JPH01270474A - Still picture transmitting method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute an efficient suitable still picture transmission in a short time by transferring and storing a part of picture data stored in a picture memory to other area in the picture memory and successively, reading and transmitting the picture data. CONSTITUTION:A CPU 11 investigates the condition of a quick/normal designating switch 18 through an input/output port 10. At the time of a quick designating condition, the CPU 11 transfers and stores a part of the picture of present picture data through an image controller 15 to the prescribed another area of a picture memory 16. Only the transferred and stored partial picture data are displayed on a display 17. When the switch 18 is a normal designation, preset picture data stored in the picture memory 16 are all transmitted as they are.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a still image transmission method, and particularly to the reformation of image data transmission processing technology in a still image video telephone device.

[Prior Art] There is a demand for a videophone that simultaneously transmits audio and images using a telephone communication line, but in reality, current telephone communication lines cannot continuously transmit dynamic images that require a huge amount of data. Since it is difficult to send and receive a still image to the other party during a call, still image videophones are being put into practical use.

This still image videophone allows you to
It is possible to temporarily interrupt this call and send a desired still image, such as the speaker's face, a photo screen or a picture depending on the content of the call, or the like.

Therefore, with such a still image videophone, it is possible to send and receive images over a telephone line, which was previously impossible, and data processing ports are also limited because only one still image is sent each time. This had the advantage that it was easy to put videophones into practical use.

A video telephone capable of transmitting one static image in one stroke is shown, for example, in the October 1986 issue of Foreign Communication Technology. FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of the simple static IL picture video telephone. In the figure, (1) is a handset, (2) is a microphone, (3) is an audio input/output circuit, (4) is an analog circuit, (5) is a matrix switch, (6) is a telephone interface circuit, and (7) is a is the telephone line connection terminal, (8
) is the speaker, (9) is the keypad, (lO) is the human output board, (11) is the CPU, (12) is the program memory, (13) is the modulation/demodulation circuit, (14) is the TV camera,
(15) is an image controller, (16) is an image memory, and (17) is a display.

Next, the operation of transmitting audio and image signals of this conventional video telephone will be explained based on FIGS. 5 and 6.

In Figure 5, a voice call is made from a transmitter/receiver M (1) or a microphone (2) to a telephone line via an audio input/output circuit (3), an analog circuit (4), a matrix switch (5), and a telephone interface circuit (6). Connection terminal (7)
sent to. Further, an audio signal from the other party is reproduced by the handset (1) or the speaker (8) via a path opposite to the above-mentioned signal path.

Here, when transmitting an image signal, as shown in Figure 6, in order to confirm whether the communication partner is a TV appliance that has the ability to communicate image data in the same data format, ID such as data regarding the ability is required. Sends a header containing a code. Then, after receiving the header back from the other party and confirming that the other party has similar capabilities, the image data is transmitted.

That is, in FIG. 5, when the keypad (9) is used to instruct image transmission, the CPU (11) detects this via the input/output port (10), and the program memory (
12), the header is sent to the modulation/demodulation circuit (13) according to a program stored in advance. After modulating this header into an analog signal, it is sent out from the telephone line connection terminal (7) via the matrix switch (5). The header from the communication partner is sent to the CPU via a path opposite to the above signal path.
(11) checks the code etc.

Meanwhile, the image captured by the television camera (14) during this period is converted into a doji by the image controller (15), stored in the image memory (16), and sequentially derived and displayed on the display (17). The image is output from the image memory (16) to the telephone line connection terminal (7).

When a header is input from the other party, the matrix switch (5) recognizes that image data reception is about to begin, and uses the carrier signal received by the matrix switch (5) to change the destination to the received signal from the telephone interface circuit (6). Switch from the analog circuit (4) to the modulation/demodulation circuit (13). Then, the received signal is decoded by a modulation/demodulation circuit (13).
After 73 images, cpty (] ]) returns the header or stores the data in the image memory (16), and the image controller (15) sequentially derives the self-portrait data and the other party's image data and displays them on the display (17). . Further, a simple header containing an indicator that the image data starts is usually placed at the beginning of the image data.

In addition, when the transmission and reception of the image is completed and the carrier signal from the cju adjustment circuit (13) disappears, the matrix switch (
5) is a telephone interface circuit (6) and an analog circuit (
4) and resume the phone call using audio and images.

Furthermore, if the reply from the receiving side is to be omitted, information regarding the omission is included in the header, and the image data is transmitted following the header. In this case, the receiving side still prepares to receive the image data using this header.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-mentioned conventional still image transmission technology, image data in the image memory (16) could only be read out in units of predetermined frames.

For this reason, it has not been possible to meet the demand for extracting only a specific portion of the unit image data, excluding unnecessary data, and transmitting it for a short period of time.

Further, when the display screen of the other party's system is smaller than the transmitting side's screen, transmitting all the unit image data corresponding to the entire transmitting side's display screen as described above results in a large transmission cost and time loss.

