JP3033619B2 - Video conference system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video conference system, and more particularly to a video conference system having a video camera (including a video camera).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, a video conference system captures an image of a given one of a plurality of attendees with a television camera, sends the image to a destination via a line, and displays the image on a received video monitor at the destination. This is a system for conducting a two-way conference by performing a conference.

Conventionally, in this type of video conference system,
When the speaker is photographed by a television camera, the camera is controlled so as to project the speaker at the center of the monitor screen. The drive control includes the following two methods.

In the first method, the operator keeps pressing the corresponding key on the operation panel until the video camera reaches an optimal position while watching the television monitor, and shakes the video camera up, down, left and right to adjust the pan / tilt position. It is a continuously variable system. Second
In the preset method, the pan / tilt position information of the camera is stored in advance, and by pressing a key on the operation panel corresponding to the position, the video camera is automatically shaken to a preset fixed position. It is a method.

However, each of the above-mentioned conventional systems has the following disadvantages. First, in the continuously variable system, each time the position of the video camera is moved, it is necessary for a person to adjust the position, so that it often takes more time to operate the video camera than the conference itself. For this reason, there is a disadvantage that a dedicated operator or an equivalent person is required.
On the other hand, even in the preset method, there is a drawback that if a person to be photographed is located at a position shifted from a preset position, manual adjustment must be performed.

That is, both of the above methods have a disadvantage that the operation of the camera is troublesome.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional disadvantages, and an object of the present invention is to provide a video conference system capable of reducing troublesome camera operations.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a video conference system comprising: a video camera; image storage means for storing the locations of all the conference attendees and a reference image of the conference attendee by the video camera in association with each other; Error detecting means for detecting an error of a current image of a conference attendee by the television camera with respect to an image; a pan / tilt position of the television camera and a location of the conference attendee when the detected error becomes zero; Position storage means for storing the positions in association with each other; and the television in response to a pan / tilt position in the position storage means and an error detected by the error detection means in response to a command to select a location of a conference attendee. Camera pan /
And a position control means for controlling the tilt position.

[0009]

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a video conference system according to the present invention. In the figure,
The video conference system according to one embodiment of the present invention includes a television camera 2 for capturing a speaker among the attendees of a conference, and a driving device 3 for moving a capturing position such as pan / tilt of the television camera 2. And a position detector 4 for detecting a photographing position of the television camera 2.

Further, the system of the present embodiment stores a position storage device 6 for storing a photographing position such as a pan / tilt of the television camera 2, and stores a video of a conference attendee as a reference image before starting photographing. A video storage unit 8, a comparator 7 for detecting a deviation (error) between the stored reference image and the current attendee's video, and the detected deviation amount and stored. And a control device 5 for controlling the driving device 3 according to the shooting position.

Further, the system according to the present embodiment includes a transmission device 11 for transmitting and receiving a video to and from a destination device, a video monitor 1 for displaying a video of the destination, a transmission monitor 10, and an operation panel 9. It is comprised including.

The number of attendees may be arbitrarily set, but in this example, there are three S1 to S3. Each of the attendees is assigned a seat position P1 to P3.

In the video conference system configured as described above, the video of the attendees is taken by the video camera 2,
The data is transmitted to the destination by the transmission device 11. On the other hand, the video from the other party is displayed on the video monitor 1 via the transmission device 11.

At the start of the video conference, it is necessary to store the seat positions (locations) of the attendees and their images in the position memory 6 and the image memory 8 as initial settings. For example, a switch for indicating a seat position on the operation panel 9 is selected, and while monitoring the transmission monitor 10, the camera 2 is simultaneously moved up and down and left and right to set the pan / tilt position to an optimum position. Then, the output of the position detection device 4 at that time is stored in the position storage device 6. At the same time, the image of the video camera 2 at that position is stored in the image storage 8 as a reference image. If this operation is performed together with the introduction of the attendees, it is considered that the operation of the conference is natural, and that it is effective in saving time. As the position detecting device 4, a well-known potentiometer may be used, and its resistance value may be converted into a voltage value and stored.

Now, as an operation example, let us consider a case where the attendee S1 moves a little to the left while the attendee S1 is being photographed. The image stored in the video storage 8 and the image captured by the video camera 2 are always sent to the comparator 7, and these two images are constantly compared by a well-known pattern matching method or the like. If the two images have an error equal to or greater than a certain value, the comparator 7 sends information (in this example, left) on which direction the image is shifted up, down, left, and right to the control device 5. The control device 5 issues a moving direction and a zooming instruction to the driving device 3 based on the information sent from the comparator 7.

The driving device 3 drives the video camera 2 in accordance with the received moving direction and the zooming instruction. This operation is performed until the video from the video camera 2 matches the previously stored video.

When the image from the video camera 2 matches the image stored in advance (the error is zero), the output of the position detector 4 at that time is associated with the position P1 of the attendee S1 and stored in the position memory. 6 is stored.

When the video is switched from the participant S1 currently taking a picture with the video camera 2 to another participant S2 or S3, a seat position P2 of the participant to be taken with the operation panel 9 is taken.
Or, select and press the switch indicating P3. Then, information indicating the seat position is sent from the operation panel 9 to the position storage device 6. The position storage device 6 sends position information such as pan / tilt of the attendee to the control device 5 based on the information sent from the operation panel 9. The control device 5 issues a moving direction and zooming instruction to the driving device 3 based on the received position information. The driving device 3 drives the video camera 2 according to the received moving direction and the zooming instruction, and points the video camera to a corresponding position. Then, in the same manner as described above, the comparison between the images is performed.

That is, the location of the attendee and the image of the attendee are stored in association with each other, and the location of the attendee and the pan / tilt position of the camera are stored in association with each other, so that the operation can be performed. By simply pressing the switch on the board, the speaker can always be displayed at the center of the destination screen, eliminating the need for cumbersome camera operation.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, if a photographing place is set at the start of a meeting, the optimum photographing is always performed only by selecting a switch for indicating the position of the attendee during the meeting. Since the camera is automatically controlled at the position, there is an effect that an operation of manually operating the video camera and chasing attendees becomes unnecessary. Therefore, there is an effect that the operation of the video camera in the video conference is not bothersome, and a dedicated operator is not required.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a video conference system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 TV camera 3 Drive unit 4 Position detector 5 Control unit 6 Position storage unit 7 Comparator 8 Image storage unit S1 to S3

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-60-208184 (JP, A) JP-A-1-190092 (JP, A) JP-A-2-7775 (JP, A) JP-A 61-208 87489 (JP, A) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 7/10 H04N ^7/ 14-7/173 H04N ^7/ 20-7/22

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A television camera, image storage means for storing the location of all conference attendees and a reference image of the conference attendee by the television camera in association with each other, and a conference attendance by the television camera with respect to the reference image. Error detecting means for detecting an error in the current image of the attendee, and storing the pan / tilt position of the television camera and the location of the conference attendee when the detected error becomes zero. A position storage means, and controlling a pan / tilt position in the position storage means in response to a command to select a location of a conference attendee and a pan / tilt position of the television camera in accordance with an error detected by the error detection means. A video conferencing system comprising: