JP2007013801A - Image transmitting method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image transmitting method for more effectively providing visual data such as image data as the auxiliary information in both-way dialog. <P>SOLUTION: In the image transmitting method, while a user 3A of a first terminal device 1A is monitoring relative location on a display image 8A of one or a plurality of image extracting frames 801A on the display image 8A, a frame image as a part of the display image 8A surrounded by the image extracting frame 801A is extracted in every predetermined timing, and the frame image is transmitted to a second terminal device 1B for each extraction of the frame image. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technology for processing visual data used as auxiliary data for interactive dialogue between terminal devices connected directly via a communication cable or via a network.

  In recent years, a two-way interactive system has been proposed that enables intimate conversations such as video conferencing and counseling while displaying the images of the other party's dialogues on the monitor in a state where the other's dialogues are in line with each other. . Various techniques have been proposed for this line-of-sight matching technique, and line-of-sight matching is realized by disposing an imaging device such as a CCD camera at a predetermined position of a monitor on which the image of the conversation partner is displayed (patent) Reference 1).

On the other hand, the bidirectional interactive system as described above is not necessarily suitable for use of auxiliary materials such as materials in one-on-one dialogue, and has not yet been applied to interactive dialogue in a wide range of fields. In addition, interactive conversations using IP phones are still mainstream in one-on-one conversations, and visual data such as still images such as text and moving images is still used as common conversation assistance data.
Japanese Patent No. 3074677

  As a result of examining the conventional interactive dialog system, the inventors have found the following problems. In other words, in the general work environment due to the spread of personal computers (PCs), in reality, one or more PCs are installed on each person's desk. Therefore, it cannot be said that an example of utilizing a telephone conference (IP telephone or the like) using image transmission using a PC is sufficiently widespread.

  In addition, when a two-way dialogue is performed while referring to a common material among the interlocutors in the environment as described above, the efficiency of the momentary two-way dialogue is lowered. This is because real-time bidirectional image transmission is not possible. For example, a document can be emailed in advance from one interlocutor to the other interlocutor, but in an actual dialogue, the interlocutor himself orally tells which page of the document, and what position it points out. The delay due to this negotiation in a two-way dialogue significantly reduces the efficiency of the dialogue itself. On the other hand, the correspondent who sent the material must open the designated material without error. In addition, there is a problem that whether or not the other party's interlocutor correctly opened the material cannot be understood by the interlocutor who is the mail sender.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and in addition to interactive conversation centered on voice, a videophone which simultaneously transmits and receives image data including a conversation person's face image together with voice data. Image transmission method for effectively providing visual data typified by image data such as still images and moving images as auxiliary information in both dialogues of services, video conference systems, etc., and executing the image transmission method An object of the present invention is to provide a computer program and a recording medium on which the computer program is recorded.

  The image transmission method according to the present invention is set in a state where it can interact with each other by being connected directly or indirectly via a predetermined transmission means such as a communication cable such as a LAN cable, a network such as a telephone line network or the Internet. The present invention also relates to an image transmission method for selectively transmitting a part of the display screen of the first terminal device from the first terminal device to the second terminal device. As the connection form between these first and second terminal devices, there is a one-to-one connection (Peer-to-peer connection) directly connected via a communication cable, a one-to-one connection via a server, and a server. In addition to the one-to-many connection in which the first terminal device and a plurality of second terminal devices are connected, the image transmission method is not limited to the interactive dialogue centered on the voice, but also the face image of the talker along with the voice data. As auxiliary information in interactive conversation such as a videophone service and a video conference system in which video data including transmission and reception is simultaneously performed, material data represented by image data such as still images and moving images is provided more effectively. Here, the display screen is the display data visually recognized by the user of the terminal device (the conversation person who uses the terminal device) on the monitor screen of the display device provided in each terminal device. Means itself. In addition, a part of the display screen includes PowerPoint (registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation), spreadsheet software (eg “Excel”, etc.), word processing software (eg “Word”, etc.), It means a part of display data which is composed of document data (text, photograph, video, etc.) generated by application software such as a browser and is visually recognized by the user of the terminal device.

  In the image transmission method according to the present invention, in image transmission from the first terminal device to the second terminal device, first, a part of a display screen that is visually recognized by the user of the first terminal device itself is cut out; And a transmission step of transmitting a part of the cut-out display screen to the second terminal device.

  In the clipping step, the relative position on the display screen of one or more image capture frames set on the display screen by the user of the first terminal device is monitored and surrounded by the image capture frame. A frame image that is a part of the display screen is cut out at every predetermined timing. In the transmission step, the cut frame image is transmitted to the second terminal device. It is not always necessary to transmit each frame image cut out.

  It should be noted that the timing at which the frame image is cut out is a timing that is set at a constant time of about once to several times per second, a timing that satisfies any condition such as detection of a change in the frame image, and a window size is changed. In any case, any timing of generating a control signal by the user's own mouse operation or key input may be used. Further, it may be a timing at which a transmission instruction (manual transmission) is made by the user himself / herself. In particular, in the transmission of frame images when a plurality of image capture frames are set on the display screen, in order to effectively use resource performance such as transmission capacity, predetermined conditions (for example, in the image capture frame) It is preferable to transmit a frame image clipped at a timing that satisfies a display change detection timing, etc.) or a timing at which a user generates a control signal.

  As mentioned above, in interactive conversations centered on the transmission and reception of dialogue images and voices, the dialogue users who are users of the terminal device do not simply share the materials, but the dialogue participants themselves pay attention to the other dialogue party. Since the desired part can be efficiently transmitted as visual data, detailed and smooth dialogue progress is possible. In other words, with the configuration as described above, it is possible to significantly reduce the time ratio of negotiations for sharing materials between interlocutors to the entire interactive dialogue. In addition, from the point that the conversation person can focus on a specific part of the shared material and present it to the other party, and the part that the conversation person should transmit in advance before sending, Efficient interactive interaction becomes possible.

  The user of the first terminal device can arbitrarily set the size of the image capture frame and the setting position on the display screen. However, if this image capture frame is set to a large size, the processing load (time and resource load) increases for compression of the frame image, etc. When an image capture frame of a certain size or larger is set in advance, It is preferable that the frame image to be captured is divided into a plurality of regions, and image processing (image reduction or compression as preprocessing for image transmission) is performed for each of the divided regions. In this case, the JPEG 2000 tiling technique is effective. In JPEG2000, since each divided area (tile) is a processing unit, the presence / absence of transmission can be determined for each tile, and the compression rate can be individually set, thereby enabling more flexible image processing.

  In the image transmission method according to the present invention, every time a display change in the image capture frame set on the display screen is detected (motion detection), a part of the display screen defined by the image capture frame is detected. It is preferable to transmit a certain frame image to the second terminal device.

  If a two-way dialogue is in progress, the frame image of the indicated location can be transmitted in real time by transmitting data once to several times per second. However, in the display data generated by the application software as described above, once the position of the image capture frame is fixed, the display change of the frame image defined by the image capture frame hardly occurs. Even in such a situation, it is difficult to say that communication resources are effectively used if frame images are transmitted at regular intervals. On the other hand, partial changes (for example, movement of the cursor, additional display of characters, etc.) occur over time, so if you send a frame image when a display change occurs in the image capture frame, more communication resources Can be used effectively. In addition, as described above, when one frame image is divided into a plurality of regions, only the region in which motion is detected among the plurality of regions is transmitted to the second terminal device, so that it is more efficient. Image transmission becomes possible.

  Here, the frame image handled by the image transmission method according to the present invention includes a still image and a moving image. The moving image includes display data generated by the above application software, a combination of a still image and a video, in addition to video data such as a conversation person's face image captured by a predetermined imaging device or the like. The data file generated by the application software or the like is once converted into image data and then subjected to processing such as compression.

  The display change of the frame image to be detected by the above-described motion detection includes the display change of the frame image itself defined by the image capture frame set by the display screen interactive person of the first terminal device, as well as in the display screen. The display change accompanying the setting change of the image capture frame is also included. This setting change of the image capture frame includes a change in the frame size and a movement of the frame (when the interlocutor moves the frame with a cursor or the like).

  In the image transmission method according to the present invention, it is preferable that the transmission quality and the image size of the frame image clipped so that the total transmission amount between the first and second terminal apparatuses is constant or less than a predetermined value are sequentially changed. . For example, in a system that transmits / receives face image data and voice data of a conversation person such as a videophone service and a video conference system, the transmission amount is controlled as the entire data including the face image and voice data. Usually, it is possible to monitor the processing load (CPU load) in the terminal device, image processing such as transmission path capacity, and transmission capability. When a plurality of image capture frames are set, a plurality of frame images are transmitted in parallel during the interactive dialogue. In such a case, when only the transmission load of a certain image transmission process is increased, the other image transmission process is affected. On the other hand, when the other image transmission process is not performed, the transmission load is increased. This makes it possible to use communication resources more efficiently. Here, the transmission quality of the frame image is adjusted, for example, by changing the transmission rate of the frame image or changing the compression rate of the frame image. When the frame image is divided into a plurality of regions, the compression rate can be changed for each divided region by using JPEG2000.

