JPH0795549A - Controller for image input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a controller which can control an image input device while observing an image provided by the image input device without considerably moving a glance. CONSTITUTION:This device is provided with a display means 2 for displaying image information provided from an image input device 1 as an image window 3, first control means 6 and 1000 for controlling the prescribed function of the image input device 1 on a control window 4 displayed on the screen of this display means 2, and second control means 6 and 100 for enabling the appearance of the control window 4 at the position of an identifier 110 to be displayed on the screen corresponding to any specified operation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control device for controlling an image input device such as a camera, and more specifically, it controls an image communication terminal such as a video conference or a videophone and an image input device such as a remote monitoring device. Regarding the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 8 is a front view showing a conventional video conference terminal device. The camera 111 is for photographing the user 112, and is installed on the display device 114. A large number of windows can be opened on the screen of the display device 114 by a well-known window display system. In FIG. 8, a self-portrait window 116 for displaying a photographed image of the user 112 by the camera 111 is arranged in the center, and a camera control window 118 for operating the camera 111 is arranged beside it. Another window 120 (here, a window for displaying a clock) is arranged behind the self-portrait window 116.

Reference numeral 122 is a mouse for designating or inputting an arbitrary position on the screen of the display device 114, and 123 is a cursor displayed on the screen of the display device 114 corresponding to the mouse 122. By selecting and operating a control element displayed in the control window 118 with the mouse 122, power on / off of the camera 111, panning / tilting operation to the left, right, up, and down, a focal length, exposure, zoom, and the like can be adjusted. Reference numeral 24 is a keyboard, and 26 is a microphone for voice input.

The user 112 usually sits in front of the display device 114. Mouse 122 or keyboard 124
When the power of the camera 111 is turned on, the self-portrait window 116 is set at the center of the screen of the display device 114.
The image taken by the camera 111 is horizontally flipped and displayed in the self-portrait window 116. This allows the user 1
12 can confirm the operating state of the camera 111 and the image quality of itself.

[0005]

In the conventional example, the camera control window 118 is usually the self-portrait window 1.
It is placed in 16 out of the way positions. Therefore,
When the user 112 adjusts the camera 111, the user 112 has to move the line of sight largely and frequently between the line-of-sight direction 128a looking at the self-portrait window 116 and the line-of-sight direction 128b looking at the camera control window 118.

[0006] Such a problem also occurs when operating the camera of the partner terminal while viewing the image from the partner of image communication in the received image window. Furthermore, the same applies when remotely operating a surveillance camera or the like.

In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a control device capable of controlling the image input device without significantly moving the line of sight while viewing the image obtained by the image input device. And

Further, when at least two image windows and a control window corresponding to the image windows are displayed on the screen, it becomes easy to recognize the camera which is the current control target, and the image input device. An object of the present invention is to provide a control device for.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the conventional problems and achieve the above object, the present invention provides a display means for displaying image information obtained from an image input device in an image window, and First control means capable of controlling a predetermined function of the image input device on a control window displayed on the screen of the display means, and an identifier position displayed on the screen according to a specific operation. And a second control unit that allows the control window to appear.

In another configuration, display means for displaying image information obtained from the image input device in an image window and a predetermined window of the image input device on a control window displayed on the screen of the display means. And a second control means capable of causing the control window to appear in the image window in response to a specific operation.

[0011] In another configuration, display means for displaying image information obtained from the image input device in an image window, and a predetermined window of the image input device on a control window displayed on the screen of the display means. And a second control means for enabling the control window to appear in the approximate center of the screen of the display means in response to a specific operation. .

In another configuration, display means for displaying image information obtained from a plurality of image input devices in corresponding image windows, and a control window displayed on the screen of the display means are used. First control means for controlling a predetermined function of the image input device and the control window corresponding to the image window displayed at the position of the identifier displayed on the screen according to a specific operation can appear. And a second control means.

