JPH04126486A - Picture communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the accuracy of remote ordering by a picture communication system by providing a position input means designating an optional position on a still picture and a control means to a sender side and using the control means so as to send the said position information through a 2nd channel in real time. CONSTITUTION:A still picture of figure 20a picked up by a television camera 4 at a sender side 1 is displayed on a display device 8, sent through a channel B2 and displayed on a display device 16 at a receiver side 2 as shown in figure 20b. Then the operator operates a mouse 9 to move a mouse cursor 21a to bring it onto a position (X, Y) on the figure 20a, the coordinate (X, Y) is calculated by a CPU 9 and outputted to a multiplexer 10. The multiplexer 10 multiplexes a moving data indicated by the cursor 21a on the coordinate data (X, Y) and sends the result through a channel B1. Thus, the said moving picture data and the mouse coordinate data (X, Y) are sent immediately to the receiver side 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image communication system that multiplexes signals such as still images, moving images, and audio signals for remote meetings such as video conferences.

Traditionally, drawings used in video conferences, etc. are imaged with a television camera and displayed on a display, and a video signal of a still image of the imaged drawing is transmitted to a receiving side in a remote location. Remote meetings were held using an image communication system that also displayed on a display.

However, in the image communication system described above, it is not possible to transmit the position information on the still image in real time together with the frame video signal of the still image. point to the receiving side, quickly,
Moreover, it was not possible to convey information reliably, making remote meetings inconvenient.

The present invention solves the above problems, and by transmitting position information on still images in real time, it is possible to quickly and reliably convey any point on the drawing to the receiving side. The purpose is to provide an image communication system with

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image communication system having a first channel for transmitting still images and a second channel for transmitting information such as video and audio in real time. The system is characterized in that the transmitting side is provided with a position input means for specifying an arbitrary position on a still image, and a control means for controlling the position information specified by this means to be transmitted through a second channel. There is.

According to the above configuration, arbitrary position information on a still image is input using a position input device such as a mouse, frame video data of the still image is transmitted through the first channel, and the control means Since arbitrary positional information on a still image is transmitted in real time through the second channel, even if the still image is a drawing, any point on the drawing can be transmitted to the receiving side in real time.

Sue U. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The image communication system has a configuration in which a transmitting side 1, which transmits drawings, etc. for remote meetings such as video conferences, and a receiving side 2, which receives the drawings, are connected via a 5DN (service comprehensive digital network) 32. There is.

The transmitting side 1 includes a television camera 4 for capturing images of drawings, etc., a video interface 5 for converting the depicted analog video signal into a digital video signal, and a frame memory 6 for storing the converted digital video signal for each frame.
A CPU 7 that processes frame video data etc. from the frame memory 6, a display 8 that displays the processed frame video data, and a mouse that manually inputs position information on still images such as drawings displayed on the display 8. 9, a multiplexer 10 that multiplexes encoded data output from the CPU 7, and this multiplexer 1.
modem 11 into which encoded data selected by 0 is input to the first channel B1 or the second channel B2;
It is composed of.

Further, the first channel B1 is a channel on which real-time processing is performed by the CPU 7 in AV (audio/video) communication, and data from the first and second channels is transmitted via the line L by the modem 11.
Connected to 5DN3.

The multiplexer 10 is provided with four input terminals, and encoded video and audio data are respectively input to the terminals marked ■ and the terminal marked ■ from an encoded data generation circuit not shown in the figure. , ■ are manually input with still image data and data encoded with positional information on the still image, respectively. Of these encoded data, the multiplexer 10 selects
The encoded still image data of the terminal (2) is transmitted on channel B2, and the encoded data of the video, audio, and position information of the terminals (2), (2), and (4) are multiplexed and transmitted on channel B1.

The receiving side 2 includes a modem 12 to which encoded data multiplexed from the 15DN 3 is input, a demultiplexer 13 that distributes and outputs the multiplexed encoded data, and frame data of still images and still images by the demultiplexer 13. It is composed of a frame memory 14 in which the above position information data is stored, a succession control section 15 for reading out and controlling the image data of the frame memory [4], and a display I6 for displaying the read image data.

Next, in the above configuration, the operation of transmitting position information on a still image from the transmitting side 1 to the receiving side 2 in real time is performed in the second stage.
This will be explained with reference to Figures (a) and (b).

FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) are drawings 20a, 20b of still images transmitted from the transmitting side 1 to the receiving side 2, and
It is a figure which shows the screen of display 8, I6 which displays mouse cursor 21a, 21b pointing to the position on the same figure.

When the image communication process is executed, the still image of the drawing 20a captured by the television camera 4 on the transmitting side 1 is displayed on the display 8, transmitted through channel B2, and also displayed on the display 16 on the receiving side 2. It is displayed as drawing 20b. Then, the operator operates the mouse 9 to display the transmitter display 8 as shown in FIG. 2(a).
Move the mouse cursor 21a displayed on the screen of
When the mouse is brought to a position (X, Y) on the drawing 20a, this mouse position (X, Y) is calculated by the CPU 9, encoded as mouse position data, and output to the multiplexer 10. The multiplexer 10 is a mouse cursor 2
The video data 1a and the mouse position data (X, Y) are multiplexed and transmitted on channel B1. Since the channel B1 is a channel where real-time processing is performed, the multiplexed video data of the mouse cursor 21a and mouse position data (X, Y) are immediately transmitted to the receiving side 2.

On the receiving side 2, the demultiplexer 13 distributes the moving image data of the mouse cursor 21a and the mouse position data (X, Y) from the above-mentioned multiplexed encoded data to the frame memory 14, and stores the data. When the readout control unit 15 displays the image-processed data in the frame memory 14 on the display 16, the mouse cursor 21b moves to the same position (X, Y) as the mouse cursor 21a, as shown in FIG. 2(b). will be displayed.

4. Thus, the position information of the mouse cursor on the sending side is transmitted to the receiving side in real time, so that the sending and receiving sides can interactively specify any point on the drawing.

As described above, according to the present invention, in an image communication system, not only a still image is transmitted, but also arbitrary positional information on the still image specified by an input device such as a mouse is transmitted in real time. This eliminates the need to write a position on a drawing in order to communicate an arbitrary point on the drawing, as was the case in the past. This makes it possible to improve the accuracy of remote meetings using the image communication system.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) show screens of a display 8.16 when position information of a mouse cursor is transmitted in real time, respectively. It is a diagram. 3... [SDN, 4... TV camera, 5... Video interface, 6.14... Frame memory,
7...CPU, 8,16...Display, 9...
・Mouse, 10...Multiplexer, 11.12...
- Modem, 13... Demultiplexer, 15... Successive control unit. Patent applicant 2 Murata Machinery Co., Ltd. Figure 2 (a) (b)

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In an image communication system that is provided with a first channel that transmits still images and a second channel that transmits information such as video and audio in real time, specifying an arbitrary position on the still image on the transmitting side. An image communication system comprising: a position input means; and a control means for controlling the position information designated by the means to be transmitted through a second channel.