  In the image transmission method according to the present invention, it is preferable that at least one of the first and second terminal devices sequentially records the cut frame images each time the frame image is transmitted. The data sequentially recorded in this way becomes the recording data of the interactive dialogue.

  The image transmission method as described above may be a program executed by a computer or the like. In this case, the program may be distributed via a network regardless of wired or wireless, or a CD. Further, it may be stored in a recording medium such as a DVD or a flash memory.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to more effectively provide visual data represented by image data such as a still image and a moving image as auxiliary information in a two-way dialogue, and a detailed and smooth dialogue progress is possible. become.

  Embodiments of the image transmission method according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. In the description of the drawings, the same elements and the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a network system to which an image transmission method according to the present invention can be applied. In FIG. 1, the first terminal device 1A and the second terminal device 1B are connected via the network 2. However, even if the terminal devices 1A and 1B are directly connected by a communication cable such as a LAN cable. Good. A plurality of types of networks such as the Internet and existing telephone lines may be used in combination. As a connection form of these terminal devices 1A and 1B, in addition to the one-to-one connection through the server as shown in FIG. 1, the one-to-one connection directly through the communication cable (peer-to-peer) Connection) or a one-to-many that can realize a lecture format in which one terminal device (for example, corresponding to the terminal device 1A) and a plurality of terminal devices (each corresponding to the terminal device 1B) are connected via a server. There are connections.

  In FIG. 1, terminal devices 1A and 1B are connected to a network 2 as a transmission means via nodes 2a and 2b, respectively, so that bidirectional communication between these terminal devices 1A and 1B is possible. Yes. For example, the terminal device 1A generally includes a PC main body 100A that executes main information processing functions such as a communication control function, and a display device 200A. Similarly, the terminal device 1B includes a PC main body 100B and a display device 200B.

  The image transmission method according to the present invention is based on the terminal device 1A that is set to be in a state of being able to interact with each other by being directly or indirectly connected via the transmission means as described above (in the case of FIG. 1, the network 2). In this image transmission method, a part of the display screen of the first terminal device 1A is selectively transmitted from the terminal device 1A to the terminal device 1B to the second terminal device 1B.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a terminal device capable of executing the image transmission method according to the present invention. The terminal device 1A (1B) includes a display device 200A (200B) such as a monitor, a PC main body 100A (100B) that performs video processing, an external recording device 700, a pointing device 400 such as a mouse, a keyboard 500, A microphone 600 and a speaker 300 are provided. Since the terminal device 1B has a similar structure, only the terminal device 1A will be described below.

  The PC main unit 100A includes a data input / output unit 110 (I / O in the figure) for transmitting and receiving voice data and image data (encoded data) from the other party through the network 2, and the present invention. A control unit 120 that executes the image transmission method, a database 130 (D / B in the figure) for storing image data to be transmitted and received, and a predetermined pattern displayed on the display device 200A in accordance with instructions from the control unit 120 A data input / output unit 150 (I / O in the figure) that enables the drawing unit 140 having the VRAM 141 to receive position information from the pointing device 400 such as a mouse and exchange data with the external recording device 700. And a sound source controller 160 for controlling the speaker 300 from which the other party's voice is output.

  The external recording device 700 includes, for example, a magnetic tape, a CD, an optical disk, a hard disk, a DVD, a flash memory, and the like, and stores a computer program for executing the image transmission method according to the present invention, transmission data from the other party's dialog, and the like. Is done.

  The image transmission method according to the present invention is particularly effective for interactive conversation executed between the point A where the terminal device 1A having the above-described structure is installed and the point B where the terminal device 1B is installed. is there. There are various forms of such interactive interactions as shown in FIG.

  For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 (a), an IP phone service (such as a video phone service or a video conference system) is used as a two-way dialogue. Visual data is transmitted as it is using the network that provides. That is, the voice data of the conversation person 3A at the point A is taken into the PC main body 100A via the microphone 600A and transmitted from the PC main body 100A to the PC main body 100B of the terminal device 1B installed at the point B via the network 2. Is done. The audio data captured by the PC main body 100B is output from the speaker 300B to the partner dialoger 3B. Conversely, the voice data of the conversation person 3B at the point B is taken into the PC main body 100B via the microphone 600B, and is transmitted from the PC main body 100B to the PC main body 100A of the terminal device 1A installed at the point A via the network 2. Is transmitted. The audio data captured by the PC main body 100A is output from the speaker 300A to the conversation person 3A.

