JP3787568B2 - Display control apparatus and display control method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a video conference system and a display control apparatus and display control method suitable for use in such a system.

  In recent years, digital communication lines have begun to spread, and videophone / conference systems using digital line networks have attracted attention. Standardization is a prerequisite for the spread of communication systems. There are five recommendations regarding video and audio communications. H. H.221 defines the frame structure of 64 Kbit / s to 1,920 Kbit / s channel. 230 defines a frame synchronization control signal and a notification signal. 242 specifies an interconnection procedure up to 2 Mbit / s. H. H.261 defines a video encoding method of P × 64 Kbit / s (P = 1 to 30). 320 defines the communication system configuration for audio and video.

  Also, in a multi-point video conference system, it is common to use a star-shaped connection form as shown in FIG. As a method of displaying a moving image from the partner station, a method of switching a plurality of stations in a time-sharing manner, a method of displaying a station from the station that has spoken, and setting a plurality of windows, a video from the partner station There is a method of assigning an image to each window in a fixed manner.

Further, there are techniques disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 3 as techniques related to such a system.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 02-063288 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 04-373386 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 04-323990

  However, in the method of switching the moving image from the partner station in a time-sharing manner or the method of displaying the moving image from the speaking station, the moving image from the desired station cannot be selected, and the number of stations is There is a problem that the control load for displaying a moving image increases as the number increases.

  An object is to provide an image display apparatus and an image display method capable of selecting and displaying a desired moving image without increasing a load for display control.

In order to achieve the above object, a display control device of the present invention includes an input unit that inputs a plurality of moving images, an operation control unit that controls the operation of an output source device of moving images input by the input unit, Display control means for displaying a list of a plurality of still images respectively corresponding to the plurality of moving images, and at least one still image of the list-displayed still images in response to an operator's selection instruction input The display control means controls to display a moving image corresponding to the still image selected by the selection means , and the operation control means corresponds to the still image. after the moving image is displayed, based on the operation instruction input by the operator, characterized that you control the operation of the selected still image output source device by the selection unit.
The display control method of the present invention is a display control method for displaying an image output from an output source device on a display device, and a plurality of still images respectively corresponding to a plurality of input movable images are displayed on the display device. A list display step for displaying a list, a selection step for selecting at least one still image among the still images displayed in a list in response to an input of an operator's selection instruction, and a still image selected by the selection step A display control step for controlling to display a corresponding moving image; and after the moving image corresponding to the still image is displayed, the output of the still image selected by the selection step based on an operation instruction input by the operator And an operation control process for controlling the operation of the original device .

  According to the present invention, it is possible to select and display a desired moving image without increasing a load for display control.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention as a video conference terminal. In FIG. 1, 10 is a video camera for photographing a conference participant of the local station, 11 is a pan head unit for controlling operations such as pan and tilt of the video camera 10, and 12 is a local station and / or a conference participant station. A monitor which is a display means for displaying captured images as images, 14 is a speaker, 16 is a microphone, 18 is a control unit for panning, tilting and zooming of the local camera 10 and the cameras of other stations, and an operation unit for controlling camera switching. It is. In the present embodiment, the operation unit 18 is displayed as a window on the display screen 12a of the monitor 12 as will be described later. As shown in detail in FIG. 5, reference numeral 19 denotes a switching control unit that switches the transmitted video signal to a corresponding window for display. The switching control unit 19 transmits a control signal from the operation unit 18 to the multipoint connection device 60 via the main body 22. Reference numeral 20 denotes an input / output device terminal such as a computer keyboard, a still image input device, a drawing input digitizer, and a sub monitor that displays an image of another auxiliary device or an image of another auxiliary device. It is the main body. Each station is provided with the system shown in FIG. 1 and can communicate with each other via a communication network 58.

  FIG. 2 shows details of the main body 22. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 30 denotes a video interface for connecting the camera 10 and the monitor 12, and has image processing functions such as screen division, image synthesis, and character synthesis. A video encoding / decoding circuit (codec) 32 encodes a video signal from the video interface 30 and decodes the received encoded video information.

  Reference numeral 34 denotes an audio interface for connecting the speaker 14 and the microphone 16 and has an audio processing function such as an echo cancellation function. An audio encoding / decoding circuit (codec) 36 encodes an audio signal from the audio interface 30 and decodes the received encoded audio information. Reference numeral 38 denotes a delay circuit for delaying the encoded audio information by the audio encoding / decoding circuit 36 and the received encoded audio information for a predetermined period, and is provided for synchronizing with the video information.

  40 is a computer providing a video conference function and a computer conference function, 42 is a still image / drawing control unit for controlling still image input / output and drawing input / output of the auxiliary input / output device terminal 20, and 44 is a control of each terminal device. It is a device control unit. A data port 46 transfers data to and from the auxiliary input / output device terminal 20 via the computer 40, the still image / drawing control circuit 42, and the device control unit 44.

  48 is an interconnection procedure control unit for controlling interconnection via a network, 50 is a network signal control circuit for controlling end / end control for establishing a common mode for communication between terminals, and 52 is an interconnection. This is a communication control unit that controls communication collectively using the procedure control unit 48 and the network signal control unit 50.

  Reference numeral 54 denotes a demultiplexing / multiplexing circuit for multiplex transmission of data, and 56 is a network interface for connection to the communication network 58.

  Then, the multipoint connection control device 60 interconnects multipoint video conference terminals via the communication network 58 to enable multipoint video conference.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the multipoint connection control device 60. Reference numerals 70, 72, and 74 denote multiplexing / separation circuits that multiplex and separate information to be transmitted (images, sounds, and others), and 76 denotes image selection control that selects data to be distributed from moving image data from each station. , 78 is an audio mixer that synthesizes audio from each station, 80 is a data selection control unit that selectively distributes other data such as still image data and computer data, and 82 is an image selection control unit 76 and an audio mixer 78. And a control unit that controls the data selection control unit 80.

  84, 86, and 88 are network interfaces for connecting the apparatus shown in FIG. 3 to the communication network 58 (FIGS. 1 and 2), and 90 is a communication control unit that controls network access with each station.

  FIG. 4 shows a moving image display example according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 5 shows a configuration of the display control unit. The operation will be described based on this.

  First, in order to conduct a video conference between multiple points, a call is made from each station to the multipoint connection control device 60 (a command to connect to the conference system is issued), and the conference is started by connecting between the multiple points. At the start of the conference, the system is set to the time-division video display mode (first mode). At that time, an image from the video camera 10 of the own station is displayed in advance on the window 13D of the display screen 12a of the monitor 12 before connection. Then, when a call is made to and connected to the multipoint connection control device 60, a moving image transmitted from a station already connected to the multipoint connection control device 60 is as shown in FIG. Are displayed on the windows 13A, 13B, and 13C corresponding to the respective stations (A, B, and C stations in the present embodiment) on the display screen 12a of the monitor 12. At this time, moving images sent immediately after connection to the multipoint connection control device 60 are switched from the image selection control unit 76 by the control unit 82 shown in FIG. It will be. When the line capacity is small, only image information from one station is sent at a certain moment, so images from other stations at that time are displayed as still images. As a result, the images displayed in the windows of the other stations are sequentially repeated between the still image state and the moving image state as time passes by the control unit 82 shown in FIG. 3 switching the image selection control unit 76. Become.

  As another display mode, there is a mode in which the display image of the station that has spoken becomes a moving image (speaking station moving image display mode: second mode). When a conference participant in a certain station speaks, audio information is transmitted to the multipoint connection control device 60 together with image information. The audio information separated from the multiplexing / separation circuit 70 (72, 74) shown in FIG. 3 enters the audio mixer 78, the audio mixer 78 determines which station the audio is from, and the control unit 82 controls image selection. The unit 76 is switched and controlled. That is, the image of the window of the station where the message is made becomes a moving image sequentially.

  In the first and second modes, the camera 10 and the camera platform of the selected station are operated by operating the icon of the camera operation panel window 15 on the display screen 12a shown in FIG. 4 with a pointing device such as a mouse or a touch pen. 11 is controlled. Control of the camera 10 and the pan head unit 11 such as pan, tilt, zoom, and focus can be performed only for the camera of the own station. This control is performed by inputting a signal obtained by operating the icon of the camera operation panel window 15 (operation unit 18) with a pointing device to the device control unit 44 of the main body 22.

