JPS6128287A - Information transmission device utilizing telephone set - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reproduce transmitted picture information at the receiving side and to allow a person hard of hearing to talk freely over the phone by decomposing a picture obtained in a photographing device into picture elements transmittable through one telephone circuit and transmitting the picture information necessary for the telephone circuit. CONSTITUTION:Pictures photographed by a photographing device 1 are directly displayed on a monitor 2, and simultaneously their parts in the vicinity of lips are discomposed into 24X24 dot picture elements by a digital processor 3 and transmitted to an opposite receiver 5 through a MODEM4. A space between the MODEM4 and the opposite receiver 5 is connected by one telephone circuit for picture transmission 6 and another telephone circuit 7 for exclusive use of voice. The receiver 5 is connected to a telephone set 8 and driven device 9. A display device 10 or tangible recorder 11 can be selected for the driven device 9.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a simple image information transmission device using a telephone.

[Prior art]

For example, in the case of dialogue with people with severe hearing loss, it is known that providing visual information at the same time as audio is effective in helping people recognize the content of the dialogue, and lip-reading training is one way to do this. There is.

On the other hand, people with severe hearing loss often find it difficult to communicate using conventional telephones, which do not provide video.

Therefore, videophones can be considered as a method that involves video, but videophones require about 100 telephone lines, which requires a huge amount of money and is not common.

Therefore, the present inventor disclosed a device for photographing lips, etc., as one of the means of transmitting information with extremely simple image information, published on April 16, 1981 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1982-1.801).
49).

This device is worn on the head and takes pictures of the speaker's face or lips, so that the shooting range does not change no matter which direction the speaker faces.

Television is a possible means of capturing lip information using this photographic device.

For example, in a classroom for hearing-impaired students, when the speaker, the teacher, faces the blackboard and has his back turned to the listeners, the students cannot understand the content of the conversation because the teacher's lips cannot be seen.

In such a case, the contents of the lecture can be understood by photographing the speaker's lips using the above-mentioned photographing device and displaying the photograph on a television screen.

However, if you are looking at the lip information on the TV screen, you will not be able to see the notes, so you will not be able to take notes on the lecture content.

In other words, the problems faced by people with hearing loss cannot be solved only through dialogue accompanied by images; other means are needed.

〔the purpose〕

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an information transmission device using a telephone configured so that a hearing-impaired person can reliably understand the contents of a conversation.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

Figure 1 and the following diagrams explain one embodiment of the present invention.
The figure shows the overall structure of the device as a block diagram.

That is, in FIG. 1, the reference numeral 1 is a photographing device, and the image photographed by the photographing device 1 is directly displayed on a monitor 2, and is also decomposed into pixels by a digital processor B as described later. , is sent to the receiving device 5 of the other party via the modem 4.

Between the modeno 4 and the receiving device 5 of the other party, there is one telephone line 6 for image transmission, and another telephone line 7 for audio only.
connected by.

The receiving device 5 is connected to a telephone 8 and a driven device 9.

A display device 10 or a tactile vocoder 11 is selected as the driven device 9.

As shown in FIG. 2, the imaging device 1 includes an arc-shaped supporter 12 and an arm 13 that are attached to the head.
30 base end is slidably and rotatably connected to the supporter 12 side.

The tip of the arm 16 is curved toward the face,
An optical system for photographing (not shown) is housed at its tip, and the read image is guided to the image processing section 14.

The image processing section 14 is led to the monitor 2 via a wiring 15.

The read image is sent to the other party's driven device 9 via the information transmission device 16 using various telephones shown in FIG.
Sent to the side.

By the way, as described above, if images are transmitted using the video telephone system, more than 100 telephone lines are required, which is difficult to realize mainly for economical reasons.

In the present invention, as shown in Fig. 3, in order to transmit data over one line of the current telephone line, only the area around the lips is divided into 24 x 24 dot pixels for transmission.The modem has the maximum transmission capacity of 9600 BPS. I decided to use

The maximum amount of information that can be transmitted by a 9600BP8 modem is 9600 x (10-2) ÷ 10 = 7680 BP, since 1 bit is taken for each start and stop in 1 byte.
It is 8.