  At this time, the conversation person 3A designates a part of the display screen of the display device 200A, and transmits image data as auxiliary material data for the interactive conversation to the terminal device 1B at the point B via the network 2. In the terminal device 1B at the point B, the image data transmitted from the terminal device 1A is displayed in the display window set on the display screen of the display device 200B.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3A described above, image data that is dialogue assistance data is also transmitted via the network 2 together with the audio data. However, in an actual two-way dialogue, a conventional two-way dialogue using the existing telephone line network 20 is widely performed in addition to the IP phone service for transmitting and receiving voice data via the network as described above. . In this case, as shown in FIG. 3B, the interactive conversation by voice uses the existing telephone network, and the visual data is transmitted and received through the network 2 in parallel with the interactive conversation. Is also possible.

  In the image transmission method according to the present invention, in the image transmission from the terminal device 1A to the terminal device 1B, first, a part of the display screen visually recognized by the user of the terminal device 1A itself is cut out, and this cut-out is performed. A transmission step of transmitting a part of the displayed screen to the terminal device 1B.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4A, the conversation person 3A sets an image capture frame 801A using the cursor 80A on the display screen 8A of the display device 200A in the terminal device 1A. On the other hand, the opponent dialog person 3B cursors a window 801B for displaying a frame image (either a still image or a moving image) transmitted from the terminal device 1A on the display screen 8B of the display device 200B in the terminal device 1B. Set by operation of 80B.

  At this time, the display screen 8A means the display data itself visually recognized by the conversation person 3A who uses the terminal device 1A. On the display screen 8A, document data generated by application software such as PowerPoint (registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation), spreadsheet software (eg “Excel”, etc.), word processing software (eg “Word”, etc.), browser, etc. In FIG. 4B, the still image data 9A of the material and the moving image data 9B are simultaneously displayed on the display screen 8A. In the frame image cutout step, assuming that the image capture frame 801A is installed at the position shown in FIG. 4B by the interlocutor 3A, a predetermined amount is applied to the frame image defined by the image capture frame 801A. Image processing (quality control) is performed. Further, when the cut frame image is transmitted to the terminal device 1B of the counterpart conversation person 3B in the transmission step, display control is performed in the terminal device 1B. Specifically, in the terminal device 1B, the transmitted frame image is decrypted and then subjected to processing such as enlargement or reduction so that the frame image can be displayed in the display window 801B set in advance by the other party conversation person 3B. It is displayed in the display window 801B on 8B.

  The size of the image capture frame 801A and the setting position on the display screen 8A are arbitrarily set by the conversation person 3A who uses the terminal device 1A as described above. However, if this image capture frame 801A is set to a large size, the processing load (time and resource load) increases for compression of the frame image and the like, so when an image capture frame 801A of a certain size or larger is set in advance. Preferably, the frame image to be captured is divided into a plurality of regions, and image processing (image reduction or compression as preprocessing for image transmission) is performed for each of the divided regions. In this case, the JPEG 2000 tiling technique is effective. In JPEG2000, since each divided area (tile) is a processing unit, the presence / absence of transmission can be determined for each tile, and the compression rate can be individually set, thereby enabling more flexible image processing.

  In addition, the timing at which the frame image is cut out is a timing that is set at regular intervals of about several times per second, a timing that satisfies any condition such as a change in the frame image being detected, and a window size is changed. The timing may be any of the generation timing of the control signal generated by the operation of the mouse 400A by 3A itself or the input from the keyboard 500. Furthermore, it may be a timing when a transmission instruction (manual transmission) is performed by the conversation person 3A itself. In transmission of a frame image when a plurality of image capture frames 801A are set on the display screen 8A, in order to effectively use resource performance such as transmission capacity, a predetermined condition (for example, in an image capture frame) The frame image clipped at the timing of satisfying the display change detection timing or the generation timing of the control signal by the user 3A may be transmitted.

