Google patents virtual meeting backgrounds that stay still while you move
This filing describes a method for keeping a virtual meeting background fixed while the participant moves. It uses an AI model to create a static background image and then layers the moving participant on top of it for each video frame.
In the filing’s own words
Systems and methods for virtual meeting background freeze may include determining that a background of a video stream of a first client device of a participant of a virtual meeting is to be modified, causing an image of the participant to be removed from an area of a first frame of the video stream, filling the first frame with a background image generated by an artificial intelligence (AI) model for the first frame with the removed image of the participant, and for each of one or more second frames of the video stream, generating a composite image by superimposing an image of a participant depicted in a respective second frame of the one or more second frames of the video stream on the background of the first frame using a location and a size of the image of the participant with respect to the respective second frame, and causing the composite image to be presented in a virtual meeting user interface (UI) on a second client device in place of the respective second frame.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method, comprising: determining that a background of a visual item corresponding to a video stream of a first client device of a participant of a virtual meeting is to be modified in a virtual meeting user interface (UI); causing an image of the participant to be removed from an area of a first frame of the video stream; filling the first frame with a background image generated by an artificial intelligence (AI) model for the first frame with the removed image of the participant; and for each of one or more second frames of the video stream: generating a composite image by superimposing an image of a participant depicted in a respective second frame of the one or more second frames of the video stream on the background image using a location and a size of the image of the participant with respect to the respective second frame; and causing the composite image to be presented in the virtual meeting UI on a second client device in place of the respective second frame.
Facts
- Company
- Google (Google LLC)
- Official title
- VIRTUAL MEETING BACKGROUND FREEZE
- Publication number
- US20260292106A1
- Application number
- 19694877
- Filed
- Jun 1, 2026
- Published
- Sep 24, 2026
- Inventors
- 4
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
H04N 7/157 Electricity & electronicsG06T 5/50 Physics & computingG06T 7/13 Physics & computingG06T 7/73 Physics & computingG06T 11/60 Physics & computingG06T 2207/20221 Physics & computingMore from Google in AI & software
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.