Purpose of the Invention The present invention has been made in view of the conventional problems described in -
The purpose is to provide a still image transmission method that can arbitrarily extract only a desired portion of image data stored in an image memory as needed to realize efficient short-time transmission.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method for transmitting only a part of the image data stored in the image memory.
The system is characterized in that the portion is transferred and stored in a specific other area within the image memory, and the transferred and stored image data is sequentially read out and transmitted to the other party's system via a telephone line.

[Operation] According to the method of the present invention configured as described above, the image data captured from the television camera is once written and stored in the image memory as it is, and then displayed on the display monitor.

If a command to transmit only part of the stored image data is input, the corresponding part of the image data is transferred and stored in a specific other area in the image memory.

Then, the transferred and stored image data is sequentially read out and displayed again on the display, and then converted into a transmission signal and sent through the telephone line.

〔Example〕

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described above based on the drawings.

Incidentally, in the drawings, the same reference numerals are given to the same components as those in the prior art described above, and the explanation thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a still picture video telephone device to which the method of the present invention is applied. A characteristic feature of the present invention is that a desired part of the image data stored in the image memory is transferred and stored in another specific area in the image memory, and only this transferred stored data is transmitted. be.

As is clear from the figure, this still image videophone device is newly provided with a quick/normal designation switch (18), and by switching the designation of this switch, the transmission of the entire captured image or a portion of the captured image can be transmitted as desired. Selectable.

FIG. 2(A) shows an explanatory diagram of the transfer and storage function of image data in the image memory (16), and the image data is transferred directly to the image controller (15) as it is captured from the television camera.
When the quick/normal designation switch (18) is turned on, partial image data (DQ) corresponding to the original image data Dn written sequentially through the image memory (16) is stored in another specific area of the image memory (16). It is understood that only a portion undergoes transfer storage.

The original image data (Dn) of the transferred image data (Dq) is
The relationship of 1 can be expressed, for example, as shown in FIG. 2(B), where only the specific portion of the unit image data shown in the shaded area in the figure is to be transmitted.

Hereinafter, the specific operation of the method of the present invention will be explained in detail based on FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for transmitting image data from the image memory (16) according to the present invention.

First, the original image data (Dn) captured by the television camera (14) and written and stored in the image memory (16) via the image controller (15) is displayed as is on the display (m-1). ). And C
The PU (11) checks the status of the quick/normal designation switch (18) through the input/output board (10) (If
f-2), and performs a processing action according to the state of this switch (I[l-3).

When the switch (18) is set to normal, the current image data (Dn) stored in the image memory (16)
is transmitted as is (III-4).

On the other hand, when in the quick designation state, the cPU (11
) is the - mark image (
DQ) is transferred and stored in a predetermined separate area of the image memory (16) via the image controller (15) (III
-5).

Then, only this transferred and stored partial image data (Dq) is displayed on the display (17) (III-6).
, the user can check the transmitted partial image in advance on the screen l-.

Once the extraction of some images to be sent is completed,
The CPU (11) sends some image data (DQ) to the demodulation circuit (1
After being converted into a predetermined transmission signal in step 3), the signal is sent to the other party's system via the telephone line (III-7).

Therefore, according to the method of the present invention, only the specific portion (Dq) of the image data to be transmitted in the image memory (16) is separated from the current image data (Dn) by the transfer storage function, and this transferred and stored portion is separated from the current image data (Dn). Partial image data (Dq
), it is possible to transmit only the necessary images in a short time and at low cost.Flexible transmission processing also follows the display screen size of the other party's system. can be realized.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, only a portion of the image data to be transmitted out of the image data captured from the television camera is transferred and stored in the image memory, and this separately separated portion is transferred and stored in the image memory. Since transmission processing is performed only on image data, appropriate still image transmission that meets various conditions can be performed efficiently and in a short time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a still picture video telephone device to which the method of the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the configuration of a memory map in the image memory in FIG. 1, and FIG. A flowchart diagram for transmitting image data in the invention method,
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a conventional still picture video telephone device, and FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram showing an image transmission procedure of the device according to FIG. In the figure, (18) is a quick/normal designation switch, (Dn) is original image data, and (DQ) is image data to be transmitted when quick designation is made. Note that the same reference numerals in the figures indicate the same or equivalent parts. Agent Patent Attorney Masuo Oiwa (2 others) Transfer and storage process of image data in the image memory 16 Figure 2 (A) Relationship between original image and transferred image Figure 2 (8) Image data transmission flowchart Figure 3 Video telephone switchboard TV talker Figure 5 Procedural amendment (voluntary)

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A still image transmission method in which still image data captured from a television camera is temporarily written into an image memory, read out and displayed, and transmitted as a transmission signal to the other party's system via a telephone line, Among the image data stored in the image memory,
Transferring and storing only the desired portion to a specific separate area within the image memory, sequentially reading out the transferred and stored image data,
A still image transmission method characterized by modulating a transmission signal and transmitting it.