JPH0965307A - Image communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: A line connection with another communication device having an encoding / decoding means is performed regardless of the equipment of this communication device, and recording / reproducing is performed in the data format transmitted through the line. Providing an image communication device. A communication interface 6 connected to a communication line includes an MPU 1, a program ROM 2 and a work RAM.
3, a peripheral I / O interface 4, an operation unit 5, and the like. The communication data having passed through the communication interface 6 is recorded in the data recording / reproducing section 8 regardless of the content, or reproduced and sent to the communication line. The call processing unit including the voice processing unit 7 and the handset 9 is connected to the communication line from the interface 6 and can be used for a videophone or the like.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image communication apparatus, and more particularly, to an apparatus which can be used in a videophone or the like equipped with a recording / reproducing device for data such as images.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the prior art, in an image communication device,
Techniques for recording and reproducing received data (image data, audio data, other data, etc.) on a disk or tape have been devised (JP-A-1-270472, JP-A-2-14).
5081), the image communication apparatus having neither the encoding means nor the decoding means cannot be connected to another image communication apparatus having the encoding means and the decoding means, and these data (image data, audio data, Other data, etc.) could not be sent or received.

Further, in an image communication apparatus having only a decoding means, the image communication apparatus is connected to another image communication apparatus and the data (image data, voice data, other data, etc.) is received.
Although possible, the transmission of data from their own terminals was not considered. Further, in the image communication device having the encoding / decoding means, the data (image data, voice data, other data, etc.) is connected to another image communication device.
Although the data can be transmitted and received, the once received data is recorded in the recording / reproducing means as the encoded data, and if necessary, the recording / reproducing means encodes arbitrary data from the plurality of received data. There is no transmission technology that reproduces the recorded data and transmits it again to the transmission source or a third party.

In the conventional image communication apparatus, it is necessary to have an encoding unit and a decoding unit even when simply transmitting and receiving data without performing monitoring (encoding and decoding of data is not performed). Also, even in an image communication apparatus having these encoding means and decoding means, it is general that the received data is decoded and recorded / reproduced on a disk or tape, and the data once received and recorded. It was not possible to separate, reproduce, and send arbitrary data from the.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and even an image communication apparatus having neither an encoding unit nor a decoding unit has an encoding unit and a decoding unit. Image data,
Provided is an image communication device capable of transmitting and receiving voice data and other data, and also in an image communication device having an encoding means and a decoding means, the received data such as image data, voice data, other data, Each of them is recorded in the recording / reproducing means in the coded data format as it is, and if necessary, from any of a plurality of multiplexed data, any data is reproduced in the coded data in the format, and again. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image communication device capable of transmitting to a transmission source or a third party.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, in a communication device for transmitting and receiving image data, voice data and other data through a line, line connection with another communication device having encoding and decoding means is provided. Communication means that always keeps the line connected when requested, and the image data, audio data, and other data received in the encoded data format in their encoded data format Recording / reproducing means capable of collectively recording / reproducing to / from the recording / reproducing means, and, if necessary, reproducing from the recording / reproducing means in the encoded data format, and reproducing from the recording / reproducing means to a transmission source or a third party. Of a line connection with another communication device having a transmission means capable of transmitting the encoded data and the like in the encoded data format and having an encoding / decoding means In some cases, regardless of the means included in the communication device, by always performing the operation procedure for keeping the line in the connected state, even if there is no encoding / decoding means for image data, audio data and other data, It is possible to transmit / receive image data, audio data, other data, etc. to / from another image communication device having an encoding / decoding means in the encoded data format.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned first aspect of the present invention, a management means for assigning a management number to a group of encoded data (image data, audio data, other data, etc.) received by the communication means. It is possible to record and reproduce the received data as a group of data in the encoded data format, and to record and reproduce a plurality of data in the recording / reproducing means. Therefore, high-speed search is possible.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the above first aspect of the present invention, a set of encoded data (image data, audio data, other data, etc.) received by the communication means is encoded. Data separation means for separating each data type as it is, and management means for assigning a management number to each data in the encoded data format separated by the data separation means are provided. And by the management means,
It is possible to record and reproduce a plurality of separated image data, audio data, and other data in the recording / reproducing means, and to perform random access reproduction of the recorded data in the encoded data format. It is also possible to delete unnecessary data and send it to a third party.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the decoding means for the encoded image data, audio data and other data, and the respective data decoded by the decoding means are included. By having an output means and a decoding means for decoding encoded image data, audio data and other data, a plurality of encoded data (image data, audio data and Other data etc.) can be once subjected to a decoding process, and the content of each data can be confirmed by a monitor or the like by having an output means for each decoded data.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided data input means for image data, audio data and other data, and an encoding means for the data input by the data input means. By having data input means for image data, audio data, and other data, it is possible to input arbitrary data such as a camera.
Further, the encoding means can encode any input data (image data, audio data, other data, etc.) and can transmit the encoded data to another image communication device.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The image communication apparatus of the present invention will be described below based on its embodiments. Here, first, the ITU-T recommended H.264 standard is used. Since it is necessary to know the videophone defined by H.320 or the like as a premise of the present invention, H.320 of the ITU-T recommendation will be described. A videophone defined by 320 or the like has a configuration as shown in FIG. 11, and usually has an image and audio encoder and a decoder, each of which has an IT.
It is specified in the U-T recommendation. In addition, when sending data such as images and audio to other terminals such as videophones,
As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 12, the capabilities of the terminals are exchanged, and it is confirmed whether or not they have the capabilities necessary for communication with each other. If the partner terminal does not have the required capability by this procedure, the communication line is disconnected.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the invention of claim 1. As shown in this block diagram, this system is connected to a communication line by a communication interface 6. Communication interface 6 is MPU
1, program ROM 2, work RAM 3, peripheral I / O
It is controlled by the terminal control unit including the interface 4 and the operation unit 5. When a user uses a certain terminal such as H.264. 3
When communicating with a videophone compliant with 20 Recommendations, the operation unit 5
Enter the telephone number of the other party's terminal from. The MPU 1 sends the data input via the peripheral I / O interface to the communication interface and enters the calling state.