  In particular, the display change of the frame image to be detected by the motion detection includes the display change of the frame image itself defined by the image capture frame 801A set by the conversation person 3A on the display screen 8A of the terminal device 1A. The display change accompanying the setting change of the image capture frame 801A in the display screen 8A is also included. This setting change of the image capture frame 801A includes a change in the frame size and a movement of the frame (when the interlocutor moves the frame with a cursor or the like). 4 (c) and 4 (d) show a state when the conversation person 3A moves the image capture frame 801A by operating the cursor 80A.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 4C, the display window set on the display screen 8B in the terminal device 1B is obtained by moving the position of the image capture frame 801A on the display screen 8A by the conversation person 3A. In 801B, frame images sequentially transmitted as the image capture frame 801A moves are displayed (displayed at a timing that matches the timing of motion detection). Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 4D, when the conversation person 3A moves the position of the image capture frame 801A on the display screen 8A to the display position of the moving image 9B, the display screen 8B on the terminal device 1B is displayed. A part of the moving image 9B displayed in the image capture frame 801A is displayed in the display window 801B set to “”.

  In such a two-way dialogue, the conversation parties 3A and 3B can not only simply share materials, but can efficiently transmit the part that the conversation person 3A himself / herself wants the other conversation person 3B to pay attention to as visual data. Therefore, detailed and smooth dialogue progress is possible. That is, with the configuration as described above, it is possible to significantly reduce the time ratio of the negotiation for sharing materials between the interlocutors 3A and 3B to the entire interactive dialogue. In addition, from the point that the conversation person can focus on a specific part of the shared material and present it to the other party, and the part that the conversation person should transmit in advance before sending, Efficient interactive interaction becomes possible.

  Next, the image transmission method according to the present invention will be described by taking as an example the case of transmitting a frame image at the above-described motion detection timing. FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining an image transmission procedure (an image transmission method according to the present invention) in the image data transmission side terminal.

  First, as shown in FIG. 4A, the conversation person 3A who uses the terminal device 1a sets the image capture frame 801A on the display screen 8A by a cursor operation (step ST10).

  When the image capture frame 801A is set, a frame image defined by the frame 801A is captured at a timing several times per second (step ST20), and motion detection is performed (step ST30). The captured frame image is bitmap data stored in the VRAM 141 of the drawing unit 140 in the terminal device 1A.

  Specifically, this motion detection is performed as shown in FIG. If a two-way dialogue is in progress, the frame image of the indicated location can be transmitted in real time by transmitting data once to several times per second. However, in the display data generated by the application software as described above, once the position of the image capture frame 801A is fixed, the display change of the frame image defined by the image capture frame 801A hardly occurs. Even in such a situation, it is difficult to say that communication resources are effectively used if frame images are transmitted at regular intervals. On the other hand, since a partial change (for example, movement of the cursor, additional display of characters, etc.) occurs as time passes, if a frame image is transmitted when a display change occurs in the image capture frame 801A, more communication is performed. Effective use of resources becomes possible. As described above, when one frame image is divided into a plurality of regions, motion detection is performed for each of the plurality of images, and only the motion detected region is transmitted to the second terminal device. More efficient image transmission becomes possible. In other words, only when a change is detected, efficient image transmission of only the change area is possible.

FIG. 6A shows a state in which the previous frame image t1 and the subsequent frame image t2 captured at times t1 and t2 (= t1 + Δt) are compared with each other. In a specific comparison, the luminance values a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6 of the pixels designated in the previous frame image t1 and the luminance values b1, b2, b3 of the corresponding pixels in the subsequent frame image t2. , B4, b5, and b6, and the amount of motion is calculated by summing the differences between the corresponding pixels. That is, the amount of motion in the frame image is expressed by the following equation.
| A1-b1 | + | a2-b2 | + | a3-b3 |
+ | A4-b4 | + | a5-b5 | + | a6-b6 |

  When the amount of motion calculated by the above formula exceeds a predetermined threshold, it is determined that a display change has occurred in the image capture frame 801A. Here, when the frame image defined by the image capture frame 801A is divided into a plurality of regions (corresponding to tiles in JPEG2000), this motion detection is performed for each tile, and the luminance values are compared. The number of pixels for this may vary from tile to tile.

  FIG. 6B is a block diagram conceptually showing an encoding process including the above-described motion detection operation. As shown in FIG. 6B, motion detection using the previous frame image t1 as the comparison target is performed for the subsequent frame image t2 as the processing target, and the transmission step is performed based on the detection result. Done. In this transmission step, a frame image to be transmitted is transmitted after being encoded at a predetermined compression rate in consideration of communication resources and a communication environment.