Furthermore, in another configuration, a display means for displaying image information obtained from a plurality of image input devices in corresponding image windows, and a control window displayed on the screen of the display means. First control means capable of controlling a predetermined function of the image input device, and at least two image windows and control windows corresponding to the image windows are displayed on the screen, respectively. And a second control means for changing the transparency of the.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of the present invention. The cameras 1 and 10 as one of the image input devices are
It is used for photographing the user 7 and other subjects, and is installed on the display device 2. This camera 1,
The 10 inputs an image to the computer 100 as described later. In this embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the cameras 1 and 10 are installed on the display device 2, but the camera 1 is installed on the display device 2 for a person, and the camera 10 is an original document not shown for an electronic OHP. It may be installed on a table and used for reading a document. The display device 2 is controlled by the computer 100 to display information from a plurality of information sources. A large number of windows can be opened on the screen of the display device 2 by a well-known window display system. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, an image display window (hereinafter referred to as a display window) 3 for displaying an image input from the camera 1 is arranged in the center of the display device 2, and the camera is provided on the rear surface thereof. 10
Display window 1 for displaying images input from
1 and another window 5 (here, a window for displaying a clock) are arranged.

The present system also includes a mouse controller (hereinafter referred to as a mouse) 6 for designating or inputting an arbitrary position on the screen of the display device 2, a keyboard 8 for inputting information to the computer 100, and a computer 100. A microphone 9 or the like is provided as a means for inputting voice information. A cursor 110 as an identifier is displayed on the screen of the display device 2 in correspondence with the position indicated by the mouse 6.

When using this system, the user 7 usually sits in front of the display device 2. When the power of the camera 1 is turned on by the mouse 6 or the keyboard 8, the display window 3 is set at the center of the screen of the display device 2. The image captured by the camera 1 is displayed in the display window 3 after being horizontally flipped. Thereby, the user 7 can confirm the operating state of the camera 1 and the image quality of himself / herself. At this time, if the camera 1 faces the user 7, the image from the camera 1 can be confirmed by the display window 3 as if it were reflected in a mirror.

Here, when the show body is the user 7,
When the camera 1 is not facing the user 7 at all, it is necessary to point the camera 1 at the user 7. In that case, the user 7 presses a predetermined button 6a of the mouse 6. Then, as shown in FIG.
At a display position of 0, a camera control window (hereinafter, control window) 4 for controlling panning / tilting operation, focal length, exposure, zoom, and the like for the camera 1 is displayed. The user 7 can control the operations of the various cameras described above by moving the cursor 110 to a predetermined position on the control window 4 and pressing the button 6a of the mouse 6. Control of these operations is executed by a central processing unit (hereinafter, CPU) 15 (FIG. 3). Since the control window 4 is displayed at the display position of the cursor 110 in this way, the direction of the line of sight 60a for the user 7 to see the display window 3 and the direction of the line of sight 60b for seeing the control window 4 are substantially matched. be able to.
Therefore, the line of sight can be moved only slightly. The control window 4 can be deleted from the screen by pressing the button 6b of the mouse 6.

Although the control window 4 is displayed and erased by the mouse 6 here, the control window 4 may be controlled by key input through the keyboard 8 which is another external input device or voice input through the microphone 9.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic block diagram of the above embodiment. The same components as those shown in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals. In the computer 100, the server 1
2, a window manager 13, a graphic interface 14, and a CPU 15 are provided, and these are connected to the bus 15. Then, in the server 12,
A display device 2, a mouse 6 and a keyboard 8 are connected to each other and control communication with them. The window manager 13 controls each window described above.
The graphic interface 14 is connected to the cameras 1 and 10 and takes in image information from the cameras 1 and 10 and outputs it. The CPU 15 executes various controls. In the embodiment shown here, the cameras 1 and 1 are directly connected.
Although 0 is connected to the graphic interface 14 and the display device 2, the mouse 6, and the keyboard 8 are connected to the server 12, these may be connected via the bus 16.

