JPH0248886A - video phone - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a video telephone capable of transmitting images to other devices via a line.

[Conventional technology] With the recent development of semiconductor technology and information processing technology, electronic devices have become smaller and cheaper, and in addition to the conventional telephones that only allow calls, telephones are becoming low-cost and can be used at home. videophones are becoming possible.

As such a videophone, there is a videophone equipped with a black-and-white mode television camera and a black-and-white television monitor.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, in such conventional videophones, all the components were integrated, and it was not possible to connect to other devices. . For this reason, there were the following drawbacks.

■If you try to receive and display a new image instead of the current one, the previous image information will be deleted.

■I cannot save the received images.

■ Display the received image on another display device (e.g. TV monitor)
Cannot output to etc.

0 Image input is a built-in black and white television camera, which can only take pictures in black and white mode, and the image quality is poor due to cost reduction.

■On the other hand, increasing color and image quality will increase costs.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention has been made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned problems, and includes the following configuration as one means for solving the above-mentioned problems.

That is, a voice input means for inputting voice information, a photographing means for photographing an object to be photographed, a line sending means for transmitting photographed image information by the photographing means and input sound from the voice input means to a connecting line, and a connection. A line receiving means for receiving audio information and image information from the line, a display means for displaying image information received from the line receiving means and photographed image information from the photographing means, information received from the line receiving means and photographing means and an image recording means for recording captured image information.

Further, a line transmitting/receiving means capable of inputting and transmitting image information based on a video signal of a common standard to a connecting line, receiving the image information from the connecting line, converting it into a video signal of a common standard, and outputting the same; It is provided with an image recording means for inputting and recording received information from the transmitting/receiving means and captured image information from another photographing means using a video signal of a common standard.

[Function] In the above configuration, by providing a storage means for storing photographed images and received images, these images can be repeatedly checked later and can be kept as records.

Furthermore, by allowing input and output of video signals of a common standard, it is possible to configure a videophone by reusing equipment common to other devices, and it is possible to make high-definition videophone calls.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing an embodiment according to the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is the main body of the video telephone of this embodiment, 2 is a handset, and 3 is a television camera. FIG. 1 shows the photographic lens of the television camera. 4 is a display (CRT); 5 is a floppy disk drive (FD) which is a mass storage device constituting the still video recorder; 5a is its insertion slot; and 6 is an eject button. Reference numeral 7 indicates a part of the numeric keypad, 8 indicates a display changeover switch, 10 indicates a transmission/reception control switch, 11 indicates a built-in microphone, and 12 indicates an external input/output connector section.

A block diagram of this embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, the structure of the call control section using the handset 2 is omitted because it is well known, but calls are made using the same structure and control as a conventional telephone, completely separate from the transmission and reception of image information, which will be explained below. It is now possible.

In FIG. 2, 20 is an A/C converting analog image information from the television camera 3 or FD 5 into digital image information.
A D converter, 21 is a D/A converter that converts data received from a line or digital image information from a frame memory into analog image information, 22 is a frame memory that stores image information, and 23 is a C0DE that encodes image information.
C124 is MODEM which is a modem device. Also,
41 is another connectable external input device, to which a general video camera or the like can be connected. Furthermore, 42 is an external output device, which is configured to be connectable to a general video monitor device or the like.

In this embodiment, the image signal standard at the terminals of the switch 10a and lob is a composite signal that is a common standard interface specification, and external human input 41,
General video equipment can be used as the external output 42. For example, image information taken with a VTR camera can be input, received image information etc. can be stored in a VTR, etc., or displayed from a monitor TV. It is also possible to do so. Therefore, the television camera 3 and display device 4 of this embodiment input and output composite signals, and A
The input section of the /D converter 20 is a converter that inputs a composite signal and converts it into a corresponding analog image signal, and the output section of the D/A converter 21 converts the image signal converted into an analog signal into a corresponding composite signal. A conversion unit is provided that converts and outputs the result.

The operation of this embodiment with the above configuration is shown in Figure 3 (
This will be explained below with reference to A) to (D).

1. Processing of photographing by the television camera 3 and transmitting photographed image information.

In this embodiment, first, a normal telephone unit calls the other party using a known calling procedure to establish a conversation state, or a call from the other party is detected and the handset 2 is off-hook to respond. to enter the call state. In this case, the initial state in which the image transmitting/receiving unit shown in FIG. 2 of this embodiment is not controlled at all is the third
This is the state shown in Figure (A), in which the built-in television camera 3 is set to a mode in which a subject is photographed and information on the photographed image is transmitted.

The operation when attempting to transmit image information to the other party in the state shown in FIG. 3(A) will be described.

■Display changeover switch 8a, transmission/reception control switch 10a,
10b is in the connection state shown in FIG.
, 8a, and 10b to the display device 4, and output from the display device 4 as is.

