JPH03229588A - Video telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To display plural sheets of picture information at a time by recording compressed and encoded opposite party picture information and its own machine information obtained by compressing and encoding its own picture or an external input picture, etc., by thinning them as they are compressed information, and thinning-processing plural pieces of the picture information at the time of reproducing. CONSTITUTION:A received compressed picture signal or a picture signal from a built-in camera 7 and an external video terminal 16 and so on are recorded in a recording/ reproducing device 15 as being kept in a compressed state by selecting a recording switch installed at an operating part 11 by an operator. At the time of reproducing, first of all, a reproducing mode is selected from the operating part 11. At that time, when plural pieces of the recorded picture information are desired to display on a display part 6 at a time, a corresponding key installed at the operating part 11 is selected. In a picture processing part 4, the omittingprocessing for the picture information is executed according to a designated number of the pictures to be displayed, and the picture information changed in picture size so that plural pictures can be displayed in one screen and picture-thinning is supplied to the display part 6, and the simultaneous display of plural sheets is executed.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a video telephone device that can be fully used by being connected to a digital line having a plurality of information channels and a control signal channel. This allows multiple images to be displayed at the same time when information or own image information is played back.

[Prior Art] Some conventional videophone devices restore the image information of the other party to a video (No. 3) and then record it on a recording and reproducing device so that it can be played back later. This is used for answering machine. There are many cases where this happens.

At that time, an information medium with a large recording capacity, such as a VTR, is used for recording.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention 1] Therefore, such a video telephone device requires a large amount of information media for recording.

In addition, if you want to save recorded information and play it back later, the only way to make the recorded information easily searchable is to create and attach a label to the recording medium and visually search for it. Ta.

Therefore, for example, when you want to record what kind of image was sent by whom and when, it is necessary to create a label each time, and when searching for recorded information, it is necessary to record the recorded information on a single page. Since one sheet has to be searched, necessary recorded information cannot be easily found, which is very inconvenient.

When you want to transmit multiple images to the other party, for example, if you want the other party to select the necessary image information from the multiple image information transmitted, it is necessary to transmit all these images separately, which is time consuming and time consuming. It will take a long time (r!a).

Therefore, the present invention files not only the other party's image but also own image information such as self-portrait and external image information as compressed information, and thins out the multiple image information during playback. (We propose a videophone device that can display nine types of information at the same time.

[Means for Solving the Problems j] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a video telephone device that can be used by being connected to a digital line having a plurality of information channels and a control channel (No. 8). It is equipped with a recording and reproducing means capable of recording and reproducing encoded image information of the other party, self-portrait, own image information obtained by compressing and encoding externally input images, etc. as compressed information, and at least the other party's image information of the reproduced image information. is thinned out in the image processing unit, resulting in y
, vi image information can be displayed simultaneously on the display unit.

[Function] In this configuration, received image information of the other party, self-portrait,
Self-image information such as an external image is recorded in the recording/reproducing device 15.

During playback, the playback image information can be thinned out according to the scaling factor specified in the image processing section 4.

The thinned out image information is simultaneously displayed on the display section (monitor) 6.

With this, a plurality of pieces of recorded image information can be simultaneously reproduced and displayed as shown in FIG.

Further, it is also possible to arbitrarily select and transmit one of the plurality of displayed image information. It is also possible to retransmit the multiple images displayed as compressed image information to the other party.

[Embodiment] Next, an example of the video telephone device according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1 and subsequent figures.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a line interface section,
This is connected to the digital line 20 and information channel D
The one-control channels B1 and B2 are demultiplexed.

That is, multiple processing is performed when the information signal is output to the digital line 20, and separation processing is performed when the information signal is input from the digital line 20.

The information signal taken in by the line interface section 1 is sent to the system control section 2 and separated into audio information and image information. The system control section 2 controls all functional sections, analyzes what kind of information signal is taken in, and controls each section based on the analysis result.

First, image information is sent to the decoding section 3. Since the sent image information has already been compressed and encoded, decoding and decompression processing is performed in step 11 here.

The expanded and restored image signal passes through the image processing section 4 and is stored in the image storage section (RAM etc.) 5.

When the image signals for one screen are complete, the image processing section 4 sends the image signals to the display section (monitor) 6 for display.

The display section 6 uses a CRT or a liquid crystal display element.

The input image from the built-in video camera 7 is sent to the image storage section 5 via the image processing section 4, and then sent to the image processing section 4 again.
The signal is sent to the encoding unit 8 through.

The encoding unit 8 compresses and encodes the image information and sends it to the system control unit 2.

