<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><br>Harry,<div>Thank you for doing this work and helping to develop a foundation for our eventual return to a live meeting.</div><div><br><div dir="ltr">Peter</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Aug 4, 2021, at 2:32 PM, Harry Forsdick <forsdick@gmail.com> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">Folks,</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">I have been experimenting with an interesting device, the Meeting Owl Pro, that may provide most of the capabilities required to run Hybrid Meetings in conjunction with a conferencing application such as Zoom. Here is a picture of the device:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="text-align:center;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(11,83,148)"><img alt="image.png" width="549" height="393" src="cid:ii_krxrli6g0"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="text-align:center;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(11,83,148)"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="text-align:left;font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(11,83,148)">This device connects to a laptop and provides a replacement for the camera, microphone, and speaker used in a Zoom conference. The components of this device are:</div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><ol style=""><li style="padding-bottom:0.6001em"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">A </span><b style="color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">360º camera</b><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"> that can pick out from the 360º image the people in a meeting room who are speaking based on the sounds picked up from 8 unidirectional microphones arranged around the Meeting Owl Pro cylinder. The complete 360º video </span>image is combined<span style="color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"> with the identified speakers is one of the outputs of the device. The 8 separate unidirectional microphone signals are combined into one omnidirectional audio signal which is another output of the device.</span><br><br><div style="text-align:center"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"><img alt="image.png" width="549" height="324" src="cid:ii_krxsg1gg3"></span><br><br><div style="text-align:left"><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif">The acoustic energy from each of the 8 unidirectional microphones is analyzed to determine the portions of the 360º image that ought to be shown as active speakers. These two parts (the 360º image and the identified speakers) are combined into the output video stream from the device:</span></div><br><span style="color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"><img alt="image.png" width="543" height="549" style="font-size: small;" src="cid:ii_krxs5etz2"></span></div></li><li style="color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;padding-bottom:0.6001em">The audio picked up by the <b>omnidirectional microphone</b> is another one of the outputs of the Owl device.</li><li style="color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;padding-bottom:0.6001em">The device also contains an array of <b>speakers </b>so that everybody in the room can hear an audio signal received by the device.</li></ol></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">When used with an Internet Conferencing System such as Zoom, the video and audio output of the Owl can be shown as one participant of Zooms multiple participants. The normal shared presentation capability can still be used to show the content of a talk, shown on a large screen in the meeting room or on a computer screen to a remote participant of the conference.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#0b5394">The following video shows the Meeting Owl Pro being used with Zoom and connected to remote participants over Zoom:</div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><ul style="color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><li style="margin-left:15px;padding-bottom:0.6001em"><a href="https://forsdick.com/MeetingOwl/MeetingOwlPro.mp4" target="_blank" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="2">https://forsdick.com/MeetingOwl/MeetingOwlPro.mp4</font></a></li></ul><div style="color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small">On Friday, we will attempt to try out this experimental setup. Although at one point I thought of having a group of us gather at the Community Center, Jerry Slate provided some convincing evidence why we shouldn't do this because of the fierceness of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in an indoor setting.</div><div style="color:rgb(11,83,148);font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div style=""><font face="verdana, sans-serif" style="" size="2" color="#0b5394">At 1:30 pm we will start the meeting using the normal LC&T URL:</font></div><ul><li style="padding-bottom:0.6001em"><font face="verdana, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="https://zoom.us/j/97261460830">https://zoom.us/j/97261460830</a></font></li></ul><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0b5394">We will record the meeting so that anyone who can't attend can see what transpired.</font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0b5394"><br></font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0b5394">My wife Marsha and I will simulate the audience in the Meeting Room where we will use the Owl Device. Everyone else will join as remote members of the meeting.</font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0b5394"><br></font></div><div><font color="#0b5394" face="verdana, sans-serif">I think that is it for now. Please let me know if you have any questions or I have forgotten something.</font></div><div><font color="#0b5394" face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#0b5394" face="verdana, sans-serif">Regards,</font></div><div><font color="#0b5394" face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#0b5394" face="verdana, sans-serif">-- Harry</font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0b5394"><br></font></div></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="text-align:left"><font face="verdana, sans-serif" size="2"><font color="#0b5394"><br></font></font></div><div style="text-align:left"><font face="verdana, sans-serif" size="2"><font color="#0b5394"><br></font></font></div><div style="text-align:left"><br></div><table cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5" style="color:rgb(80,0,80);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(238,238,238);margin-left:0px;margin-right:auto"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" style="font-size:10pt"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.forsdick.com/resume/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">Harry Forsdick</a><br><a href="http://lexingtonphotoscan.com/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">Lexington Photo Scanning</a><br><a href="http://lexingtontmma.org/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">Town Meeting Member Precinct 7</a><br><a href="mailto:harry@forsdick.com" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">harry@forsdick.com</a><br></font><a href="http://www.forsdick.com/" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">www.forsdick.com</a><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></td><td width="5"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"> </font></td><td valign="top" style="font-size:10pt"><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><a href="https://goo.gl/xZXT2F" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">46 Burlington St.<br>Lexington, MA 02420</a><br><a href="callto:17817996002" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">(781) 799-6002 (mobile)</a><br><font color="#0b5394"><a href="http://meet.jit.si/HarryForsdick" target="_blank">meet.jit.si/HarryForsdick</a> (video)</font><br><a href="http://forsdick.weebly.com/home/my-websites" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">Click</a> to see my other websites<br></font></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div></div></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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