■Next, when the operator confirms this displayed image and instructs to store this image in the frame memory 22, the A/
The D converter 20 is activated, and the image taken by the television camera 3 is converted into corresponding digital image information by the A/D converter 20 and input into the frame memory 22.

(2) The image information stored in the frame memory 22 can be further displayed on the display device 4, and the stored image (transmitted image) can be visually confirmed. In this case, the display changeover switch 8a is opened, the D/A converter 21 is activated, the stored image information is read from the frame memory 22, and the read digital image information is converted into corresponding analog image information by the D/A converter 21. The signal is converted and further converted into a corresponding composite signal, which is sent to the display device 4 and displayed on the display device 4.

■If you want to send the photographed image information confirmed in this way to the other party, use the sending operation to
The stored image is read from 2, and this read image information is transferred to C.
After encoding with 0DEC23, send to MODEM24,
Here, the signal is modulated using a known method and then sent to the connected communication line in use.

2. Transmission processing of image information previously recorded on the floppy disk device 5, which is a still video recorder.

■In this case, first switch switches 30 to 32 as shown in Figure 3 (B
). Then, the floppy disk device 5 is activated and the target image information is read out. This read information is read from the switches loa and 8a in the same manner as described above.
, 10b to the display device 4 and displayed on the display device 4.

(2) Next, the A/D converter 20 is activated under the same control as described above, and the displayed image information is sent to the A/D converter 20. Here, it is converted into a corresponding digital image signal and sent to the frame memory 22 for storage.

(2) At this time, as described above, the output to the display device 4 can be switched so that the image stored in the frame memory 22 can be displayed and output from the display device 4.

■If it is determined that the transmission is OK, read the image stored in the frame memory 22 in the same way as described above, and
It is transmitted on the line via ODEM24.

3. Processing of receiving image information sent from the line, storing it in the frame memory 22, and displaying it on the display device 4.

(2) Set the switches 8a, 10a, and 10b to the state shown in FIG. 3(C).

(2) The received image signal from the communication line undergoes necessary demodulation processing in the MODEM 24, is converted into corresponding digital image information in the CODEC 23, is sent to the frame memory 22, and is stored therein.

(2) Image information stored in the frame memory 22 is read out, converted into corresponding analog image information by the D/A converter 21, and then converted into a composite signal, sent to the display device 4, and output for display.

4. Processing of receiving image information sent from the line and recording it on the floppy disk device 5.

(2) Set the switches 8a, 10a, and 10b to the state shown in FIG. 3(D).

(2) The image information sent from the line is stored in the frame memory 22 by the same process as (2) above.

■The image information stored in the frame memory 22 is read, converted into corresponding analog image information by the D/A converter 21, converted into a composite signal, sent to the floppy disk device 5, and stored in the corresponding area. recorded.

At this time, if the output of the D/A converter 21 is divided into two systems, the image can be displayed on the display device 4 while being recorded on the floppy disk device 5 at the same time.

Here, the floppy disk device 5 of this embodiment is a video still recorder that can record and reproduce still images of 25 frames or 50 fields on a 2-inch floppy based on the still video standard, and also includes a device that can input audio. You can also do that.

Further, in this embodiment, an external input/output terminal (for example, an F-type plug or a bottle plug) for inputting and outputting an image signal and the like using a composite signal shown at 12 in FIG. 1 is provided. Therefore, by using the external input terminal, it is possible to connect a scanner or the like, and it is also possible to input images from video cameras, video tape recorders, etc., which are commonly used as AV equipment in homes. Furthermore, if an external output terminal is used, a video printer or the like can be connected, and output can be made to a video monitor, which has been used in general homes as AV equipment. Furthermore, received image information and the like can be recorded on a video tape recorder or the like.

In addition, videophones that can be used at home typically use relatively low-resolution black-and-white television cameras and black-and-white display devices due to cost considerations, but as in this example, a still video recorder is used. By having this, it becomes possible to transmit high-quality images recorded using other input means. Furthermore, it becomes possible to record the received image on a still video recorder and output it to another output device.

[Other Embodiments] As explained above, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. The only thing that was being done was the process.

However, the present invention is not limited to the above example, and can be configured to perform each conversion process and encoding process at a plurality of resolutions. An example configured as described above is shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, the same components as in FIG. 2 are given the same numbers, and detailed explanations are omitted.

In FIG. 4, 50 is an A/D converter that has a different resolution than A/D converter 20 (for example, higher resolution than A/D converter 20), and 51 has a different resolution than D/A converter 21 (for example, 52 is a frame memory for storing image information at a resolution different from that of the frame memory 22 (for example, higher resolution than the frame memory 22); 53 is a frame memory for storing image information at a lower resolution than the frame memory 22; It is a CODEC capable of encoding processing and encoding processing at multiple resolutions for high-resolution encoding processing.

With the above configuration, when making a call using a general public telephone line, when using a short transmission time, or when transmitting information captured by a built-in low-resolution TV camera, etc. Since the usable signal bandwidth is not so wide, A/D conversion processing and encoding processing of the original image signal are performed at low resolution.

