Patent ID: 7349005

Claim:
An automated video production system for online publishing of a lecture, comprising: a camera system that provides multiple camera views of the lecture in a real-world lecture environment, wherein the camera system includes a lecturer-tracking camera that provides a camera view of a lecturer; a history-based, reduced-motion tracker that controls the lecturer-tracking camera in tracking the lecturer based on a history of the lecturer's movement; a set of expert video production rules that are probabilistic rules used by human video professionals in a video production field, the expert video production rules being weighted such that a first rule of the expert video production rules has greater weight as compared to a second rule of the expert video production rules, so that if the first rule and the second rule conflict the first rule is used and the second rule is discarded since the first rule has a greater weight than the second rule; and a virtual director that uses the set of expert video production rules to select a current camera view from the multiple camera views and is capable of changing the current camera view by switching between the multiple camera views in response to a triggering event.