Here, the server 12 detects which window the cursor 110 pointed to by the mouse 6 is currently showing, and further which position in the window,
Based on the detected result, it is possible to determine which position of which window the cursor 110 is in. Then, the operation is determined according to the determined position of the cursor 110. This operation is controlled by the CPU 15. Here, when the cursor 110 is in the window displayed by the display window 3 corresponding to the camera 1, the control window 4 is opened by pressing the button 6a of the mouse 6 as shown in FIG. , Is displayed on the display window 3 on the screen of the display device 2.
Further, when the cursor 110 is located in the display window 11 corresponding to the camera 10, by pressing the button 6a of the mouse 6, the control window 17 is displayed on the display window 11 as shown in FIG. It

In such a system, in order to minimize the amount of movement of the line of sight, rather than displaying the control window 4 at the position indicated by the cursor 110, it is displayed in the center of the display window 3 without instructing the position. It is better to let them do it. However, hiding the display window 3 by the control window 4 hinders the operation of the camera 1. Therefore, as an improved example, as shown in FIG. 4, the control window 4 is made semi-transparent so that the control window 4 is displayed in the center of the display window 3. As a result, the control window 4 can be operated while checking the captured image of the camera 1 while making the line-of-sight directions 60a and 60b substantially coincide.

Furthermore, when the priority of the display window 3 is set to the highest and the window of lower priority, here the control window 4 overlaps the display window 3, the control window 4 of lower priority is semitransparent. To be displayed.

In a normal window display system, when a plurality of windows are displayed, any one selected window is arranged in the foreground and the other windows are hidden. In this case, if the control window 4 is selected or operated with the control window 4 overlapping the display window 3, the control window 4 is hidden by the control window 4. As described above, when another window overlaps the display window 3, this adverse effect can be eliminated by making the other window semitransparent.

The control method at this time will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the window manager 13, and particularly shows a configuration block of a circuit for semitransparently displaying the control windows 4 and 17. First window popup control circuit (hereinafter, referred to as first popup control circuit) 1
8 is a first control window 4 stored in the memory 30.
Control the appearance and deletion of the
The window pop-up control circuit (hereinafter, second pop-up control circuit) 19 controls the appearance and deletion of the second control window 17 stored in the memory 31 on the second display window 11. First superimposition amount control circuit 2
0 controls the amount of superimposing the first control window 4 on the first display window 3 output via the memory 32, and the second superimposition amount control circuit 21 stores the second control window 17 in the memory. The amount of superimposition on the second display window 11 output via 33 is controlled. Controller 22
Controls the first and second superposition amount control circuits 20 and 21.
The data of the first and second control windows 4 and 17 are given from the CPU 15 (FIG. 3) via the bus 16, and the data of the first and second display windows 3 and 11 are the graphic interface 14 and It is given from the cameras 1 and 10 (FIG. 3) via the bus 16.

Here, if the user 7 issues a request for the appearance of the first control window 4 corresponding to the selected first display window 3 by a predetermined operation of the mouse 6, the first pop-up is performed. The control circuit 18 sends the first control window 4 read from the memory 30 to the next stage. The transmitted first control window 4 is input to the first superposition amount control circuit 20, and the first superposition amount control circuit 20 performs level conversion on the first control window 4 to control the superposition amount. To do. The first display window 3 and the adder 23 add the first control window 4 whose amount of superposition is controlled.

Here, the user 7 selects the second display window 11 selected by the predetermined operation of the mouse 6.
When the request for appearance of the second control window 17 corresponding to is issued, the second pop-up control circuit 19 sends the second control window 17 read from the memory 31 to the next stage. The sent out second control window 17 is input to the superimposition amount control circuit 21, and the superposition amount control circuit 21
Controls the amount of superposition by performing level conversion on the second control window 17. The second control window 17 in which the amount of superimposition is controlled is added by the second display window 11 and the adder 24.

The data added by the adders 23 and 24 is further added by another window 5 read from the memory 34 and the adder 25, and then input to the server 12 via the bus 16. It

The controller 22 controls the superimposition amount control circuit 20 for controlling the superimposition amount of the first control window 4,
It sends a signal that determines how much superposition. First
If the second display window 11 is open and the second control window 17 appears when determining the overlapping amount of the control window 4 of the controller 22, the controller 22
Makes the amount of superposition of the first control window 4 corresponding to the first display window 3 larger than the amount of superposition of the second control window 17 corresponding to the second display window 11,
The control window 4 is controlled so that it can be clearly confirmed. At this time, the amount of superimposition of the second control window 17 corresponding to the second display window 11 is determined so as not to interfere with the image from the camera 10 displayed in the second display window 11. .

