The Personal Presence system experimental research prototype

The Personal Presence system experimental research prototype is a multipoint/multiparty broadband video communications system which supports dynamic multiparty interactions. In our day-to-day interactions we have a dynamic mix of conversations and interactions with a changing number of people, as well as simultaneously receiving video information. Each user in a Personal Presence system multipoint conference can choose which video images they would like to receive and also control how they receive each image. The Personal Presence system brings video window customization and control to a user´s video desktop. The Personal Presence system provides each user with flexible presentation control of a network-based video bridge. Each user is able to control and customize the position, magnification and size of the video objects that they choose to receive. In addition to supporting these basic video display capabilities, the Personal Presence system also supports advanced features such as object extraction from it´s background and multimedia object associations. Multimedia associations allow a user to group together video objects into a hierarchical object for operations such as scaling, panning, and moving. The use of a network based bridge results in only one duplex video connection per user to receive an arbitrary number of video signals, an inexpensive solution results compared to equipping each user´s terminal equipment with multiple codecs and network connections. A conventional television with a set-top box may also be used as the terminal equipment for a multiparty multimedia teleconference