US Patent 11290680 High-fidelity freeze-frame for precision video communication applications

Techniques are provided by which a receiver of a video stream signals to the sender to freeze the video input at a certain frame, and the sender responds by adapting its encoding methods to progressively improve the quality of the sent static image. A method includes receiving at a first device a first freeze-frame request initiated by the second device. The first freeze-frame request indicates that a user of the second device requests a high-fidelity freeze-frame of a first frame of the encoded video stream from the first device. A first sequence of encoded video frames of the first frame is generated for a high-fidelity freeze-frame. Each encoded video frame of the first sequence is of progressively higher fidelity of the first frame.