JPS6333985A - Video conference device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the presence of a conference by displaying a picture of plural attendees stored and displaying a sent closeup picture if the closeup picture data of a talker is sent in place of the picture data of the plural attendees. CONSTITUTION:When a closeup picture data of a talker is inputted, a terminal controller 1 stops the sending of the picture data of plural attendees sent so far to an opposite terminal device via a data transmission/reception equipment 10. Instead, a closeup picture data and a voice data are sent to the opposite terminal equipment via the device 10 and a data line 11. On the other hand, if the picture data of the plural attendees sent from the opposite terminal device via the data line 11 and the device 10 is missing, the terminal controller 1 sends a readout signal to a picture memory device 9 immediately. Then the picture data just before the missing of the picture data stored in the picture memory device 9 is read repetitively and it is outputted to a person monitor 7.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention connects a plurality of conference halls in remote locations through a communication line, and transmits the faces and voices of attendees to other conference halls. The present invention relates to a video conference device that conducts a conference by mutually transmitting data.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, this type of video conference device is formed by interconnecting terminal devices installed on a base II via a data line. Each terminal device is connected to a television camera that photographs the attendees, a microphone that collects the voices of the attendees, and a monitor that displays images of the attendees of this meeting R'JA (audio is also amplified). In such a video conferencing device, the images captured by two television cameras, each showing three attendees, as shown in FIG. 4, are usually combined as shown in FIG. Displayed on one monitor. As a result, a large number of attendees were displayed on a small screen, which often resulted in a lack of a sense of realism in the speaker's facial expressions and the entire meeting. In order to avoid this drawback, some systems use a close-up camera to take a close-up shot of the speaker's facial expressions, but this increases the amount of image data for the close-up image, and the line to transmit this image data increases. The disadvantage was that the number had to be increased. Furthermore, in order to avoid this drawback, when transmitting the increased image data without increasing the number of lines, the quality of the transmitted image must be lowered, which is a disadvantage.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Conventional video conferencing devices that do not send close-up images of attendees have the disadvantage that the speaker's facial expressions cannot be seen, resulting in a lack of realism in the meeting. However, those that send close-up images have the disadvantage that the number of data lines increases, resulting in higher communication costs, and those that do not increase the number of data lines have the disadvantage that the transmitted image quality deteriorates. Therefore, the present invention eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks, and provides a television conference system that allows close-up images of attendees to be transmitted to terminal equipment in the assembly hall without increasing the number of data lines and without degrading the image quality. There is an opening to provide the R device.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention transmits video and audio of attendees to other terminal devices using terminal devices installed in multiple conference halls, and In a video conferencing device that displays attendees at the other party's conference venue, the first monitor transfers images of multiple attendees sent from the other party's terminal device, and one screen's worth of images of the multiple attendees. an image recording means for recording "R=" one after another in a fixed cycle; a television camera for taking close-up images of the attendees; a speaker detecting means for detecting which of the attendees said "R="; a close-up image data selection and transmission means that selects a close-up image of a person who is a speaker and sends the selected close-up image to a terminal device of the other party in place of image data of a plurality of attendees; a second monitor that displays the close-up image; When the image data of multiple attendees transmitted from the other party's terminal device is interrupted, image data reading is performed by reading out the image data immediately before the image data is interrupted from the image recording means and supplying it to the first monitor. It consists of a control means.

(Function) In the video conference device of the present invention, the data selection and transmission means transmits a close-up image to the other party's terminal device instead of the image data of multiple attendees. It is possible to obtain close-up images and improve the sense of realism. Also,
When the image data of multiple attendees is interrupted, the image data reading means reads the image data immediately before the image data is interrupted from the image data recording means and supplies it to the first monitor. Images of multiple attendees are not interrupted and the sense of presence is not impaired.

(Example) An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1st
The figure is a block diagram showing an embodiment of one terminal device for a television conference according to the present invention. 1 is a terminal control device that controls the transmission and reception of image data and audio data, controls the display of close-up images, and controls the entire device; 2 and 3 are television cameras for capturing multiple attendees at once; 4- 1-4-6
is a television camera that takes close-up images of attendees, 5
-1 to 5-6 are microphones that pick up the voices of attendees; 6 is an image data switching device that switches image data from a close-up TV camera; 7 is a person monitor that takes pictures of attendees at the other venue; 8 9 is a close-up monitor that displays a close-up image of the speaker at the other party's venue; 9 is an image memory device that stores one screen of image data of multiple attendees sent from the other party's terminal II one after another at a constant cycle; 10 is a data transmitting/receiving device that transmits and receives various data such as image data, audio data, and control signals via the data line 11; 61 is a microphone that, when the audio level from the microphone exceeds a predetermined value, exceeds the predetermined value; An audio level detection device 62 outputs a switching signal specifying the specified microphone to a changeover switch 62, and the audio level detection device 62 switches contacts a to f in response to a switching signal input from the audio level detection device 61 to detect a signal from a television camera corresponding to the specified microphone. It is a selector switch that selects image data and outputs it to the device on the terminal side. Note that the television camera 4-1 and microphone 5-1, television camera 4-2 and microphone 5-2, ... television camera/l-6 and microphone 5-6 are each a pair, and each one can be used by one person. It shall be directed to each attendee.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained. The video conferencing equipment is separated from each other by 11! The terminal equipment shown in FIG. 1 installed in the field is connected by a data line 11. When a conference starts: For example, if there are six attendees, the television cameras 3 and 4 take images of three people each, and send the image data to the terminal control device 1. The input image data is sent to the data transmitting/receiving device 10, where it undergoes processing such as modulation, and then sent to the other party's terminal device via the data line 11. On the other hand, the image data of multiple attendees sent from the other party's terminal device is demodulated by the data transmitting/receiving unit a10, and then sent to the terminal control device! 1 is input. The terminal control device 1 sends the image data directly to the person monitor 7, and also performs a process of loading one screen worth of the image data into the image memory device 9 at a constant cycle.

