this verification fails, the ‘conference registration’ process  900  processes the next join request (not shown).  
         [0069]    Once the conference is established, or if the conference was already established, the ‘conference registration’ process  900  continues to a ‘verify authorization’ procedure  909  that examines the previously validated information in the join request to determine whether the visual conference station making the join request is authorized to join the identified conference. If this verification fails, the ‘conference registration’ process  900  processes the next join request (not shown).  
         [0070]    If the join request is verified, the ‘conference registration’ process  900  continues to an ‘add VCS to conference’ procedure  911  that adds the visual conference station making the request to the conference. Then the ‘conference registration’ process  900  loops back to the ‘receive conference join request’ procedure  903  to handle the next join request.  
         [0071]    One skilled in the art will understand that there are many ways, equivalent to the one illustrated in FIG. 9A, for establishing a conference.  
         [0072]    [0072]FIG. 9B illustrates a ‘distribute visual information’ process  940  can be used to receive visual information from each visual conference station in the conference and to distribute the visual information to each of the member conference stations. The ‘distribute visual information’ process  940  can be used, without limitation, to receive the visual information from one member conference station and distribute that information to all the other member conference stations, or all the other member conference stations as well as the one member conference station; to exchange visual information between two member conference stations; and/or to exchange visual information between all member conference stations (subject to the amount of visual information that can be displayed, or operator parameters at a particular visual conference station).  
         [0073]    The ‘distribute visual information’ process  940  initiates at a ‘start’ terminal  941  and continues to a ‘receive visual information from VCS’ procedure  943  that receives visual information from a visual conference station. The visual information is examined at a ‘transformation required’ decision procedure  945  to determine whether the visual information is in a rectangular panoramic form and need not be transformed. If the visual information is not in a rectangular panoramic form (thus, the server is to perform the transformation) the ‘distribute visual information’ process  940  continues to a ‘transform visual information’ procedure  947  provides the transformation from the annular or wide-angle format into a rectangular panoramic image and performs any required compression. Regardless of the branch taken at the ‘transformation required’ decision procedure  945 , the ‘distribute visual information’ process  940  continues to a ‘send visual information to conference’ procedure  949  where the panoramic image is selectively sent to each of the member conference stations (possibly including the visual conference station that sent the visual information) based on the conference parameters.  
         [0074]    The ‘distribute visual information’ process  940  then continues to a ‘reset active timer’ procedure  951  that resets a timeout timer. The timeout timer is used to detect when the conference is completed (that is, when no visual information is being sent to the visual conferencing server  309  for a particular conference). One skilled in the art will understand that there exist many other ways to detect when the conference terminates extending from explicit ‘leave’ commands to time constraints. After the timer is reset, the ‘distribute visual information’ process  940  loops back to the ‘receive visual information from VCS’ procedure  943  to receive the next visual information for distribution.  
         [0075]    One skilled in the art after reading the forgoing will understand that visual information includes video information of any frame rate, sequences of still images, and computer generated images. In addition, such a one will understand that the described procedures can be implemented as computer programs executed by a computer, by specialized circuitry, or some combination thereof.  
         [0076]    One skilled in the art after reading the forgoing will understand that there are many configurations of the invention. These include, but are not limited to:  
         [0077]    A configuration where a device containing the visual processing portion of the invention is in communication with a standard speakerphone or audio conferencing device (through, for example, but without limitation, a phone line, an infrared communication mechanism or other a wireless communication mechanism). Thus, this configuration can be viewed as an enhancement to an existing audio conference phone.  
         [0078]    A configuration where a separate computer reads the image sensor and provides the necessary visual information processing and communication.  
         [0079]    A configuration where the visual conference station  100  includes wire or wireless connections for external computer/video monitors and/or computers (such that computer presentation at one conference station can be made available to each of the visual conference stations; and such that the panoramic image can be presented on projection monitors or on a personal computer in communication with the visual conference station.  
         [0080]    A configuration where the visual conference station  100  includes a general-purpose computer.  
         [0081]    From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that the invention has (without limitation) the following advantages:  
         [0082]    It returns the “videoconference” format to the natural “people-around-a-table arrangement.” All of the participants at the remote site are now arrayed in front of the participants at the local site (in miniature). Thus, the peopled attending the conference look across the table at each other, and interact in a natural manner.  
         [0083]    It is simpler and cheaper than the prior art videoconferencing systems. It also has a smaller, more acceptable footprint (equivalent to the ubiquitous teleconferencing phones in most meeting rooms).  
         [0084]    It answers the basic question of most meetings: who is attending the meeting, who is speaking, and what the body language and other non-verbal cues are being made by the other participants.  
         [0085]    Unlike the use of robotic cameras, it has no moving parts, makes no noise and thus does not distract the meeting participants.  
         [0086]    It is completely automatic and thus, requires no manual or assisted steering, zooming or adjustment of the camera or lens.  
         [0087]    It gracefully recovers from network problems in that it naturally degrades back to conventional teleconferencing, as opposed to having the meeting collapse because of a lost network connection.  
         [0088]    It can use well-developed video streaming protocols when using IP network environments.  
         [0089]    Although the present invention has been described in terms of the presently preferred embodiments, one skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and alterations may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not to be limited to the particular invention embodiments discussed herein.