In this system, at the time of capability exchange performed at the beginning of the communication procedure, data indicating that the terminal capability is provided even if the image and audio encoding / decoding devices are not provided, By notifying the other terminal, it is as if H.264. 32
Since the configuration is such that 0 terminals communicate with each other, the MPU
The capability exchange sequence is executed in accordance with the communication protocol procedure incorporated in the program ROM 2 from 1.
After the capability notification from the communication interface 6 as described above, if the partner terminal has the same capability, the line is in the connected state.

As shown in FIG. 1, the communication data transmitted through the communication interface 6 is recorded in the data recording / reproducing section 8 regardless of the content. In this system, the data recording / reproducing unit 8 is composed of a memory such as a DRAM, but it can be easily composed of a medium such as a magnetic tape. The means for multiplexing the data does not matter, but H.264 may be used.
According to the 320 recommendation, H.264. 221 multiplexing is commonly used. In this system, in order to simplify the description, of the 2B channels of the ISDN line, 1B is assigned to data communication and 1B is assigned to a call voice, and the data passed through the communication interface 6 is a communication in one sequential line. It is assumed that a plurality of data such as images and sounds as shown in (A) are multiplexed. The other 1B is sent to the voice processing unit 7 as call voice data. A series of data 29 obtained by a certain communication process is collectively transmitted as a combination of image coded data, audio coded data, and other data for each certain capacity (for example, 512 Kbytes) as shown in FIG. 6A. .

At this time, in the data recording / reproducing unit 8, the first set of data strings is packed in the 1st row and the Ath column of the memory 30 and recorded while the received data remains in the encoded state. Next 1
The set of data strings is recorded immediately after the previously recorded data in memory 30. (In this case, the data is recorded in the 1st row and the Bth column.) The above recording state is shown in FIG. The data recorded in the data recording / reproducing unit 8 in this way is reproduced in a procedure reverse to that at the time of recording, if necessary, and sent to the communication line via the communication interface 6. Further, as described above, the call processing unit including the voice processing unit 7 and the handset 9 is added to the present system as needed, and does not constitute the main purpose of this embodiment. When 1B is used as the call voice channel on the ISDN line, the voice signal sent from the communication interface 6 to the voice processing unit 7 can be used for a call with the handset 9.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the invention according to claim 2. The difference from the above-described embodiment of claim 1 is that a management number demultiplexing unit 10 is added. In the above embodiment of claim 1, only one data is recorded in the data recording / reproducing unit 8 in a certain communication process, and further, the memory 30 of the data recording / reproducing unit 8 is used.
It was possible to record and reproduce only from the 1st row and the 1st column.
Therefore, if a communication is performed while recording a certain data string 29 in the data recording / reproducing unit 8 and a new communication content is to be recorded, the existing data string 29 will be lost. Therefore, according to the embodiment of the invention of claim 2, a management number demultiplexing unit 10 is provided as a management means for managing the data to be recorded and reproduced, and the management number is added at the beginning of the received data 29 that has passed through the communication interface 6. 31 is multiplexed and recorded in the data recording / reproducing unit 8.