  Therefore, as another mode, a mode (selected station moving image display mode: third mode) in which the selected camera can be controlled will be described. In FIG. 4, any one of the windows 13A, 13B, 13C, and 13D of each station displayed on the display screen 12a of the monitor 12 is selected by a pointing device. The selected window is flashed as shown in FIG. 4, or the window color (for example, the color of the frame) is changed, or a window 21 indicating which of the selected station windows is separately provided. Easy to distinguish. These controls are executed by the device control unit 44. A signal indicating the selected station is transmitted to the multipoint connection control device 60 by the switching control unit 19, and the control of the image selection control unit 76 is performed by the control unit 82 (FIG. 3). The multipoint connection control device 60 displays the moving image of the selected station, that is, the window of the station where the camera is to be operated, regardless of the time or speech, for the station that has selected the station that operates the camera 10. Become. These structures constitute the station selection means in the claims of the present application. In this state, the icon of the camera operation panel window 15 is operated by the pointing device to control the camera 10 and the pan head unit 11 of the selected station. In addition, although the selection of the camera of a local station can be performed through the multipoint connection control device 60 or not, it is easier to perform the process by using the device control unit 44 directly without using the multipoint connection control device 60. Can be done in a short time.

  The first, second, and third modes can be switched by selecting the icons 17a, 17b, and 17c in the mode switching window 17 on the display screen 12a. . FIG. 6 shows the transition state of these modes. At the start of the multipoint video conference, as described above, the first mode (time-division video display mode) is set and can be changed between the speech station video display mode and the selected station video display mode. In the time-division video display mode and the speech station video display mode, it is possible to control the camera only for the own station, and in the selected station video display mode, it is possible to control the camera selected from the own station and other stations. Become.

  In this embodiment, since various operations such as camera control can be performed on the display screen 12a while confirming the image input on the display screen 12a, the operability is very good.

  Also, as shown in FIG. 4, since the group of the own station and other stations are displayed separately (display windows 13A, 13B, 13C, 13D), the distinguishability between the own station and other stations is improved. . Further, since the display windows 13A, 13B, 13C, and 13D for the group of the own station and other stations are arranged as described above, the camera operation panel window 15 and the mode switching window 17 are effective in the vicinity of the own station window 13D. Can be arranged.

It is a schematic block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention. 3 is a schematic configuration block diagram of a main body 22. FIG. FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration block diagram of a multipoint connection control device 60. It is a figure which shows an example of the monitor screen of this embodiment. It is a schematic block diagram of a window switching control system. It is a figure which shows the transition state of a display mode. It is explanatory drawing of the star connection of a multipoint video conference.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Video camera 12 Monitor 14 Speaker 16 Microphone 18 Operation part 20 Auxiliary input / output device terminal 22 Main body 40 Computer 42 Still image / drawing control part 44 Equipment control part 46 Data port 48 Interconnection procedure control part 50 Network signal control part 52 Communication control unit 56 Network interface 58 Communication network 60 Multipoint connection control device 76 Image selection control unit 78 Audio mixer 80 Data selection control unit 82 Control unit

Claims (7)

An input means for inputting a plurality of moving images;
Operation control means for controlling the operation of an output source device for moving images input by the input means;
Display control means for displaying a list of a plurality of still images respectively corresponding to the plurality of moving images;
Selecting means for selecting at least one still image among the still images displayed in a list in response to an operator's selection instruction input ;
The display control unit controls to display a moving image corresponding to the still image selected by the selection unit , and the operation control unit displays the moving image corresponding to the still image, and then displays the moving image. based on the operation instruction input, the display control apparatus characterized that you control the operation of the selected still image output source device by the selection unit.   The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the still image is a still image obtained from a moving image input by the input unit. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit displays information related to the output source apparatuses of the plurality of moving images in association with the still images displayed as a list. A mode switching means for switching a moving image display mode in the display device;
When the mode switching unit switches to the first mode, the display control unit controls to display at least one moving image currently input by the input unit;
4. The display control unit according to claim 1, wherein when the mode switching unit switches to the second mode, the display control unit controls to display a list of the plurality of still images. 5. Display control device. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input unit inputs a moving image generated in a remote output source apparatus connected via a communication medium. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output source apparatus includes at least a camera, and the operation control unit controls an operation of the camera . A display control method for displaying an image output from an output source device on a display device,
A list display step of displaying a list of a plurality of still images respectively corresponding to a plurality of input moving images;
A selection step of selecting at least one still image from among the still images displayed in a list in response to an operator's selection instruction input;
A display control step for controlling to display a moving image corresponding to the still image selected by the selection step;
An operation control step of controlling the operation of the output source device of the still image selected by the selection step based on an operation instruction input by the operator after a moving image corresponding to the still image is displayed. A characteristic display control method.

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