JPH1042258A - Image and audio data communication method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To lower a cost, to reduce a circuit and to accelerate a processing speed by omitting a means for reconstituting image data on a reception side in the case of transmitting digital image data in the communication terminal equipment of a relatively slow communication speed for using packet communica tion simultaneously utilizing a plurality of channels. SOLUTION: This method is provided with a reception part 101 capable of simultaneously receiving the plural channels, a packet selection part 102 for selecting a packet to be utilized in the equipment from the packets of data divided in an optional size in a time direction inside the respective channels, a data take-out part 103 for taking out target image data and sudio data from the packet, means 104 and 106 for displaying images by the taken-out image data and the means 105 and 107 for outputting audio by the taken-out audio data. Then, since the arrangement (protocol) of 'what data are to be sent to which channel in what order' is decided on a transmission side and the reception side (terminal) beforehand, the need of an identifier for data reconstitution is eliminated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for transmitting and receiving data such as images / voices in a communication terminal device having a relatively low communication speed of about 32 kbits to 128 kbits per second.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some portable telephones have PHS (Pers).
In this case, the transmission path is theoretically divided, such as an online handy phone system, and each of the divided transmission paths is called a channel (ch). One or more channels are transmitted to one terminal as shown in channel A of FIG. Is given the right to use voice and other data communications. Such a system is disclosed in
Japanese Patent Application No. 204958 discloses a "system capable of transmitting / receiving to a plurality of channels using a single transmitter / receiver pair in a cellular telephone system".

[0003] In the PHS and the like, a channel is further divided in an arbitrary unit in the time direction, and a right to use is given to each terminal for each arbitrary block of data. This set of data is called a packet.

An apparatus for transmitting a still image using a packet is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-274005. In this transmission device, image data captured by a camera or the like is digitized, then data is compressed, and the compressed data is packetized and transmitted. At that time, the change in the image due to the time displacement of the image is extracted, and only the change is compressed and packetized for transmission.This reduces the amount of transmission data compared to the previous methods, and reduces the communication cost. had.

On the other hand, when data communication with a large amount of information is considered in such a wireless transmission path, for example, when digital still picture / moving picture (sometimes including audio) data is transmitted, as shown in FIG. It is conceivable to adopt a method of allocating a plurality of channels to one terminal at the same time. This is because, in order to send information that requires a larger data amount than audio data, such as moving image data, securing a large number of transmission path channels is a simple solution. At this time, the size of the image data and the packet is not considered at present. JP-A-7-274
In the paragraph [0009] of Japanese Patent Publication No. 005, the "data compression circuit 7 performs data compression on a changed part of image data.
The data packetizing circuit 8 divides the compressed data from the data compression circuit 7 into packets. The size of this packetization is 128,256 octets. , It can be understood that the compressed image data is sequentially packetized in units of a fixed amount of data.

When packetization is performed as in the transmission apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-274005, data must be relocated (reconstructed) as image data on the data receiving side as shown in FIG. No. JP-A-7-274
In the case of Japanese Patent Publication No. 005, the data sent during transmission is compressed data corresponding to the change in the image, so image reconstruction specialized for this method is always required, but special processing such as compression is performed. Instead, when color information is sequentially sent and transmitted for each pixel of an image, circuits and means necessary for this reconstruction are additionally required.

[0007]

As described in the section of the prior art, when digital image data is transmitted in a communication terminal device having a relatively low communication speed using packet communication using a plurality of channels at the same time. ,Currently,
Since the unit of the amount of transmission data (packet size) and the unit of the amount of data as an image are irrelevant, an arbitrary identifier is added to the image data arranged independently on the transmission path, and the identifier on the receiving side is added. Means for reconstructing image data while referring to FIG.

This not only increases the scale of circuits and programs, but also increases the number of processes for reconstructing image data while referring to identifiers, dividing image data on the transmitting side, and reducing the size of images on the receiving side. This will increase the time required for reconstruction.