When transmission time constraints are not so high, or when high-quality image information is input from the outside, high-resolution (high-definition) transmission is performed. This makes it possible to transmit images from an external input or a still video recorder in high definition, for example.

At this time, of course, on the receiving side, the A/D converter 20.50, D/A converter 21, 51, and CODEC 53 perform conversion processing and encoding processing at low resolution in multiple modes corresponding to the sending side. It has a configuration that allows processing at high resolution.

[Example of application of the present invention to other uses 1 The above description has been made regarding an example in which the present invention is applied to a video telephone, but the present invention is not a technology used only for telephones, but can be applied to each of the devices shown below. It goes without saying that the present invention is also applicable to the following devices.

■Application to answering video telephone equipment.

Conventional answering machines include those that automatically answer calls when the caller is away and record the message from the caller on a compact tape recorder, etc., those that record on an IC memory, and those that combine these. There is. However, in both cases, only audio information was recorded.

On the other hand, by using the video telephone of the present invention, it is possible to record when the user is absent or when the user is absent.

In this case, if the recording memory of the conventional answering machine is used as is to record images, the memory capacity may not be sufficient. Therefore, by applying the video telephone of this embodiment equipped with a still video recorder as described above as an answering machine, it is possible to record and save not only the voice message from the caller, but also the image from the caller. Information can also be recorded. moreover,
When using a still video recorder capable of recording audio, messages and images can be recorded without using other compact tape recorders or IC recording devices for message recording.

Note that the configuration for automatically answering a call from a calling party and the configuration for having a calling party send a message are well known, and detailed explanations thereof will be omitted.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, the videophone
Floppy disk device 5 which is a still video recorder
By having this, it is possible to record and save transmitted and received images (including audio). Moreover, this can be output from any external device.

Further, images input by other input means (a still video camera or other still video recorder) through the floppy disk device 5 can be directly transmitted and received to the other party via the connection line. Similarly, a videophone with a built-in black-and-white television camera or black-and-white television monitor can send and receive color images through a still video recorder.

Furthermore, by providing an external input/output terminal 12 for composite video signals, images to be transmitted can be input from a video camera or a video tape recorder provided as other AV equipment. Furthermore, the received image information can be output to a video monitor, video printer, video tape recorder, or the like.

Furthermore, the present invention can be easily applied to an answering video telephone system to construct an answering video telephone system, and it is possible to simultaneously record a message and video for a caller who is not at home.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to this embodiment, by providing a recording means for recording photographed images and received images, these images can be repeatedly read out and checked later, and can be used for a long period of time. It can be kept as a record.

Furthermore, by allowing input and output of video signals of a common standard, it is possible to configure a videophone by reusing equipment common to other devices, and it is possible to make high-definition videophone calls.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an external perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the image processing section of this embodiment, and Figs. 3 (A) to (D) are transmission/reception control of this embodiment. FIG. 4 is a block configuration diagram of an image processing section of another embodiment according to the present invention. Device (FD), 5a... Insertion slot of floppy disk drive device, 6... Eject button of floppy disk drive device, 7... Part of number pad, 8, 8a... Display changeover switch, 10.10a , 10b... Transmission/reception control switch, 11... Built-in microphone, 12... External input/output connector section, 20.50... A/D converter,
21.51...D/A converter, 22.52...
Frame memory, 23.53...C0DEC. 24...MODEM, 41...External input device, 42
...It is an external output device. In the figure, 1... videophone main body, 2... handset (
Handset), 3... Television camera, 4... Display (CRT), 5... Floppy disk drive (B) (C) Z (D)

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) A voice input means for inputting voice information, a photographing means for photographing a subject, and transmitting the photographed image information by the photographing means and the input voice from the voice input means to a connecting line; a line transmitting/receiving means for receiving audio information and image information from the line transmitting/receiving means; a display means for displaying image information received from the line transmitting/receiving means and photographed image information from the photographing means; 1. A video telephone comprising: image recording means for recording image information captured by a photographing means. (2) The image recording means is a still video recorder, the photographing means is a video camera, and the still video camera, the video camera, and the line transmitting/receiving means can be connected using a video signal of a common standard. The video telephone set mentioned in the section. (3) The video telephone set according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the line transmitting/receiving means is capable of transmitting and receiving image information at a plurality of resolutions. (4) The video telephone set according to claim 3, wherein when storing an image in the image storage means, the resolution is set so that image information can be stored at a higher resolution among a plurality of resolutions. (5) a line transmitting/receiving means capable of inputting and transmitting image information based on a common standard video signal to a connecting line, receiving the image information from the connecting line, converting it into a common standard video signal, and outputting the same; 1. A video telephone set comprising an image recording means for inputting and recording received information from a line transmitting/receiving means and image information from another photographing means using a video signal of a common standard.