JP2005142640A - Terminal apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable easily detecting the position of a speaking person in a terminal apparatus used for having a television meeting via a network. <P>SOLUTION: The apparatus is provided with a specific sound adding means for adding the sound signal of a specific sound to a sound signal inputted from the network, a plurality of speakers provided with predetermined distances therebetween for outputting the voice signal added with the specific sound, a receiving means for receiving the predetermined transmission signal transmitted in response to the fact that a sound collecting terminal corresponding to the speaking person detects the specific sound in sound/voice outputted from the plurality of speakers, a position detecting means for detecting the positional relation between the television meeting terminal and the sound collecting terminal on the basis of the arrival time difference when the receiving means receives the plurality of predetermined transmission signals concerning a detection result of the specific sound in the plurality of sound signals, and a control means for controlling the direction of a television camera on the basis of the detection result of the position detecting means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a terminal device that performs a video conference via a network.

  FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a video conference device including the position detection device described in Patent Document 1. In the video conference terminal 501 connected to the wide area communication network 500, the data received by the reception unit 502 is the AV separation unit. Video data, audio data, and control signals are separated by the video signal 503, and the video data is decoded by the video decoding unit 504, and then synchronously controlled by the display control unit 505 using the control signal from the AV separation unit 503. Is displayed. On the other hand, after the audio data is decoded by the audio decoding means 507, the audio output control means 508 is synchronously controlled by the control signal from the AV separation means 503 and the audio is output from the speaker 509.

  The voice data input from the high directivity microphone 510 that collects sound using a plurality of microphones and a reflection plate and received by the voice signal receiving unit 511 is encoded by the voice encoding unit 514 and at the same time, the voice recognition unit 512. Thus, the direction of the speaker is specified based on the audio data of the conference participants registered in advance in the audio data storage unit 513, and the video camera 516 is directed to the speaker by the pan head control unit 515 based on the information. To control.

  The video data shot by the video camera 516 is encoded by the video encoding means 517, multiplexed together with the audio data encoded by the audio encoding means 514 by the AV multiplexing means 518, and transmitted by the transmission means 519 to the wide area communication network 500. Sent to.

In Patent Document 2, there is also a method of attaching a specific lamp to a speaker's microphone and detecting the position of the speaker by image recognition.
JP-A-6-351015 JP-A-9-307870

  However, the video conference apparatus including the position detection apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 requires an expensive dedicated sensor for position detection. In addition, the apparatus that performs position detection by image recognition in Patent Document 2 has a complicated process in proportion to the accuracy of position detection, and requires a large-scale circuit or a high-performance processor and a large amount of memory.

  That is, in the apparatus including the existing position detection apparatus, a large-scale position detection apparatus or the like is required, and there is a problem that the apparatus becomes expensive.

  An object of the present invention is to solve such problems and to easily detect the position of a speaker.

  The present invention is a conference terminal device used in a video conference system that performs a video conference via a network, the specific sound adding means for adding a specific sound signal to a sound signal input from the network, and the specific A plurality of speakers that output a sound signal to which sound is added and that have a predetermined interval from each other, and a sound collecting terminal that corresponds to a speaker detects the specific sound in the sound that is output from the plurality of speakers And a receiving means for receiving a predetermined transmission signal transmitted in response, and based on a difference in arrival time when the receiving means receives a plurality of the predetermined transmission signals according to a detection result of a specific sound in the plurality of audio signals. Position detecting means for detecting a positional relationship between the video conference terminal and the sound collecting terminal; and controlling a direction of the TV camera based on a detection result of the position detecting means. And a control unit.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily detect the position of a speaker.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the video conference apparatus according to the present invention will be described.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a video conference apparatus including a position detection device satisfying claim 1 of the present invention, which is received by a receiving means 102 in a video conference terminal 101 connected to a wide area communication network 100. The data is separated into video data, audio data, and control signals by the AV separation means 103, and the video data is decoded by the video decoding means 104 and then synchronously controlled by the display control means 105 with the control signal from the AV separation means 103. Thus, an image is displayed on the monitor 106. On the other hand, after the audio data is decoded by the audio decoding means 107, a predetermined specific sound is added by the specific sound adding means 108, and the audio output control means 109 is synchronously controlled by the control signal from the AV separation means 103, and the speaker 110 is synchronized. Will output audio. Then, in the wireless sound collecting terminal 111 held by the speaker, the sound data of the ambient sound and the sound data uttered by the speaker are collected by the sound input unit 112 and transmitted to the video conference terminal 101 by the sound signal transmitting unit 113. The

  Upon receiving the audio data, the video conference terminal 101 side determines the audio data received by the audio signal receiving unit 114 by the specific speaker determining unit 116 based on the predetermined priority and the volume of the audio data. For the voice data, the echo canceling means 115 uses the specific sound transmission time from the specific sound adding means 108 and the specific sound receiving time in the voice data of the sound collecting terminal of the specific speaker from the voice receiving means 114 to After the decoded speech data of the decoding unit 109 is removed, the speech encoding unit 116 encodes the decoded speech data.

  The speaker position calculating means 118 determines the position of the speaker based on the specific sound transmission time from the specific sound adding means 108 and the specific sound reception time in the voice data of the specific speaker's sound collection terminal from the voice receiving means 114. Using the calculation result, the camera platform control means 119 controls the camera platform so that the video camera 120 faces the speaker.

  Video data captured by the video camera 120 is encoded by the video encoding means 121, multiplexed together with the audio data encoded by the audio encoding means 116 by the AV multiplexing means 122, and transmitted to the wide area network 100 by the transmission means 123. Sent.

  The operation of determining the speaker position will be described with reference to FIGS.

