Sharing Rectangular Objects in a Video Conference

This paper presents a novel method for sharing rectangular objects in a video conference. Often, during a video conference, one may want to share a printed document or other planar rectangular objects (a photograph, the whiteboard on the wall, etc.) with the participants in the conference. If the object is simply held in front of the camera (or if the camera is turned towards the object), the objective will undergo perspective distortion and a rectangular object will appear in the video as a quadrilateral. In addition, a handheld document will not be steady and it will be difficult for other users to read its contents. In this paper, we present an algorithm that uses real-time predictive keystone correction to automatically lock on to object and present it with the proper orientation and shape.