Therefore, when trying to transmit 30 images per second, the number of pixels is 16 x 16 dots, and in the case of 24 x 24 dots, the number of images increases to 133 images per second, making it possible to send a moving image that can be reliably viewed.

This image information is sent through the 232C output circuit of the computer that controls the digital processor, and on the receiving side, the signal from the 232C is input to the microcomputer, enlarged to twice the height and width, written to the video ram, and displayed on the display device 10. do.

As shown in FIG. 4, a hearing-impaired person can have a conversation by using a combination of the two, while watching the transmitted moving image and listening to the sound transmitted over the telephone using a hearing aid.

On the other hand, not only the display device but also the tactile vocoder 11 can be used as the driven device.

This tactile vocoder 11 has a large number, for example, 20×20-40
This device has 0 small vibrating bodies, vibrates these vibrating bodies in combination according to the pronunciation, and transmits audio information by stimulating the user's palm or the like.

The operation of the tactile vocoder is controlled by a microcomputer provided on the receiving device 5 side.

The user of this device may use either the display device 10 or the tactile vocoder 11 as a driven device, or may use both in combination depending on the situation.

Next, some application examples of the device of the present invention will be shown.

FIG. 5 shows a case in which the object to be photographed is not a face, but is applied to sign language, and the fingertip portion is photographed and transmitted in the same manner as described above, making it possible to have a conversation in sign language.

Figure 6 shows the case where it is applied in a classroom.

The teacher wears a photographic device on his head, and the students place a monitor 2, tactile vocoder 11, etc. on their desks, so that they can obtain conversational information even when the teacher is facing the blackboard.

Figure 7 shows an example of its application to television broadcasting.

Kochi Misaki, male and female voice actors 17.18 dubbing while watching the drama projected on the screen 19, photographing lip information, and displaying this as part of the TV 20 screen 21.22 By displaying this as , you can know the content of the conversation no matter which direction the characters in the drama are facing.

〔effect〕

As is clear from the explanation below, according to the present invention, necessary image information can be transmitted using just one telephone line, and the receiving side can reproduce the image and display it as a moving image or as a moving image. It can be transmitted to the user side as a stimulus via a tactile vocoder, and it is possible to allow hearing-impaired people to freely carry out conversations via the telephone.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 and the following diagrams explain one embodiment of the present invention, with Figure 1 being a block diagram explaining the overall structure, Figure 2 being an explanatory diagram of the photographing device, and Figure 3 being an explanatory diagram of the image to be transmitted. Figure 4 is an explanatory diagram when used as a videophone, Figure 5 is an explanatory diagram when applied to sign language, Figure 6 is an explanatory diagram when applied to a classroom, and Figure 7 is an explanatory diagram when applied to a television. It is a diagram. 1... Photographing device 2... Monitor 6... Digital processor 4... Modem 5... Receiving device
6, 7...Telephone line 8...Telephone 9.
... Driven device 10 ... Display device 11 ... Tactile vocoder 12 ... Supporter 13 ... Arm 1
4...Image processing unit patent applicant Hiroshi Ono Figure 5 Figure 6, 2B'□'J8 Question Sho G1-28287 (5) Figure 7

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A photographic device that photographs real-time image information to be transmitted, a digital circuit that decomposes the image obtained by this photographic device into pixels, and converts it into a digital signal that can be sent over a single telephone line, and a telephone line. It is equipped with a modem that is an interface with the receiver, a transmitting device that sends image information to the other party via a telephone line, a receiving device that receives this image signal, and a non-driving device that is driven according to the received image signal. An information transmission device using a telephone characterized by: (2) The information transmission device using a telephone according to claim 1, wherein the object to be photographed is the face or lips of the speaker, and the non-driving device is an image display device. (3) The non-driving device is a tactile vocoder, and the tactile vocoder is configured to apply an image signal as a tactile stimulus to a stimulation site on the user's skin surface. An information transmission device using a telephone as described in Section 1.