FIG. 5 shows an example in which color data is sequentially sent and transmitted for each pixel of an image. The color data is a set of color component values (for example, a set of three primary colors of light, R = red, G = green, B = blue).
, And one pixel is formed by a set of color data. Since there is no relationship between the packet and the pixel position, in the conventional method, an identifier is attached on the transmitting side in order to recognize which color data forms which pixel on the receiving side.

In the conventional communication terminal device shown in FIG. 4, the receiving unit 41 receives radio waves for a plurality of arbitrary channels, and the receiving unit 41 uses the received radio waves for each channel that can be used in the terminal. The signal is converted into a signal and sent to the next packet selection unit 42. Next, the packet sorting unit 42
The signals for each channel output from are divided into packets each having an arbitrary data amount. Subsequently, the packet selection unit 42 selects only the packet addressed to the terminal from the signal divided into packets, and sends it to the next data extraction unit 43. The data extracting unit 43 extracts the packet header information from the packet received from the packet
If necessary, information for error correction is removed, and the information is sent to a reconstruction unit predetermined for each channel. That is, the image data is sent to the video reconstructing unit 44, and the audio data is sent to the audio reconstructing unit 45, and is reconstructed with reference to the identifier. The reconstructed image data is supplied to a video output unit 46.
The audio data is sent to the display device through the
Is sent to the speaker 49. As described above, the conventional terminal requires the video reconfiguration unit 44 and the audio reconfiguration unit 45.

An object of the present invention is to reconstruct image data on the receiving side when digital image data is transmitted in a communication terminal device using packet communication simultaneously using a plurality of channels and having a relatively low communication speed. In order to reduce the cost, reduce the circuit size, and improve the processing speed, it is possible to eliminate the means for performing the above operations.

Another object of the present invention is to propose a data structure and a data transmission procedure that do not require reconstructing moving image data in a terminal.

[0013]

As an example of digital still picture / moving picture data, there is one which is reconstructed by a combination of color data. The color data is composed of a set of values of the color component (for example, a set of three primary colors of light R = red, G = green, B = blue), and one pixel is formed by one set of color data. In the conventional method, an identifier needs to be attached on the transmitting side in order to recognize which color data forms which pixel on the receiving side.

On the other hand, in the present invention, an agreement (protocol) of "what data is to be sent to which channel and in what order" is determined in advance by the sender and the receiver (terminal).
Therefore, an identifier for data reconstruction is not required.

As an example of the protocol, "color data constituting one pixel is made to correspond to a channel in a one-to-one correspondence with each color component, and color data for one line of an image is continuously transmitted, and the left side of the line is transmitted in one packet. From the right to 64 pixels.
Further, the line data is sent downward by one line at a time from the top of the image, and the image data for one frame is composed of 48 lines in the vertical direction. The audio data is inserted between successive pixel data packets. ], The terminal will be able to display images simply by writing the incoming packets sequentially to the display memory without any special processing for reconstructing the video and audio data. .

Therefore, according to the present invention, when transmitting video and audio data in a communication terminal device which uses packet communication using a plurality of channels at the same time and has a relatively low communication speed, the video and audio data is re-transmitted on the receiving side. Omitting the means for configuration makes it possible to reduce the cost, reduce the circuit, and improve the processing speed.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication terminal device 100, which is a video and audio data communication device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The communication terminal device 100 uses packet communication using a plurality of channels at the same time. Indicates a communication terminal device which is slow. The terminal device receives a still image / moving image and audio. Hereinafter, this communication terminal device will be referred to as
Sometimes simply called a terminal.

