Cisco takes video conferencing to a new level

Cisco is using AI and IoT to take video conferencing to a new level, almost like Big Brotherish

At Cisco's research and development labs in Oslo, Norway, the company turned artificial intelligence (AI) into the core of its next-generation video collaboration tools by using the technology found in cars that they drive by themselves.

The Nvidia chips used by Audi and Volvo that recognize people and objects and try to avoid collisions have been adapted for Cisco's Webex products to focus on facial identification.

Cisco has also developed its own algorithms to identify faces and sounds. The strange background noise, like the touch of the keyboards, the strong mastication, the alarms of the cars or the barks of the dogs, can be eliminated automatically during the videoconferences.

Future capabilities include the extraction of back-end data from a meeting, such as transcripts and translations of what was said.

Snorre Kjesbu, vice president of Cisco's collaborative endpoint technology group, believes that quality and quantity of data is critical to hold "smart" meetings. "It's about taking a relatively simple thing like telemetry, being able to retrieve information using the Internet of things and combining it with complex things like AI and machine learning," says Kjesbu.

Cisco uses telemetry at its R & D facilities in Oslo to track the presence and movement of people in meeting rooms and offices, so that rooms can be identified. Data protection laws in Europe allow a company to track a number of people, but not identify them individually.

The features Cisco is working on include the use of smart sensors in a room that could be recorded when someone enters or leaves, and start or stop the video conference accordingly.

The technology could also be registered if using a smaller room would be more efficient.

John Restrick, director of technology for devices at Cisco, says: "We provide the hardware used in meeting rooms, such as cameras, microphones and touch panels, and together with our features that collect both the training data and the context of a company, we can take advantage of the data in real time about what is happening in a meeting. "

The goal is to make the technology "invisible", such as a "one button press" system that eliminates the need to dial a conference call and enter a PIN; or use "smart views" in the video conference so that people who are speaking can be framed, extended and followed automatically as they move.

Doing this without a person in the room to choose different cameras requires a lot of intelligence and work, says Restrick, "especially for complicated environments with different speakers and places, or for those who point to whiteboards, it's a challenge."

He adds: "We continue to invest in how we can use intelligence to do more and we are testing new functions in our laboratories that are being tested but have not yet been shipped." The annual R & D expense of Cisco is $ 6 billion.

"We are moving to identify who the people are at the meetings, which is the acceptance option since the end user has to give us permission," says Restrick.

"If you meet with a new group of people, instead of including everyone in the meeting list, we can superimpose the name tags, which would be automated.

"Once the meeting is over, we could provide private comments to people who are not receiving today, for example, how much they talk at meetings, if they interrupt people or if they interrupt them a lot."

Cisco is working on features such as the ability to extract information from a calendar, search for attendees or recognize their faces and search for contextual information. This could include their full names, job titles and articles they have published.

Similarly, Cisco wants to provide support during a video call for account managers so they can see current sales, track orders and shipping information, or access customer support.

Restrick says Cisco is working on collaboration tools that would allow design engineers in two different cities to see a 3D project and have the ability to walk to make adjustments and interact. "I think the way we interact around content in meetings will continue to grow, and virtual reality and augmented reality will allow us to do many more interesting things."

If all this sounds too big, maybe it's time to take a look at the permissions that have a smartphone and pay close attention to social networking applications.