Here, if there are six attendees, each of the close-up television cameras 4-1 to 4-6 captures a close-up image of the corresponding one attendee and transfers the image data obtained to the image switching device 4. It is output to contacts a-f of the changeover switch 62. Microphones 5-1 to 5-6 are also installed to capture the speech of each attendee, and output the collected audio data to the audio level detection device 61. When the input audio data exceeds a predetermined level, the audio level detection device 61 outputs a switching signal 100 to the selector switch 62 to specify the microphone that exceeds this level. As a result, the movable terminal G of the selector switch 62 is switched to select the image data from the close-up television camera paired with the specified microphone, so that the close-up image data of the speaker is eventually transferred to the terminal control device. 1 is input. At the same time, the audio level detection device 61 sends the microphones 5-1 to 5-1 to the terminal control device 1.
The speaker's voice data collected in step 5-6 is input.

Therefore, when the close-up image data of the speaker is input, the terminal control device 1 uses the data transmitting/receiving device 10 until then.
The transmission of the image data of multiple attendees that was being sent to the other party's terminal device via the data transmitting/receiving device 10 and the data line 11 is stopped, and instead, the close-up image data and audio data are sent to the other party's terminal device via the data transmitting/receiving device 10 and the data line 11. do. On the other hand, the terminal control device 1 has a data line 11 and a data transmitting/receiving device i! 1
When the image data of multiple attendees sent from the other party's terminal device via 0 is interrupted, a readout signal is immediately sent to the image memory device 9 to retrieve the image stored in the image memory device 9 immediately before the image data is interrupted. The data is repeatedly read out and output to the person monitor 7.

Further, when the terminal control device 1 receives the close-up image data of the speaker and the voice data of the speaker, which are sent after the interruption of the image data of the plurality of attendees, via the data line 11 and the data transmitting/receiving unit [10], , these data are output to the close-up monitor 8. Therefore, still images of all the attendees at the other party's venue are displayed on the person monitor 7, and close-up images of the attendees at the other party's conference hall are displayed on the close-up monitor 8. Of course, the speaker's voice is also amplified from the close-up monitor 8. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the close-up image sending operation by the terminal control device 1.

First, in step 201, the input of close-up image data is waited. When the close-up image data is input, in step 202, the transmission of image data of multiple attendees is stopped, and then in step 203, the close-up image data is input. Send image data.

Next, in step 204, the process waits for the input of close-up image data to be stopped, and when the input of close-up image data is stopped, in step 205, transmission of image data of multiple attendees is started again, and then the process returns to step 201.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the image memory read control operation by the terminal control device shown in FIG. In step 301, it is determined whether reception of image data of multiple attendees is stopped, and if reception is not stopped, step 30
4, the received image data is directly sent to the person monitor 7 and the same image data is written into the image memory device 9.

If the reception of the image data of the plurality of attendees is stopped in step 301, the process proceeds to step 302, where the image data of the plurality of attendees is read from the image memory device 9 and output to the close-up monitor 8. In step 303, it is determined whether or not to start receiving image data of a plurality of attendees. If not received, the process returns to step 302; if received, the process proceeds to step 304.

According to this embodiment, close-up image data of the speaker is sent to the other party's terminal device via the data line 11 instead of image data of a plurality of attendees, so high-quality speech can be achieved without increasing the number of data lines. It is possible to send close-up images of participants, which can improve the sense of realism in the meeting. Furthermore, when the reception of image data of multiple attendees is stopped, the image data of the multiple attendees immediately before the data stop is read out from the image memory device 9 and outputted to the person monitor 8, so that it is possible to make comments. The situation of all the attendees in the other party's Ui space can be seen together with a close-up image of the participants, without impairing the sense of realism.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the video conference device of the present invention, the image data of a plurality of attendees are sequentially stored in a fixed cycle for each screen, and the close-up image data of the speaker is When sent instead of image data of multiple attendees, a close-up image of the attendees is captured by capturing the stored images of the multiple attendees and also capturing the sent close-up image. This has the effect of being able to transmit the data to the local terminal device without increasing the number of data lines and without degrading the image quality.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the terminal device of the video conference device of the present invention, FIGS. 2 and 3 are operation flowcharts of the terminal control device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an image of a plurality of attendees honored with a television camera, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an image displayed on a person monitor. 1...Terminal control device 2.3...Television camera for people 4-1 to 4-6...Television camera for close-up 5
-1 to 5-6...Microphone 6...Image data switching device 7...Person monitor 8...Close-up monitor 10...Data transmitting and receiving device Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] Video and audio of attendees are transmitted from one terminal device among a plurality of terminal devices installed in each of a plurality of conference halls to another terminal device among the terminal devices, and the participants are sent to each conference hall. In a video conferencing device that outputs video and audio of attendees in a conference hall, the first monitor displays images of multiple attendees transmitted from the other party's terminal device, and one screen of the multiple attendees. image storage means for storing images of one after another in a fixed cycle; a television camera for taking close-up images of the attendees; and speaker detection means for detecting which of the attendees has spoken; close-up image data selection and transmission means for photographing a close-up image of the speaker detected by the speaker detection means with the television camera and transmitting the same to the other party's terminal device in place of the image data of the plurality of attendees; When the image data of the plurality of attendees transmitted from the second monitor that displays a close-up image and the terminal device installed in the conference hall of the other party is interrupted, the image data immediately before the image data is interrupted from the image storage means. A television conference device comprising: image data readout control means for reading image data and supplying the image data to the first monitor.