JPH01220588A - Animation display switching device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To rank and distribute picture information in accordance with the number of reception equipments by switching a connection switch in accordance with reception animation designating information with respect to conference terminals having one or more reception equipments, plural internal busses, and plural animation reception and transmission ports. CONSTITUTION:Animation transmission ports 1-5 of all attendant terminals are connected to a first bus 1-1 out of plural internal busses of a moving picture display switching device 2-1. One of moving picture transmission ports 1-5 other than the port, which is connected to the first bus 1-1, of each terminal having two or more reception systems is connected to a second bus. One of unconnected animation transmission ports 1-5 of each terminal having n-number of or more reception systems is connected to an n-th bus. Animation reception ports 1-4 are ranked in the display order in accordance with reception animation designating information from terminals 2-11-2-1N and picture information is distributed in accordance with the number of reception equipments.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a display switching device for video information in a multipoint video conference system that conducts video conferences between multiple points.

(Prior Art) In a multipoint video conferencing system, it is originally desirable for each conference terminal to be able to simultaneously display video information from all terminals participating in the conference, but in order to do so, it is necessary to receive video information from all terminals. In order to do this, it is necessary to have as many receiving lines as the number of terminals, and as many video receiving units and display devices as the number of terminals. (Hereinafter, the receiving communication line, video image receiving unit, and display device in each terminal will be collectively referred to as the receiving system.) In reality, this is difficult to realize for economic reasons, especially when participating in a conference. Although the number of terminals can generally be up to about 10, it is unrealistic to equip all terminals with many reception systems just for such large-scale conferences that are rarely held. Therefore, it is currently being considered to conduct a multipoint conference using the following method using a conference terminal having only one moving image transmitting section and one receiving system. That is, the video information sent from each conference terminal is once collected in a central control device, and the central control device selects only one piece of input video information from the plurality of input video information and transmits it to each conference terminal. In this case, each conference terminal only needs to have one receiving system. In this way, the video switching method selects the appropriate video information from among the video information sent from each terminal and sends it to the terminal. We will call this the display method. The conventional method is effective if all conference terminals have only one video transmitter and one receiver, but as multipoint conferences become more common in the future, it may be necessary to have two or more receivers. Conference terminals are also expected to appear. If a conference is held with N terminals (N+1) having N sets of receiving systems, video information from N terminals other than one's own can be viewed at the same time, and the ideal communication described above can be achieved. It is possible.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, in reality, even terminals with N sets of receiving systems (N+
2) There is a possibility that more than one terminal will participate in a conference, and a terminal with only one receiving system may also participate in the same conference. In such a case, it is desirable that each terminal be able to view as many images as its own receiving system, depending on the scale of each device.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable, when holding a multipoint conference using multiple conference terminals each having one or more reception systems, each conference terminal can view as much video information as the number of reception systems it has. An object of the present invention is to provide a moving image display switching device.

(Means for Solving the Problems) A video display switching device of the present invention includes a plurality of internal buses and a plurality of video reception ports that receive video information transmitted from video transmission units of a plurality of conference terminals. , a plurality of video transmission ports that transmit video information to video reception units of a plurality of conference terminals, a switch that connects the video reception ports and video transmission ports to the plurality of internal buses, and a video receiving unit from each conference terminal. It consists of a switching control unit that receives designation information and switches the switch according to the contents of the information.

(Function) In the video display switching device of the present invention, among the plurality of internal buses, the video transmission ports of all participating terminals are connected to the first bus, and two or more receiving systems are connected to the second bus. Connect one of the video transmission ports other than the port connected to the first bus of the terminal that has the terminal, and connect the receiving system to the nth bus.
Connect one of the unconnected video transmission ports of the terminals having the above, rank the video reception ports in the order in which they are desired to be displayed according to the received video specification information of each terminal 9J, etc.,
The problem can be solved by sequentially connecting the internal buses from 1 to the video transmission port with the highest rank.

(Example) Next, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a multipoint video conference system to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 0, 2-1 is a video switching display device of the present invention, and 2-11 to 2-IN are conference terminals. .

Video switching display device 2-1 and each terminal 2-11 to 2-I
The line connecting N indicates a communication line, including at least one line for sending video information from the terminal to the video display switching device, one or more lines for sending video information from the video display switching device to the terminal, and video display switching from the terminal. It includes a line for sending a reception video designation signal to the device.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of the video display switching device of the present invention. In FIG. 6, three terminals a, b, and c are connected, terminal a has three receiving systems, and terminal A has two receiving systems. , 4 shows the case where terminal C has one reception system, 1-1 is the first internal bus, 1-2 is the second internal bus,
1-3 is a third internal bus. In general, there may be any number of internal buses; 1-4 is a video reception port for receiving video information from a terminal, and 1-5 is a video transmission port for transmitting video information to the terminal. Video information 1(a) and I(b) are sent from terminals a, b, and c to video receiving ports 1-4, respectively.
, I(c) are input. Video information can be sent from the video transmission ports 1-5 to each video receiving system of each terminal, but in this example, terminal a has three video receiving systems, so it is sent to each receiving section. Three pieces of video information, 0(a2) and 0(a3), are sent. Similarly, 0 (bl
) and 0 (b2) are sent. Since terminal C has only one receiving section, only one 0(c) is sent. The transmission connection switch 1-6 is a switch that connects the internal bus and the image transmission port. In this example, the first bus 1-1 connects to the reception section of all terminals, and the second bus 1-2 connects the reception system to two. The third bus 1-3 is connected to the receiving section of terminal a having three receiving devices. 1-7 is a switching control unit, and terminals a, b, c
Each received video specification information 5(a).

5(b) and 5(c), ranks the image information to be transmitted based on the results, and controls the receiving connection switch 1-8 according to the ranking. The reception connection switch 1-8 connects the input image information with the highest rank to the first bus 1. In the example shown in FIG. This is received video specification information 5(a).

5(b) and 5(c) indicate that the switching control unit 1-7 has determined that the moving image information from terminal a is ranked first. The following video information I(c), I from terminal C
In the order of (b), the second bus 1-2 and the third bus 1-3 respectively.
It is connected to the. As a result, terminal a can simultaneously view video information from all terminals, terminal A can view video information from terminals A and C simultaneously, and terminal C can view video information from terminal a.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, according to the present invention, conference terminals having one or more receiving devices can be connected and image information in a number corresponding to the number of receiving devices each conference terminal has can be distributed. A moving image display switching device is obtained that enables the following.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a video display switching device that is an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of a multipoint video conference system to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, 1-1 to 1-3 are internal buses, 1-4 is a video reception port, 1-5 is a video transmission port, 1-6 is a transmission connection switch, 1-7 is a switching control unit, and 1-8 is a video transmission port. reception connection switch, 2-1 is a video display switching device of the present invention;
2-11 to 2-IN are conference terminals.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A video display switching device in a multipoint video conferencing system that conducts a multipoint conference using video information between a plurality of conference terminals each having one video transmitter and one or more video receivers and display devices, the video display switching device comprising: Multiple internal buses, multiple video receiving ports that receive video information transmitted from the video transmitting units of multiple conference terminals, and multiple video receiving ports that transmit video information to the video receiving units of multiple conference terminals. From a transmission port, a switch that connects the video reception port and video transmission port to the plurality of internal buses, and a switching control unit that receives received video designation information from each conference terminal and switches the switch according to the content of the information. A video display switching device characterized by: