Patent ID: 8358328

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a plurality of video cameras each configured to capture a respective camera view of at least some participants of a conference, the camera views together including at least one view of each participant; a plurality of microphones; an audio processing module coupled to the plurality of microphones and configured to generate audio data and direction information indicative of the direction of sound received at the microphones; a face detection element coupled to the video cameras and configured to determine the location of each participant's face in each camera view and to determine which one or more faces are in more than one camera view; a composition element coupled to the video cameras and the face detection element and configured to generate one or more candidate people views, each people view being of an area enclosing a head and shoulders view of at least one participant; and a video director element coupled to the composition element and to the audio processing module and configured to make a selection, according to the direction information, of which at least one of the candidate people views are to be transmitted to one or more remote endpoints, wherein each camera view is not necessarily a people view, wherein each people view provides an image of a size and layout and includes at least one participant, wherein each participant may appear in more than one people view, and wherein each participant appears in only one candidate people view and, when displayed remotely on a remote display screen, is displayed life size and facing the expected audience in the remote location at which the remote display screen is situated.