The terminal 100 receives a radio wave for a plurality of channels and converts it into a signal for each channel that can be used in the terminal. The terminal 100 converts a signal for each channel output from the receiving unit 101 into arbitrary data. A packet selecting unit 102 that extracts and outputs packets destined for the terminal after delimiting packets for each amount, a data extracting unit 103 that extracts digital data representing an image or audio from the packets output from the packet selecting unit 102, A video output unit 104 for displaying digital data (image data) of an image output from the data extraction unit 103 on the display device 106, a display device 106 for displaying the image, and a voice output from the data extraction unit 103. An audio output unit 105 for sounding digital data (audio data) with the speaker 107; It is and a speaker 107 for outputting sound.

The video output unit 104 includes, for example, a storage area for receiving image data output from the data extracting unit 103, and a graphic controller for sending the image data to the display device in synchronization with the screen scanning of the display device 106. , A D / A converter for converting digital image data into a signal that can be handled by the display device 106.

The audio output unit 105 also has a storage area for receiving audio data output from the data extracting unit 103, a D / A conversion unit for converting digital audio data into a signal that can be handled by the speaker 107, and the like. It consists of.

Next, the operation of the video and audio data communication apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In this embodiment, the radio wave used in the packet communication includes a packet from one base station (transmission side) to a plurality of terminals (reception side) in the cell. Such a configuration is adopted. In this embodiment, four channels (A channel, B channel,
Assuming a terminal capable of simultaneously receiving / transmitting the C channel and the D channel), it is assumed that packets addressed to the terminal are simultaneously transmitted on four channels as shown in FIG.

Here, the method of transmitting a plurality of channels using an arbitrary frequency band is not limited to this, and the method of transmitting data by alternately switching channels in a time-division manner, or the method of changing the phase of the amplitude of a radio signal. Although a method of superimposing while shifting is widely known, in this embodiment, as described above, a plurality of channels are superimposed at different frequencies.

In FIG. 3, the order in which the packets are sent and the arrangement of the packets are not limited to these.
In the present invention, the order in which packets are transmitted and the arrangement of the packets are determined by the transmitting side and the receiving side before transmission / reception, and further, which image data or audio is transmitted to the packet transmitted on which channel. You need to decide if data is included.

As described above, in this embodiment, a packet addressed to the terminal concerned is transmitted simultaneously on four channels. Further, of the four channels, image data is stored in channels A, B and C, and audio data is stored in channel D. Further, the channel A stores the R color value of the image data, the channel B stores the G color value, and the channel C stores the B color value. In this embodiment, color values in the RGB color space are used as image data for the purpose of explanation.

The set of four packets of the four channels transmitted simultaneously is stored in the display device 10 of the terminal 100.
6 and the speaker 107 are intended to be output simultaneously.

The image handled in this embodiment is 200 pixels in the horizontal direction, 150 pixels in the vertical direction, and 30 pixels per second.
Assuming that a moving image is to be output, four packets transmitted at a time include color value data for 200 pixels and audio data for 1/4500 seconds as image data for one line of the image in the horizontal direction. It is assumed that it is stored. Here, the transmission speed of each channel is such that 4500 or more packets are transmitted stably per second. In this embodiment, the amount of data (the number of bytes) necessary to display one pixel and the amount of the data (the number of bytes) necessary to output one second of audio are not particularly defined.

The header information usually added to the packet is
Although it differs depending on the format of the packet to be transmitted and the communication protocol, it generally includes a packet size, a sender identifier, an identifier indicating the packet format, a destination (recipient) identifier, and the like. In addition, the information may include information for detecting a transmission path error, information for correcting a transmission error, and information for decryption when data in a packet is encrypted. When the data in the packet is compressed, it may include information for decompression.

In FIG. 6, the receiving section 101 receives radio waves for four channels (S601). Receiver 101
Converts the received radio wave into a signal S for each channel that can be used in the terminal 100, and sends the signal S to the next packet selection unit 102 (S602). Next, the packet selection unit 102 sets the signal S for each channel output from the reception unit 101 as a delimiter packet for each arbitrary data amount (S603).
Subsequently, the packet selecting unit 102 selects only the packet addressed to the terminal from the signal S divided into packets, and sends it to the next data extracting unit 103 (S604). The data extraction unit 103 removes the header information of the packet and, if necessary, the information for error correction from the packet received from the packet selection unit 102 (S60).
5) Send to an output unit determined in advance for each channel (S606). For example, in this embodiment, data of channel A, channel B, and channel C are sent to the video output unit 104, and data of channel D is sent to the audio output unit 105.

