Patent ID: 7515174

Claim:
A videoconferencing system providing contact between a first and second site, the system comprising: at the first site: a plurality of first actual viewing positions; a plurality of first multidirectional image capture systems, each first multidirectional image capture system comprising a plurality of first image capture devices, the number of first multidirectional image capture systems corresponding to the number of first actual viewing positions, each first multidirectional image capture system having for each first actual viewing position, a first image capture device oriented to capture an image stream of that first actual viewing position along a line of sight from a virtual viewing position corresponding to a second actual viewing position at the second site to that first actual viewing position; and at the second site: a plurality of second actual viewing positions, each of which has a corresponding virtual viewing position at the first site, and a first plurality of multidirectional displays, each of which is oriented towards a distinct one of the second actual viewing positions, each multidirectional display being communicatively coupled to a subset of the plurality of first image capture devices to receive their respective image streams and to concurrently display the received image streams, the subset comprising the first image capture devices that are oriented towards the same first actual viewing position.