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AI Technology

Nvidia Says Its AI Can Fix Some of the Biggest Problems in Video Calls (theverge.com) 26

Nvidia has announced a new videoconferencing platform for developers named Nvidia Maxine that it claims can fix some of the most common problems in video calls. From a report: Maxine will process calls in the cloud using Nvidia's GPUs and boost call quality in a number of ways with the help of artificial intelligence. Using AI, Maxine can realign callers' faces and gazes so that they're always looking directly at their camera, reduce the bandwidth requirement for video "down to one-tenth of the requirements of the H.264 streaming video compression standard" by only transmitting "key facial points," and upscale the resolution of videos. Other features available in Maxine include face re-lighting, real-time translation and transcription, and animated avatars.
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Nvidia Says Its AI Can Fix Some of the Biggest Problems in Video Calls

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  • by bloodhawk ( 813939 ) on Monday October 05, 2020 @04:47PM (#60575196)
    That sounds like a lot of what video conferencing systems already do. Hell even MS Teams doesn't need to transmit the full video, it just picks out the person and you can replace the background with a generic picture. translation and transcription is also already a service as is avatars. Perhaps they need to go have a look at what the competition actually offers before spouting off they have fantastic new features.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The background removal feature in Zoom tends to remove the heads of people with dark skin. It looks really weird, their body is there but no head.

    • I'm curious.

      While I know a LOT of us are now working from home remotely, and depend a great deal on tools like MS Teams, Skype, Zoom, etc...I have to wonder:

      Are THAT many people out there using the video portion of these online conferencing calls for everyday real work situations?

      Almost no one I know uses the video feeds. I mean, most of us are in T-Shirts, shorts/boxer shorts, and who knows what else.

      We all use the chat, the voice, but NO ONE is wanting to use video as that well, I guess no one wants t

      • I probably use the video feeds about 1 in 4 meetings. It depends on who I am meeting with, type of meeting and whether they are using their feeds. for project team standups I see about a 3rd turn on video.
      • by jbengt ( 874751 )

        Almost no one I know uses the video feeds. . . . We all use the chat, the voice, but NO ONE is wanting to use video as that well.

        In my experience:
        For relatively large meetings, no-one uses the cameras, but most of those meetings involve screen-sharing of agendas, drawings, sketches, etc.
        For one-on-one calls and small meetings with co-workers, the cameras are used. I make sure I put on a different shirt every morning for our check-in meeting, but no one sees that I'm wearing sweat pants or, in the summer

      • Whenever we need to have a meeting which would perhaps be unwieldy in chat - those which in other times would normally be done in person. It happens at least a couple of times a week.

  • I doubt it (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday October 05, 2020 @04:48PM (#60575198)

    It's like with the TV program: No matter how high the resolution, the shitty content doesn't improve.

    • Yup. Still trying to figure out the "brightness" setting on my tv. Been fiddling with it for years and it doesn't seem to help any.

  • by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Monday October 05, 2020 @04:54PM (#60575230)

    Perhaps they could invent an AI to enhance management's grasp of reality?

    The major problems with most online meetings is that they're just as unnecessary as face-to-face meetings, but management wanted to pull together a big group of people to listen to them pontificate about some trivial non-issue rather than just send out the one or two sentences of actual information the team needed in an email. Let's tackle that problem first, shall we?

    • The major problems with most online meetings is that they're just as unnecessary as face-to-face meetings, but management wanted to pull together a big group of people to listen to them pontificate about some trivial non-issue rather than just send out the one or two sentences of actual information the team needed in an email. Let's tackle that problem first, shall we?

      Dude, they ARE fixing that problem: "Using AI, Maxine can realign callers' faces and gazes so that they're always looking directly at their camera".

      Think about it.

      • by jbengt ( 874751 )

        "Using AI, Maxine can realign callers' faces and gazes so that they're always looking directly at their camera".

        That is going to be in the uncanny valley.
        No Thanks.

      • Wow, so hey can capture my general facial expression and thene make it look as if I am there even though I lift long ago.... I can see some potential there!

    • I guess adding artificial intelligence is ONE way to finally have some intelligence in meetings. Not sure it addresses the core issues, however.

    • Let's tackle that problem first, shall we?

      Yes, you focus on the first problem, and NVIDIA just sits around with their thumb in their assess waiting for you. What would NVIDIA know about multitasking anyway right?

      Or. Hear me out... They could handle the second problem while you fix the first one and realise that the entire world doesn't have the same problem you seem to.

    • by jbengt ( 874751 )
      Most (not all) meetings I'm in are not unnecessary, but they are unnecessarily drawn out.
  • Real-Time Multi-Step View Reconstruction for a Virtual Teleconference System -- https://link.springer.com/cont... [springer.com]

    This is the technology I want.

  • by worldofsimulacra ( 4734477 ) on Monday October 05, 2020 @04:56PM (#60575238)

    Holding out for when they can simulate my entire presence so I don't even have to be there.

  • Sheesh... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Monday October 05, 2020 @05:21PM (#60575302)
    At this rate we may have real-time deepfakes within a couple of years.
  • Please DON'T (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anachronous Coward ( 6177134 ) on Monday October 05, 2020 @05:31PM (#60575334)
    Please DON'T "realign callers' faces and gazes so that they're always looking directly at their camera." It's already disturbing enough to have to look at a grid of faces, all appearing to stare directly at me, even though I'm not talking. If anything, it should do the opposite. In a real meeting you don't have everyone staring directly at you constantly, even if you ARE talking.
  • "Everyone is a nail," said the hammer.

  • Let us create an avatar mimicking our way of speaking, that is always nicely dressed and coiffed with a perfect designed background while we sit in our dirty underwear on the couch.

    On second thought, let it do the work too and act on my behalf onscreen.

    PS. Send my check to Barbados.

  • by raftpeople ( 844215 ) on Monday October 05, 2020 @09:19PM (#60575852)
    "Dave, are you talking? You're probably on mute if you are..."
  • I hope mighty AI finally manages to fix OS microphone settings for us dumb humans.

  • Wake me up when multiple people can talk simultaneously without the audio cutting out.
  • I bet most people don't realize that when you are talking on the cell phone its not sending your voice. It compresses your audio based on a mathematical model of the human respiratory tract, sends over the few data points indicated by the model, and recreates the voice from this model on the other side.

    It's close enough for phone calls, but doing with this with faces would save TONS of data, but I wonder how uncanny that valley really gets. Breaking down your face into component parts using a face mo

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