  The specific sound added by the specific sound adding means 108 is two predetermined audio signals that are below the human audible limit as shown in FIG. Thus, the specific sound is not heard by the conference participants, and it is not necessary to remove the specific sound from the audio data received by the audio signal receiving means. The specific sound adding means 108 adds the specific sound to the output voice data of the voice decoding means 107, records the added time, and outputs it from the two speakers 110.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 3, two specific sounds output from the two speakers are collected by the voice input unit 112 of the wireless sound collection terminal 111 held by the speaker A determined by the specific speaker determination unit 117. Then, the time from the transmission by the audio signal transmission unit 113 to the arrival at the audio signal reception unit 114 is measured. Then, a predetermined distance d0 from the speaker L to the speaker R, a distance d1 from the speaker L to the wireless sound collecting terminal, a distance d1 from the speaker R to the wireless sound collecting terminal, a distance d3 from the wireless sound collecting terminal to the video conference terminal, The position of the speaker is calculated from the measurement result using a conversion table that considers the known signal transmission speed.

  The position of the dynamic speaker is recognized by periodically performing the above operation every unit time.

  Hereinafter, other embodiments of the present invention will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In the broadcast receiving terminal 301 connected to the tuner 300, data received by the broadcast signal receiving means 302 is controlled by the TS separating means 303 with video data, audio data, and control. After being separated into signals, the video data is decoded by the video decoding unit 304, and then the video is displayed on the monitor 306 by the display control unit 305 synchronously controlled by the control signal from the AV separation unit 303. On the other hand, after the audio data is decoded by the audio decoding unit 307, the audio processing unit 309 brings about a pseudo surround effect that is output from five speakers surrounding the user position calculated by the user position calculation unit 308. Audio processing is performed, a predetermined specific sound is added by the specific sound adding means 310, and the audio output control means 311 is synchronously controlled by the control signal from the TS separation means 303 to output sound from the two speakers 312. . Then, in the remote control terminal 313, the voice data uttered by the user collected by the voice input means 314, the voice data uttered by the user, and the command operated by the user by the operation input means 315 are broadcast by the remote control signal transmission means 316. It is transmitted to the receiving terminal 301.

  Upon receiving this remote control signal, the broadcast receiving terminal 301 side receives the remote control signal received by the remote control signal receiving means 317 by the remote control signal control means 318, and the voice data produced by the user is sent to the voice recognition means 319 for the operation command. After the conversion, it is sent to the broadcast signal receiving means 302, the display output control means 305, and the audio output control means 311 together with a user operation command from the operation input means 315.

  The user position calculation means 308 calculates the position of the user from the specific sound transmission time from the specific sound addition means 310 and the specific sound reception time from the remote control signal control means 318, and outputs the calculation result to the sound processing means 309. .

  The user position determination operation will be described with reference to FIGS.

  As in the first embodiment, the specific sound added by the specific sound adding means 310 is two predetermined audio signals that are below the human audible limit as shown in FIG. Thereby, the specific sound is not heard by the user. The specific sound adding means 310 adds this specific sound to the output sound data of the sound processing means 309, records the added time, and outputs it from the two speakers 312.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 5, two specific sounds output from the two speakers are collected by the voice input means 314 of the remote control terminal 313 and transmitted by the remote control signal transmission means 316 until reaching the remote control signal reception means 114. Measure the time. Then, a predetermined distance d0 from the speaker L to the speaker R, a distance d1 from the speaker L to the remote control terminal, a distance d1 from the speaker R to the remote control terminal, a distance d3 from the remote control terminal to the broadcast receiving terminal, and a known signal A user's position is calculated from the measurement result using a conversion table that considers the transmission speed.

  By periodically performing the above operation every unit time, the position of the dynamic user is recognized.

1 is a block diagram of a video conference device including a position detection device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is explanatory drawing of the specific sound used for the position determination operation | movement in the 1st, 2nd Example of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the position determination operation | movement in 1st Example of this invention. It is a block diagram of the broadcast receiving apparatus containing the position detection apparatus in 2nd Example of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the position determination operation | movement in 2nd Example of this invention. It is a block diagram of the video conference apparatus containing the position detection apparatus in the prior art example of this invention.

Claims (7)

A conference terminal device used in a video conference system that performs a video conference via a network,
Specific sound adding means for adding a sound signal of a specific sound to a sound signal input from a network;
A plurality of speakers that output a sound signal to which the specific sound is added and that have a predetermined interval from each other;
Receiving means for receiving a predetermined transmission signal transmitted in response to detection of the specific sound in the sound output from the plurality of speakers by a sound collection terminal corresponding to a speaker;
The positional relationship between the video conference terminal and the sound collecting terminal is detected based on the arrival time difference when the plurality of predetermined transmission signals related to the detection result of the specific sound in the plurality of audio signals are received by the receiving means. Position detecting means for
And a control unit that controls a direction of the television camera based on a detection result of the position detection unit. The sound collecting terminal further collects the voice of the speaker and transmits it to the receiving means,
The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the receiving unit receives a voice transmitted from the sound collecting terminal.   3. The terminal apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: an encoding processing unit that encodes an audio signal received by the receiving unit and an image signal captured by the television camera and transmits the encoded image signal via the network. .   4. The apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a removing unit that removes the specific sound from the audio signal received by the receiving unit, wherein the encoding processing unit encodes the audio signal output from the removing unit. Terminal equipment.   The terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising voice processing means for applying an acoustic effect according to a result of the position detection means to voice received from the network.   The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the sound collection terminal has a remote commander function for controlling a function of the terminal device. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the frequency of the specific sound is an inaudible region.

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