The video output unit 104 stores the image data received from the data extracting unit 103 in the display storage area (video RAM) (S607). Video RA
The data stored in M is sequentially transmitted by the graphic controller in synchronization with the screen operation of the display device 106,
Displayed by the display device 106.

The audio output unit 105 converts the audio data received from the data extracting unit 103 into a storage area for adjusting the data speed, sequentially converts the data into an audio signal, and sends the signal to the speaker 107 (S608). .

Next, the configuration and operation of the packet selector 102 and the data extractor 103 will be described in detail.

FIG. 7 shows the configuration of the packet selection unit 102. The packet selecting unit 102 includes a counter 703, a header information reading unit 701, a switch 7 for each channel.
02.

The header information which is normally added to the packet among the transmitted packets is read by a header information reading unit 70.
In step 1, it is determined whether the packet is addressed to the terminal or not. As a result of the determination in the header information reading unit 701, if the passing packet is a packet addressed to the terminal, the header information reading unit 701 switches the switch 702
Command to close the switch. The switch 702 opens and closes according to an instruction from the header information reading unit 701. As a result, the packet selecting unit 102 does not send a packet determined to be a packet addressed to another terminal to the next data extracting unit 103, so that the packet is discarded here.

The processing flow of the header information reading unit 701 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Also, for convenience of explanation, the packet used here has a packet start identifier 901, a packet size 902 to be conveyed,
Recipient identifier 903, data size 904, data start identifier 905, data 906, error correction information 9
It has a very simple structure stored in the order of 07.

In FIG. 8, the header information reading unit 70
1 starts the process by passing the packet start identifier 901 (S801). Next, the size 902 of the packet to be conveyed is read (S802), and the counter 703 is read.
The packet size is set (S803). Furthermore, the receiver identifier 903 is read (S804), and it is determined whether the currently passing packet is addressed to the terminal (S805). The data size 904 is skipped. As a result of the determination, if the identifier 903 of the receiver matches the identifier of the terminal, a close instruction is issued to the switch 702 (S8).
06), the amount of passing data is monitored by decreasing the counter 703 by 1 (S807). Also, the receiver identifier 9
If 03 does not match the identifier of the terminal, switch 7
02 is issued (S808), and the amount of passing data is monitored by decreasing the counter 703 by one (S80).
9). This series of processing is repeated each time a packet is sent. Similar processing is performed not only on channel A but also on channels B, C, and D at the same time.

FIG. 10 shows the configuration of the data extracting unit 103. The data extracting unit 103 performs, for each channel,
A counter 1003, a header information reading unit 1001, and a switch 1002 are provided.

The header information which is normally added to the packet among the transmitted packets is read by the header information reading unit 10.
01, and when an image or sound data is passing, an instruction to close the switch 1002 is issued. Further, when header information, error correction information, and the like have passed, the switch 1002 is instructed to open. Switch 10
02 opens and closes according to an instruction from the header information reading unit 1001. As a result, the data extracting unit 1
03 outputs no header information or the like among the elements constituting the packet, and therefore outputs only the image and audio data among the elements constituting the packet.

The processing flow of the header information reading unit 1001 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In FIG. 11, the header information reading unit 1
001 starts the process by passing the packet start identifier 901 (S1101). Packet size 902
And the identifier 903 of the receiver is skipped. Subsequently, the data size 905 is read (S1102), and the counter 1 is read.
The data size is set to 003 (S1103). After reading the data start identifier, the header information reading unit 1001 issues a closing instruction to the switch 1002, and monitors the amount of data passing therethrough by reducing the counter 1003 by one (S1107). When the counter becomes 0, the header information reading unit 1001 issues an opening instruction to the switch 1002. This series of processing is repeated each time a packet is sent. Similar processing is performed not only on channel A but also on channels B, C, and D at the same time.