Here, the control of the amount of superposition is addition to each of the display windows 3 and 11, but in order to make the level of the image finally output constant at the addition ratio, each display window is made constant. Also in the level control of 3, 11, the first and second superposition amount control amount devices 20, 21
To the control of the signal from the controller 22 to
When the level of the final output is 1, the levels of the display windows 3 and 11 are also controlled so that the sum of the levels of the respective display windows and the control window becomes 1.

In addition, in the superposition amount control devices 20 and 21, when the whole is set to 1, the addition of the respective control windows 4 and 17 means that 0 to the respective display windows 3 and 11.
It is added at a ratio of 1.

If the addition is made in the ratio of 0 or 1, the appearance of the display window and the appearance of the control window may be switched.

In the present embodiment, the memory 30,
Although the example in which 31, 32, 33, and 34 are provided in the window manager 13 has been described, they may be separately provided and connected to the bus 16. In that case, it can be handled by reading the data into the window manager 13 via the bus 16 as needed.

Another control method will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another configuration example of the window manager 13, and particularly shows a configuration block of a circuit for semitransparently displaying the control windows 4 and 17. The configuration example shown here is the same as the configuration shown in FIG. 5, except that the connection position of the superimposition amount control circuit is different. That is, here, the first display window 3 and the second display window 11 are superposed, and the superposition amount is controlled.

Here, if the user 7 issues a request for the appearance of the first control window 4 corresponding to the selected first display window 3 by a specific operation such as the mouse 6, the first pop-up is performed. The control circuit 18 sends the first control window 4 read from the memory 30 to the next stage (adder 23). On the other hand, the first display window 3 output via the memory 32 is the first superimposition amount control circuit 2
0, the first superimposing amount control circuit 20 performs level conversion on the first display window 3 to control the superimposing amount. The first display window 3 whose amount of superposition is controlled is added by the first control window 4 and the adder 23.

Here, the user 7 selects the second display window 1 selected by a specific operation such as the mouse 6.
When a request for appearance of the second control window 17 corresponding to 1 is issued, the second popup control circuit 19 transfers the second control window 17 read from the memory 31 to the next stage (adder 24). Send out. On the other hand, the second display window 11 output via the memory 33 is input to the superimposition amount control circuit 21, and this superimposition amount control circuit 21 performs level conversion on the second display window 11 to determine the superimposition amount. Control. The second display window 11 in which the amount of superimposition is controlled is added by the second control window 17 and the adder 24.

The data added by the adders 23 and 24 is further added by another window 5 read from the memory 34 and the adder 25, and then input to the server 12.

A more specific configuration example will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration example for causing the display window 3 and the control window 4 to appear. The display window 11 and the control window 17 are shown.
Although a configuration example for causing the occurrence of is omitted, it can be realized by a similar configuration. Then, as described in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, by adding and outputting these data, it is possible to simultaneously open windows on the screen of the display device 2.

First video RAM (hereinafter, VRAM) 4
Reference numeral 3 stores image data input from the camera 1 as an external input device. The second VRAM 47 is a CPU
The display screen data such as the control screen generated in 15 (FIG. 3) is stored. The selectors 48 and 53 are respectively the memory 5
The data in 0 and 51 are switched and output to the integrators 44 and 49. The memories 50 and 51 store at least one data of "1" and smaller. The memory controller 52 writes to the VRAMs 43 and 47,
It controls reading and sends a signal for data switching to the selectors 48 and 53.