Here, FIG. 7A is a received data string, and FIG. 7B is a data string in which the management number demultiplexing unit 10 multiplexes the management numbers. As shown in FIG. 8A, when the data from the first reception data to the Mth reception data is recorded in the data recording / reproducing unit 8, it is recorded in the memory 30 as shown in FIG. 8B. Here, the management numbers are simply 1, 2, 3 ,. . Although it is set to M, an arbitrary management number may be given in designing the system depending on the data to be actually handled and the type of terminal. Further, not only is it possible to handle a plurality of data strings by using this management number, but the MPU 1 searches for the management number inside the data recording / reproducing unit 8 when reproducing data, and Random access is possible by reading the data string of the management number.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the invention according to claim 3. The difference from the above-described embodiment of claim 1 or 2 is that a data demultiplexing unit 11 is added. In the above-mentioned embodiment of claim 1 or 2, the plurality of data are recorded in the data recording / reproducing section 8 while being multiplexed. However, since the multiplexed data cannot be separated respectively, Unnecessary data will be transmitted when transmitting to three parties. Therefore, according to the embodiment of the invention of claim 3, the received data that has passed through the communication interface 6 is separated by the data demultiplexing unit 11, and the management number 32 is multiplexed by the management number demultiplexing unit 10. It is a thing.
The management number demultiplexing unit 10 uses the H.264 standard of the ITU-T recommendation.
221 and the like are conceivable.

For example, as shown in FIG. 9A, image coded data for each certain capacity (for example, 512 Kbytes),
From the data string (FIG. 9A) transmitted by the combination of the voice coded data, the data is separated for each data type delimiter of the image coded data and the voice coded data (see FIG. 9).
(B)), and the management number 32 is multiplexed (FIG. 9C).
In addition, when the data is collected for each management number, the configuration is as shown in FIGS. 9D and 9E. FIG. 9 (D),
The data separated as shown in (E) is recorded in the data recording / reproducing unit 8, but various recording methods can be considered. As an example, as shown in FIG. 10, a management number 31 indicating that the image communication data and the audio coded data are separated from the same communication is 1, 2 ,. . , And the management number 32 indicating that the data is image encoded data is P-1, P-2 ,. . , And the management number 33 indicating that the data is voice coded data, A-1, A-
2,. . , There is a method of multiplexing. As described above, the management numbers 31, 32, and 33 may be given arbitrary management numbers in accordance with the design of the system, depending on the data actually handled and the type of terminal.

By recording in the data recording / reproducing unit 8 in this way, for example, when the received data is to be transmitted to a third party image dedicated terminal, only the image coded data string can be extracted and transmitted. . It is also possible to transmit it in combination with other data. The call processing unit composed of the voice processing unit 7 and the handset 9 is different from the above-described embodiment of claim 1 or 2 in that the data demultiplexing unit 11 is used.
It is connected to the. This is the same as the above, except that the ISDN line uses 2B channels, 1B is a data string, and the other 1B is an audio-only channel, and 2B is all data channels. In order to allocate coded data and make it possible to multiplex, the call processing unit is set to the data demultiplexing unit 1.
1 connected. The call processing unit is not essential for the circuit configuration because it is not the subject of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the invention of claim 4. The difference from the embodiment of claim 1, 2 or 3 is that an image decoding unit 12, a sound decoding unit 13, and a data output unit 14 for decoding image coded data, audio coded data, and other data. , And an image memory 16, a memory control unit 15, an image output unit 17, and an audio output unit 18 for performing the processes associated therewith. The monitor 19, the speaker 20, the data terminal, etc. 21 are built in depending on the system, but can be configured as external devices. By adding a decoding processing unit for these data, the contents of the data can be once decoded and the contents can be confirmed. Further, not all the decoding processing units of these data are necessary, and it is possible to configure an arbitrary decoding processing unit according to the specifications of the system. Since the data recording / reproducing is the same as that of the above-mentioned third embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the invention of claim 5. What differs from the above-mentioned embodiment of claim 1, 2, 3 or 4 is that in addition to a decoding processing system for decoding image coded data, voice coded data and other data That is, an encoding processing unit for transmitting data and other data is added. This is the addition of the image encoding unit 24, the audio encoding unit 25, the data input / output unit 26, and the image input / output unit 27 and the audio input / output unit 28 for performing the processes associated with them.
The camera 22 and the microphone 20 are built in the system, but can be configured as external devices.

By adding an encoding processing unit for these data, only the received data is handled,
Various data input from the camera and microphone of this system can also be transmitted. Furthermore, once the input data is encoded and once recorded in the data recording / reproducing unit 8, it can be handled in the same manner as the received data, and therefore arbitrary data and received data can be combined and transmitted. Further, not all of these data encoding processing units are necessary, and it is possible to configure an arbitrary encoding processing unit according to the system specifications. Since the data recording / reproducing is the same as that of the above-mentioned third embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted.

