AVAL : Audio - Visual Active Locator

Abstract: Videoconferencing is a growing trend among businesses, as the systems reduce need for travel, in turn reducing cost and carbon footprints, and increasing productivity. There has been steadily increasing growth in the industry. However, the main drawbacks appear to be the large startup cost for equipment and installation, the need for professional IT maintenance and setup, and overall lack in system mobility. The proposed design alleviates the cost while enhancing functionality of existing systems. This project aims to design a compact, platform independent, and affordable tabletop device for a terminal of a videoconferencing system. The Audio-Visual Active Locator (AVAL) takes input audio, and uses a microphone phased array to locate the speaker’s position. This information is used to position a camera toward the calculated location. This functionality aims to enhance current conferencing techniques, while embracing seamless integration into existing systems.