FIG. 12 shows a video / audio data communication apparatus according to a second embodiment. This video and audio data communication device
In the process of converting the audio data to the audio signal performed by the audio output unit 105, the timing may be adjusted by a synchronization signal transmitted from the video output unit 104 in order to synchronize the image and the audio. In this case, as shown in FIG.
, A signal line 108 for a synchronization signal is connected.

FIG. 13 shows a video / audio data communication apparatus according to a third embodiment. This video and audio data communication device
The output (display) processing of the video data performed by the video output unit 104 may be adjusted in timing by a synchronization signal sent from the audio output unit 105 in order to synchronize the image and the audio. In this case, as shown in FIG. 13, a signal line 109 for a synchronization signal is connected from the audio output unit 105 to the video output unit 104.

[0043]

According to the present invention, when transmitting video and audio data in a communication terminal device which uses packet communication using a plurality of channels at the same time and has a relatively low communication speed, the video and audio data is transmitted on the receiving side. The means for reconfiguring is omitted, so that the cost can be reduced, the circuit can be reduced, and the processing speed can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a video and audio data communication apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of packet transmission data.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of packet transmission data.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a conventional audio / video data communication device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a conventional example of image data transmission.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the flow of processing of the video and audio data communication method of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a packet selection unit in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a flow of processing of a packet selection unit in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is an internal configuration diagram of a packet in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram of a data extracting unit in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

11 is a diagram illustrating a flow of a process of a data extracting unit in FIG.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the video and audio data communication device of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the video and audio data communication apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 terminal 101 receiving unit 102 packet sorting unit 103 data extracting unit 104 video output unit 105 audio output unit 106 display device 107 speaker

Claims (7)

[Claims] An image / audio data communication method for transmitting / receiving image data and audio data in packets by simultaneously using a plurality of channels, wherein a protocol of "what data is to be transmitted to which channel and in what order" is set in advance. A video / audio data communication method, which is determined by a transmitting side and a receiving side. 2. An image / audio data communication method for transmitting / receiving image data and audio data in packets by simultaneously using a plurality of channels. In an image / audio data communication method, the order in which packets are sent and the arrangement of packets are determined before transmission / reception. Are determined by the transmitting side and the receiving side, and which image data or audio data is included in the packet transmitted on which channel, and an identifier for reconstructing the image data or the audio data is determined. A video and audio data communication method characterized by not adding information or information to communication data. 3. A radio unit capable of simultaneously receiving / transmitting a plurality of channels, means for selecting a packet to be used by the device from data packets demarcated by an arbitrary size in the time direction in each channel, and Means for extracting desired image data and audio data; means for displaying an image based on the extracted image data; and means for outputting audio based on the extracted audio data. Before transmitting and receiving, the arrangement is determined by the transmitting side and the receiving side, and further, which image data and audio data are included in the packet transmitted on which channel is determined. A video and audio data communication device characterized in that identifiers and information for data reconstruction are not added to communication data. . 4. The video / audio data communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the means for selecting the packet counts the size of the received packet by using packet size information attached to the packet to determine the end position of the packet. An image / sound data communication device characterized by detecting. 5. The image / audio data communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said means for extracting the image data and the audio data counts the size of the received data using data size information attached to the packet. A video and audio data communication device for detecting the end position of data. 6. The image / audio data communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said audio output means is used for synchronizing output timing of the image and audio when the image and audio are reproduced by the receiving device. From
An image / sound data communication device, which outputs a synchronization signal to the image output means. 7. An image / audio data communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said image output means is synchronized with the output timing of the image and audio when the image and audio are reproduced by the receiving device. From
A video and audio data communication device, which outputs a synchronization signal to the audio output means.