The respective embodiments of the invention of claim 2 to the invention of claim 5 of the present application can be combined with each other, and are limited only to the structures described in the respective embodiments. Not a thing.

[0023]

According to the image communication apparatus according to the invention of claim 1 of the present application, even if the communication apparatus does not have an encoding / decoding means, the encoding / decoding of another video telephone or the like can be performed. It is possible to connect to an image communication device having a digitalization means, and obtain various data and record / reproduce. Furthermore, since the received data can be retransmitted as it is, the data received from Mr. A
You can transfer to Mr. B who you do not know. The image communication apparatus according to the invention of claim 2 of the present application can record and reproduce a plurality of received batches of data, and can perform random access reproduction of the recorded data, so that high-speed retrieval is possible. The image communication apparatus according to the invention of claim 3 of the present application can record and reproduce the received data according to the type of the data, delete unnecessary data when transmitting the data to a third party, and transmit the data. , Can be transmitted in combination with other data. The image communication apparatus according to the invention described in claim 4 of the present application can confirm the contents of received data, data, and recorded data. The image communication apparatus according to the invention of claim 5 of the present application,
Arbitrary data captured by a camera or the like can be transmitted to a partner terminal, or data that is received and recorded can be transmitted.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an image communication apparatus according to the invention of claim 1.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an image communication apparatus of the invention of claim 2;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an image communication apparatus according to the invention of claim 3;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an image communication apparatus of the invention of claim 4;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an image communication apparatus according to the invention of claim 5;

6A and 6B are schematic diagrams regarding data received by the image communication apparatus according to the embodiment of FIG. 1, and FIG. 6A illustrates multiplexing.
(B) is a diagram for explaining a data storage method.

7A and 7B are schematic diagrams of data received by the image communication apparatus according to the embodiment of FIG. 2, in which FIG. 7A shows multiplexed received data and FIG. 7B shows data with multiplexed management numbers. It is a figure for explaining.

8A shows data received by the image communication apparatus according to the embodiment of FIG. 2 each time, and FIG. 8B schematically shows a method of storing the data.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of data received by the image communication apparatus according to the embodiment of FIG. 3, showing (B) and (C) as separation of data having the structure of (A) and multiplexing of management numbers. Each data string separated into data and voice data (D),
(E) is shown.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a method of storing data received by the image communication apparatus according to the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 11: Videophone ITU-T Recommendation H.264 FIG. 32 is a block diagram illustrating a 320 terminal.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a procedure of capacity exchange of the image communication apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... MPU, 2 ... Program ROM, 3 ... Work RA
M, 4 ... peripheral I / O interface, 5 ... operation unit, 6
... communication interface, 7 ... audio processing section, 8 ... data recording / reproducing section, 9 ... handset, 10 ... management number demultiplexing section, 11 ... data demultiplexing section, 12 ... image decoding section,
13 ... Voice decoding unit, 14 ... Data output unit, 15 ... Memory control unit, 16 ... Image memory, 17 ... Image output unit, 18
... audio output unit, 19 ... image monitor, 20 ... speaker, 2
1 ... Data terminal, etc., 22 ... Camera, 23 ... Microphone, 24
... image coding / decoding unit, 25 ... audio coding / decoding unit, 2
6 ... Data input / output unit, 27 ... Image input / output unit, 28 ... Audio input / output unit, 29 ... Received data string, 30 ... Data recording / reproducing memory unit, 31 ... Data management number, 32 ... Image data management number, 33 ... Voice data management number.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A communication device for transmitting and receiving image data, audio data, other data, etc. through a line, the line is always connected when there is a line connection request with another communication device having an encoding / decoding means. And a recording means capable of collectively recording and reproducing the image data, audio data, and other data received in the encoded data format in the encoded data format in the recording / reproducing means. Reproducing means and, if necessary, reproducing from the recording / reproducing means in the encoded data format as they are, and transmitting the data reproduced from the recording / reproducing means to a sender or a third party in the encoded data format. An image communication apparatus having a transmitting unit capable of transmitting as it is. 2. The image communication according to claim 1, further comprising management means for assigning a management number to a group of encoded data (image data, audio data, other data, etc.) received by the communication means. apparatus. 3. A data separation device for separating a set of encoded data (image data, audio data, other data, etc.) received by the communication means into each data type delimiter in the encoded data format. 2. The image communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a means and a management means for assigning a management number to each data in the encoded data format separated by the data separation means. 4. A decoding means for decoding coded image data, audio data, and other data, and an output means for outputting each data decoded by the decoding means. Image communication device. 5. The image communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a data input unit for inputting image data, voice data, other data, etc., and an encoding unit for encoding the data input by the data input unit.