Next, the operation will be described. First VRA
The image data stored in M43 and the display screen (control window) data stored in the second VRAM 47 are read by the instruction of the memory controller 52. The data read from the first VRAM 43 is input to the integrator 44. The accumulator 44 accumulates the data read from the first VRAM 43 and the predetermined data “k” selected by the selector 48 from the plurality of data stored in the memory 50, thereby Control the level of. That is, the data read from the first VRAM 43 is multiplied by k and output from the integrator 44. Data k from the memory 50 selected by the selector 48
When = 1, the level of the data read from the first VRAM 43 does not change and is output from the integrator 44. In this embodiment, all the data to be selected is obtained from the memory 50. However, when the value to be integrated is 1, the data read from the first VRAM 43 passes through the integrator 44 as it is. The data may be obtained from the memory 50 when the integrated value is smaller than 1.

The first VRAM 43 compresses, in addition to displaying,
When transmitting or the like, the CPU 15 reads out the data.

On the other hand, the control window data stored in the second VRAM 47 and read by the memory controller 52 is input to the integrator 49. At this time,
The integrator 49 controls the data level by integrating the data sent from the second VRAM 47 and the data from the memory 51 input via the selector 53. The data integrated by the integrator 49 is added by the adder 45 to the data integrated by the integrator 44 to obtain the data to be displayed on the display device 2 (FIG. 3). Then, as described above, since the level of this data is set to 1, when the data obtained from the memory 50 is k, the selector 53 causes the memory controller to set the data obtained from the memory 51 to (1-k). Operated by 52. That is, the memory 51 stores data that is (1-k) with respect to the data included in the memory 50.

The data added by the adder 45 is displayed on the display device 2 via the bus 16 and the server 12 as described above.
Is displayed in. Although a configuration example corresponding to one image display window and control window has been described here, the configuration of this embodiment is also applicable to the case where two image display windows and control windows are provided as in the above-described embodiment. This can be handled by providing two sets and an adder.

[0043]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the image obtained by the image input device can be displayed on the screen without moving the line of sight of the image input device. It becomes possible to control.

Furthermore, by displaying at least the portion of the control window that overlaps the image window semi-transparently, even if the control window is opened above the image window, it is possible to confirm the image displayed on the image window. it can.

Furthermore, when at least two image windows and a control window corresponding to the image windows are displayed on the screen, the transparency of each control window is changed so that the camera currently controlled It becomes easy to recognize.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of the present invention, showing an outline of a system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state in which a control window is opened on the screen of the display device in the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state in which a control window is displayed in a semitransparent display.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a window manager.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of another example of a window manager.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a more specific configuration example of a window manager.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 camera 2 display device 3 image display window 4 camera control window 6 mouse 7 user 8 keyboard 9 microphone 10 camera 11 image display window 12 server 13 window manager 14 graphic interface 15 CPU 16 bus

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A display unit for displaying image information obtained from an image input device in an image window, and a predetermined function of the image input device can be controlled on a control window displayed on the screen of the display unit. An image inputting device comprising: a first control means for controlling the control window and a second control means for allowing the control window to appear at the position of the identifier displayed on the screen according to a specific operation. Control device for the device. 2. Display means for displaying image information obtained from the image input device in an image window, and a predetermined function of the image input device can be controlled on a control window displayed on the screen of the display means. And a second control unit that allows the control window to appear in the image window according to a specific operation. 3. A display unit for displaying image information obtained from the image input device in an image window, and a predetermined function of the image input device can be controlled on a control window displayed on the screen of the display unit. And a second control means capable of causing the control window to appear in substantially the center of the screen of the display means in response to a specific operation. Control device for. 4. A display means for displaying image information obtained from a plurality of image input devices in corresponding image windows, and a predetermined window of the image input device on a control window displayed on the screen of the display means. A first control means capable of controlling the function of, and a second control window capable of causing the control window corresponding to the image window displayed at the position of the identifier displayed on the screen according to a specific operation to appear. A control device for an image input device, comprising: a control means. 5. The method according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4,
The control device for an image input device, wherein the second control means displays semi-transparently at least a portion of the control window that overlaps the image window. 6. A display means for displaying image information obtained from a plurality of image input devices in corresponding image windows, and a predetermined window of the image input device on a control window displayed on the screen of the display means. A first control means capable of controlling the function of, and a second control for changing the transparency of each control window when at least two image windows and a control window corresponding to the image window are displayed on the screen. A control device for an image input device, comprising: