JP2002281466A - Telephone system with camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To correct the position of a transmitted image with an operation of a receiving side even when the transmitted image is not located at its correct position in a telephone system with a camera. SOLUTION: An image transmission area 11 can be moved by an instruction within the image pickup area 10 by pressing down any of left, right, up and down arrow of a cross key provided on the portable telephone of the receiving side. The number of pixels of a camera corresponds to a wide angle lens, and is larger than the pixel range of the image transmission area 11, and the image pickup area 10 of the transmitting side is set within the range of this number of pixels. It the right arrow of the cross key of the receiving side telephone is pressed down, the image transmission area 11 is shifted to the right so that a correct image o the telephone user of the transmitting side can be transmitted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera-equipped telephone system having a transmitting telephone for transmitting an image to a receiving telephone of a partner by displaying a face with a camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, communication between videophones is well known, and communication between a mobile videophone and a general mobile phone is also known in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H8-140143. By using this technique, the face image of the user of the transmitting videophone having the camera can be displayed on the liquid crystal display unit of the receiving mobile videophone. However, the user reflected on the camera may not be correctly positioned at the center of the screen of the display unit. Also, communication costs may be required because some images transmit information that the receiver considers unnecessary. For this reason,
0-201337, which has a camera that rotates up, down, left, and right in a videophone. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-149391 discloses an apparatus in which a face area is detected, a camera automatically moves, and faces a caller.
However, a camera that directly drives such a camera mechanically has a complicated structure and a large size, consumes large power, and is expensive.

Therefore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-236478 discloses that
Take a wide range of images with a camera using a wide-angle lens such as a fish-eye lens, and press the four-way controller
A monitor television for an intercom capable of selecting what to watch in 1) is disclosed. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei.
No. 78 has a pan processing circuit in the television on the receiving side and sends all information from the camera side to the receiving side. This is not appropriate because the amount of information to be sent when used on a telephone is large.

[0004]

Therefore, according to the present invention, there is no need to directly mechanically drive a camera, and the amount of information to be transmitted is small by selecting information to be transmitted and then transmitting it. It is intended to provide a camera-equipped telephone system that leads to reduction.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera-equipped telephone system having a transmitting telephone for transmitting an image to a receiving telephone of the other party by displaying a face with a camera. The camera captures images in a wide range including the peripheral portion of the face. Then, the display unit of the receiving phone transmits information of the selected portion from the transmitting phone to the receiving phone so as to display a selected portion of the captured image, and The selected part is determined by an operation from the receiving telephone. In this way, by deciding the selected part by the operation from the receiving telephone, a part desired by the user of the receiving telephone can be transmitted, and the amount of information to be transmitted can be reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when the face is not sufficiently captured even in a wide range including the peripheral portion of the face, the transmission is performed so that the face is captured in the selected portion. A display or warning instructing the user of the side telephone to move is issued based on an operation from the receiving side telephone. As a result, it is possible to transmit a correct image even when the user of the transmitting telephone is extremely off the camera.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment embodying a camera-equipped telephone system of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an overview of a camera-equipped mobile phone according to the present embodiment. In this portable videophone, a camera 3 is integrally attached to a main body between a liquid crystal display unit 1 and operation keys 2.

The display unit 1 can display an image picked up by a camera of the other party's telephone. Further, the antenna element 4 is attached so as to protrude from the upper part of the display unit 1.

The operation keys 2 are provided with several function keys 2c, and below them, a cursor key composed of a cross key 5 having a right arrow, a left arrow, an up arrow, and a down arrow. The operation keys 2 include a numeric keypad for inputting a dial number, an on-hook key 2a for turning on / off the power of the videophone and an on-hook for the receiving function, an off-hook key 2b for off-hook for the receiving function, and the like. A microphone 6 is provided at an end of the operation key 2. 7 is a speaker.

A wide-angle lens 8 for imaging is fitted in a hole formed in the outer peripheral wall of the camera 3. Camera 3
It functions to project the subject image captured by the lens 8 onto the image sensor and convert the subject image into an electric signal.

When the user speaks toward the display unit 1 while holding the telephone in his hand, the user's face is
And can be wirelessly transmitted to the other party. That is, a portable videophone can be realized.

The image taken by the camera 3 is displayed in real time on the display unit of the receiving-side mobile phone as the other party. Although the example in which the camera 3 is arranged on the right side of the mobile phone has been described, the position of the camera 3 is not limited to this. For example, it may be arranged in the center, especially on the speaker 7.

In the following description, the mobile phone on the receiving side is also shown in FIG.
Although the description will be made assuming that it has a similar structure, other structures may be used as long as they are videophones. Referring to FIG. 1, the receiving-side mobile phone also has a cross key 5 serving as a cursor key. In addition to the cross key 5 (also used as a selection setting switch) on the receiving side mobile phone, a numeric keypad for inputting a telephone number, a display unit 1 having a liquid crystal display screen,
A camera 3 employing a wide-angle lens 8 is provided on the surface. By pressing any one of the four arrows of the cross key 5, it is possible to instruct the movement of the image transmission area 11 in the transmission-side image capturing area 10 shown in FIG.

The number of pixels of the camera 3 of the transmitting telephone is larger than the pixel range of the image transmitting area 11 corresponding to the wide-angle lens 8, and the transmitting image capturing area 10 is set within the range of the number of pixels. Have been. FIG. 3 shows an image displayed on the display unit 1 of the receiving-side mobile phone in the relationship of FIG. 2, and it can be seen that the right side is missing. In this case, pressing the right arrow of the cross key 5 provided on the receiving side mobile phone,
The image transmission area 11 moves as shown in FIG. 4, and as a result, a correct image moved to the center as shown in FIG. 5 can be obtained by the receiving telephone.

Next, a case in which a person image is greatly deviated in the transmission side image capturing area 10 will be described.
This is, as shown in FIG.
Even if no human image is included, it is impossible to obtain a correct image even if the cross key 5 provided on the receiving-side mobile phone is operated anymore. Alternatively, it is necessary to move the position of the person. In this case, the image transmission area 11 does not change even if the right arrow of the cross key 5 of the receiving mobile phone is kept pressed, and this is detected in the extension circuit 84 of the transmitting mobile phone.
A message such as "Move camera right" appears on the LCD screen of the transmitting mobile phone. In this case, in the transmitting side mobile phone, the control data of the channel control circuit 80 is watched by the CPU 86 and the extension circuit 84 is controlled. In this case, the position of the camera 3 is moved to the right by the blinking display of the right LED 15a among the four light emitting diodes (LEDs) 15a, 15b, 15c, and 15d respectively connected to the extension circuit 84 of FIG. An instruction may be displayed. Alternatively, an instruction may be issued from the speaker 7 to shift the position of the camera 3 in a predetermined direction by an audio warning. In addition, for example, LED
When 15d is blinking, it means that the position of the camera is to be moved upward, and such four LEDs may be arranged around the lens 8 of the camera 3.

FIG. 7 shows a flow of the operation of the transmitting side portable telephone showing the above operation. First, in step S1, it is determined whether or not there is a transmission screen position change request from the receiving-side mobile phone using the cross key. If there is, it is determined in step S2 whether or not the change of the transmission screen position is reached. If not, the process returns to step S1. If the transmission screen position can be changed, the transmission screen position is changed in step S3. If the position of the transmission screen cannot be changed, at step S4, the display of the liquid crystal display screen of the transmitting side mobile phone, the blinking display of the LED, the direction of the camera 3 by the voice warning from the speaker 7, or the person To change the position of.

As described above, by deciding the position of the selected image transmission area 11 by the operation from the receiving telephone, a desired part of the receiving telephone user can be transmitted, and the amount of information to be transmitted is small. I can do it.

Next, the circuit of the transmitting portable telephone will be described. FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the transmitting-side mobile phone.

4 is a whip antenna shared for transmission and reception, 71
Is a duplexer for an antenna having a combination of filters for a transmission band and a reception band, 72 is a linear power amplifier for transmission, 73 is a low-noise amplifier for reception, 74 is a mixer for transmission, 75 is a mixer for reception, and 76 is a mixer for reception. Digital modulation circuit, 77 is a synthesizer circuit, 78 is an intermediate frequency amplifier for reception, 7
9 is a demodulator, 80 is a channel control circuit for controlling a frequency channel for transferring audio data and image data and a frame and slot for time division multiplexing, and 81 is audio data codec for encoding and decoding audio data. Circuit, an image data encoding / decoding circuit 82 for encoding and decoding image data, and 1 an LC for displaying images and data.
A display unit 84 having a D screen; an extension circuit 84 provided between the camera 3 and the image data codec 82;
Reference numeral 5 denotes a system control unit including a CPU unit 86 and a RAM / ROM storage unit 87; 88, an operation unit including numeric keys, a cross key, and function keys; and 89, a battery power supply.

A videophone receives a videophone communication from a base station.
The signal passes through a duplexer 71 and a low-noise amplifier 73, is converted to an intermediate frequency by a mixer 75, and is converted to an intermediate frequency amplifier 78 and a demodulator 79.
And demodulated to a digital signal. The control data, audio data, and image data are separated by the channel control circuit 80, and the audio data passes through the audio data codec 81 and is converted into audio by the speaker 7. Further, the image data is converted into image data in the image data encoding / decoding circuit 82 and further displayed on the LCD screen of the display unit 1. The control data is input to the extension circuit 84.

In the transmission of the videophone communication from the videophone to the base station, image data from the camera 3 of the videophone is transmitted to the image data codec 82 through the extension circuit 84.
To perform a predetermined data compression conversion. A voice is input from the microphone 6 and the voice data codec 8
The control data, audio data and image data are assigned to the time-division multiplexed slot configuration together with the previous image data in the channel control circuit 80 together with the previous image data. This signal is subjected to phase shift keying (PSK) modulation by a digital modulation circuit 76, frequency-converted by a mixer 74, amplified by a linear power amplifier 72, and sent from the whip antenna 4 to a base station.

When performing videophone communication between the videophone on the transmitting side and the videophone on the receiving side, the videophone is positioned in front of the face and the camera 3 is placed so as to project the face of the videophone user. The user of the videophone on the transmitting side first presses the on-hook key 2a in FIG. 1 to turn on the power of the videophone on the transmitting side. At this time, the videophone on the transmitting side prepares for communication with the base station, such as location registration and receiving information from the base station, and enters a call waiting state. Similarly, the videophone on the receiving side is turned on, and the
Standby state for incoming calls with the base station.

Now, when the user makes a call to the receiving-side videophone, the user presses the off-hook key 2b to set it in the off-hook state, and inputs the telephone number of the other party using the numeric keypad. When the first base station recognizes from the telephone number that the connection destination is a videophone, the frequency channel with the least number of users is the frequency channel for videophone communication between the first base station and the videophone on the transmitting side. And assign a slot position within the frame. At the same time, the first base station requests access to the other party's telephone number to the mobile videophone system, and waits for an incoming call completion signal of the videophone on the receiving side. In the second base station, a frequency channel and a slot are allocated by the same operation as that performed in the first base station, and the videophone on the receiving side accepts the incoming call and presses the off-hook key 2b. Then, the voice of the other party is heard from the speaker 7, and at the same time, the image of the other party is displayed on the display unit 1 of the LCD screen, and the conversation by the videophone is started. In addition, a conversation can be performed while displaying a line usage fee or the like on a part of the screen during a call.

Also, in the transmission side telephone, when called from the other party's telephone, if the other party's telephone is a videophone, pressing the off-hook key 2b causes the display unit 1 to display an image from the other party's videophone. Appears, and at the same time the other party's voice is heard.

As shown in FIG. 8, in the videophone, an extension circuit 84 for function extension is connected between the camera 3 and the image data code decoding circuit 82. A video signal captured by the wide-angle lens of the camera 3 is converted into an image data code
Before the video signal is transmitted to the extension circuit 2, the video signal stored in the video frame memory of the extension circuit 84 is processed by predetermined image processing. As such an extension circuit, a pan processing circuit, a distortion correction processing circuit, and the like (not shown) in the extension circuit are selected or added singly or in combination.

[0027] The above-mentioned pan processing circuit is used to control the designated image transmission area 1 in the video signal transmitted from the camera.
This is a circuit for moving 1 vertically and horizontally. In this pan processing circuit, the window range to be transmitted is shifted up and down in accordance with the content of control data sent from the receiving videophone to the transmitting videophone in accordance with the panning operation of the cross key 5 of the receiving videophone.・ Move to left and right.

The above-described distortion correction processing circuit is for correcting distortion according to the distortion of the wide-angle lens of the camera 3. That is, an image captured by a camera having a wide-angle lens has a larger distortion as it goes from the center to the periphery, and is used to correct the distortion two-dimensionally.

In the videophone thus configured, when the dialing is performed and the call button is pressed, there is an incoming call on the videophone on the receiving side, an incoming call alarm is sounded, and
The imaging by the camera is started. As a result, the video signal from the transmitting videophone is transmitted to the display screen of the receiving videophone, and on the way, the video signal is processed according to various functions of the appropriate processing circuit provided in the extension circuit 84. Will be done.

Note that a standard camera can be used as a camera, unlike a camera having a wide-angle lens. In this case, it is not necessary to perform the distortion correction on the video signal because the video signal rarely includes lens distortion.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a portable videophone according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a range in which an image is captured by a camera in FIG. 1 and a range in which transmission is performed, and illustrates a state in which the position of a transmitting user is shifted.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an image displayed on a display unit of a receiving-side telephone in a shifted state as shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a range to be imaged by a camera and a range to be transmitted when a region to be transmitted is moved and panning is performed.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an image displayed on a display unit of a receiving-side telephone after the panning processing of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a range in which an image is captured by the camera in FIG. 1 and a range in which the image is transmitted, and illustrating a state in which the position of the transmitting user is largely shifted.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the portable videophone shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the portable videophone shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference numeral 3 denotes a camera 10 A transmitting-side image capturing area which includes a wide area including a peripheral part of a face 1 A display unit 11 An image transmitting area which is a selected part of a captured image 2 An operation key in the operation unit 88 5 An operation unit 88 Cross key 15a, 15b, 15c, 15d in the light emitting diode to instruct the user to move the camera

Claims (2)

[Claims] In a camera-equipped telephone system having a transmitting telephone for transmitting an image to a receiving telephone of the other party by projecting a face with a camera, the camera of the transmitting telephone covers a wide area including the peripheral part of the face. Imaging, transmitting the information of the selected part from the transmitting telephone to the receiving telephone so that the display part of the receiving telephone displays the selected part of the captured image, and Wherein the selected part is determined by an operation from the receiving-side telephone. 2. When the face is not sufficiently captured even in a wide area including the peripheral portion of the face, the user of the transmitting telephone is moved so that the face is captured in the selected portion. The camera-equipped telephone system according to claim 1, wherein a display or a warning to be instructed is issued based on an operation from the receiving-side telephone.