Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to (SDP) Session Description Protocol and Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP)-based procedures to support immersive teleconferencing and telepresence. Further, Apple’s patent may relate to SDP procedures to negotiate immersive media exchange capabilities.

Apple’s patent FIG. 1 below depicts a simplified architecture (#100) related to an immersive teleconferencing and telepresence system. It will be noted that this use case is described with respect to a conference call with two remote individuals #105a and #105b. In other embodiments the architecture may include more or fewer individuals.

Specifically, in FIG. 1, a group of colleagues may be having a meeting in a conference room (#110). The room may include a conference table (for physically present participants), a 360° camera, and a view screen. Specifically, the camera may include a plurality of individual cameras or lenses which are able to capture video at different angles or fields of view relative to the camera.

The two other individuals (#105a and #105b) are shown not being physically present in the conference room and want to join the meeting through a conference call. For example, participants in the conference room may use the screen to display a shared presentation and/or video streams coining from individuals #105a and #105b. In this example use case, individual #105a may join the video conference from a remote location such as their home using a with a Head Mounted Display (HMD) and a camera that captures their video. Individual 105a may enjoy a 360-degree view of the conference room 110 by, for example, turning their head. Individual 105b may join the conference from a remote location such as an airport using a UE such as a mobile phone.

Individual #105b in patent FIG.1 above may also enjoy a 360-degree view of the conference room on the screen of their mobile phone by turning the phone, and may further use their mobile camera for capturing his own video.

In this use case, individuals #105a and #105b may be able to see the screen in the conference room #110 as part of the 360-degree video. They may also have the option to bring into focus one or more of the various incoming video streams (e.g., presentation or the other remote participant's camera feed) using their own display devices.

This is a highly technical patent describing Session Description Protocol and Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP)-based procedures to support immersive teleconferencing. For more, review the full patent application #20220174108.

Ozgur Oyman, Apple’s Engineering Manager, Video Technologies, is listed as the sole inventor on this patent application. Prior to coming to Apple, Mr. Oyman was a Member Board of Directors at VR Industry Forum focusing on VR content production, distribution and security. Prior to that, Mr. Oyman spent 15 years at Intel as a Principal Engineer with over 200 patents to his credit.

Further, Mr. Oyman drove 5G multimedia R&D and standards initiatives at Intel. He Authored over 500 standards contributions in SDOs such as MPEG, 3GPP and VRIF, filed over 200 patent applications, 95+ US patents granted, 450+ patents granted globally. Standards leadership as Rapporteur, Editor or Chair for numerous standards initiatives in MPEG, 3GPP and VRIF.

Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.