On the other hand, audio No. 18 separated by the system limiting unit 2 is processed by the audio processing unit 9 and then output from the handset 10. The audio signal input to the handset 10 is sent to the system control unit 2 via the audio processing unit 9.

The image and audio data that has been captured or processed in this way is supplied from the system control unit 2 to the line interface unit l, where it is multiplexed and sent to the digital circuit j*.
It is sent to the 20 side.

The system control unit 2 also outputs call origination and incoming call information to the call control unit 13, and also outputs information input from the operation unit 11 (7).
Controls such as input of episode numbers, etc.) are managed.

Therefore, information input from the operation section 11 is input to the system control section 2 through the operation interface section 12, and each of the above-mentioned processing sections is controlled based on the input information.

Reference numeral 15 denotes a recording/reproducing device to which compressed image information is input/output via the interface unit 14 . As the recording/reproducing device 15, a small recording/reproducing means having a large storage capacity, such as a floppy disk drive, is used.

16 is a terminal for external video such as a television receiver or VTR, and 17 is a switch for switching between internal and external video. The switch 17 is controlled by the system control section 2.

When the operator selects the recording switch provided on the operation unit 11, the received compressed image signal, the image signal from the built-in video camera 7, the external video terminal 16, etc. can be recorded and played back in a compressed state. The data can be recorded on the device 115.

For example, by setting the answering machine to the answering machine mode, the image information of arrivals ε is recorded in the order of arrivals 8.

When reproducing, first select a reproduction mode from the operation unit 11. At this time, if the user wishes to simultaneously display a plurality of pieces of recorded image information on the display section 6, the corresponding key provided on the operation section 11 is selected.

This means that the number of screens to be displayed on the display section 6 has been set, and then the reproduced image information can be supplied to the decoding section 3, and the decoded and decompressed image information is sent to the image processing section 4.

The image processing unit 4 performs thinning processing on the image information according to the specified number of screens to be displayed, and changes the image size to a size that allows a plurality of images to be displayed on one screen. Thereafter, the image information subjected to image processing is supplied to the display section 6, and a plurality of images are displayed simultaneously.

For example, when it is desired to display nine images at the same time, the image processing section 4 performs two-dot subtraction processing on three dots both horizontally and vertically, and then synthesizes each image. Then, as shown in the display example of FIG. 2, nine images are displayed simultaneously.

The image displayed on the display unit 6 can also be transmitted to the other party.

In this case, the operator selects one screen in the multiple display state or selects one screen in the multiple display state. Then, under the control of the system control unit 2, image information for screen display stored in the image processing unit 4 is sent to the encoding unit 8.
After being compressed and encoded, the image information is sent to the line interface unit 1 via the system control unit 2.

In this way, the compression-encoded image information of the other party, the self-portrait, externally input images, and other own image information are recorded in the recording/reproducing device 15 as compressed information, so it is not possible to file a large amount of image information. can.

Furthermore, during playback, a plurality of pieces of stored image information can be displayed simultaneously, making it easier to search for recorded image information.

In general, it is also possible to transmit some or all of these plurality of displayed images to the other party.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the configuration of the present invention, it is possible to arbitrarily record and reproduce compressed recipient's image information, own-machine compressed image information such as a self-portrait, and an external image. Since the image is a compressed image, a small recording/reproducing means with a small recording capacity can be used as a recording/reproducing device.

When playing back, a plurality of pieces of image information can be displayed simultaneously. Therefore, the present invention facilitates the search for incoming image information, and has the effect of significantly shortening the search time and search work.

Furthermore, since there is also a function that allows display image information to be transmitted, the transmission process is also simplified.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing an example of a video telephone device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a screen display. 1 ・ 2 ・ 3 ・ 4 ・ 5 ・ 6 ・ 7 ・ 8 ・ 9 ・ 10 ・ l 1 ・ 15 ・ 20 ・ ・Line interface section, system control section, decoding section, image processing section, image storage section, display section・Built-in video camera ・Encoding unit ・Audio processing unit ・Handset ・Operation unit ・Recording and playback device ・Digital line

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a videophone device that is used by being connected to a digital line that has multiple information channels and control signal channels, it is possible to transmit compressed and encoded image information of the other party, self-portrait, external input image, etc. The apparatus is equipped with a recording and reproducing means capable of recording and reproducing machine image information as compressed information, and among the reproduced image information, at least the other party's image information is thinned out in the image processing section and displayed as a plurality of image information on the display section. A video telephone device characterized by being able to simultaneously display images on the screen.