  When a display change in the image capture frame 801A is detected by the motion detection in step ST30 described above, the transmission quality and image size of the frame image to be transmitted are further determined (step ST40). The transmission quality in step ST40 is determined by environmental conditions such as communication conditions. That is, the transmission quality and the image size of the frame image cut out so that the total transmission amount between the terminal device 1A on the transmission side and the terminal device 1B on the reception side is constant or less than a certain value are sequentially changed. For example, in a system in which each image data and voice data of a conversation person is transmitted / received, such as a videophone service or a video conference system, the control unit 120 reduces the transmission amount of the entire data including the face image and voice. Control. Normally, the processing load (CPU load), image processing such as transmission path capacity, and transmission capability in the terminal device 1A can be monitored. When a plurality of image capture frames 801A are set on the display screen 8A of the terminal device 1A, a plurality of image data are transmitted in parallel during the interactive conversation. In such a case, if only the transmission load due to the image transmission method increases, other image transmissions are affected. On the other hand, if other processing is not performed, the transmission load is increased by increasing the transmission load. More efficient use is also possible. Therefore, in the image transmission method according to the present invention, the transmission rate of each frame image is changed (for example, the face image transmission of the conversation person is stopped for about 1 to 2 seconds during which the visual data for the material is transmitted). However, the transmission quality is adjusted by changing the compression rate of the frame image and further changing the image size. When the frame image is divided into a plurality of regions, the compression rate can be changed for each divided region by using JPEG2000.

  Encoding is performed on the clipped frame image or the region divided into a plurality of regions so as to achieve the transmission quality determined as described above (step ST50), and this encoded data is transmitted to the terminal of the other-party conversation party 3B. Sequentially transmitted to apparatus 1B (step ST60). By the way, in the transmission of the compressed image data of the material, the number of packets that are continuously transmitted at one time is remarkably increased when attempting to transmit the entire screen. Therefore, non-continuous transmission control such as ADSL or the like that monitors packet reception status on the network and transmits packets at regular intervals according to the status becomes effective (for example, 20 msec after 10 packets are transmitted continuously). Send 10 packets again at intervals.) For example, if the material is large, this material is divided once and transmitted for each division unit, and the received division unit is assembled on the receiving side. It is preferable to transmit at regular intervals rather than transmission. Note that data transmitted through the above-described steps is also sequentially stored in the D / B 130 in the terminal device 1A. The data sequentially recorded in this way becomes the recording data of the interactive dialogue. In addition, the interruption or cancellation of the image transmission procedure shown in FIG. 5 is interrupted by the dialog person 3A operating the mouse or inputting a keyboard.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 7, in the terminal device of the other party conversation person 3B, first, before the start of the interactive conversation, the display window 801B is set by the other party conversation person 3B on the display screen 8B in the terminal device 1B. (Step ST100), the terminal device 1B is in a standby state for receiving encoded data from the terminal device 1A (Step ST110).

  When the encoded data from the terminal device 1A arrives, the terminal device 1B performs decoding by the control unit (step ST120), and the control unit 120 determines the display window 801B information (for example, the size of the display window 801B). Then, the drawing data obtained by the enlargement / reduction process is written into the VRAM 141 (step ST130). Also in the display operation shown in FIG. 7, the interruption or cancellation is interrupted by the dialog person 3B by mouse operation or keyboard input.

  In the terminal device 1B of the partner conversation person 3B, the drawing data written in the VRAM 141 as described above is displayed in the display window 801B on the display screen 8B by the drawing unit 140.

  In the above-described configuration, the size of the display window 801B is set on the terminal device 1B side by the partner dialoger 3B. Therefore, the dialoger 3A on the terminal device 1A side and the dialoger 3B on the terminal device 1B side are similar in shape. You are not always looking at frame images. Therefore, the present invention is provided with a function for correcting the frame images viewed by both to have similar shapes and a function for matching the resolutions of the frame images viewed by both (window size and window shape correcting functions). May be. In addition, when displaying frame images having the same resolution between the terminal devices 1A and 1B, there is a possibility that the window size set on the terminal device 1B side cannot be displayed. In this case, the present invention may include a function of displaying a reduced frame image that is similar to the frame image transmitted on the terminal device 1B side. At this time, the terminal device 1B side may include a function of displaying an alarm generation indicating that the display is reduced and a reduction rate (or enlargement rate).

1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a network system to which an image transmission method according to the present invention is applicable. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the terminal device which can perform the image transmission method which concerns on this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating embodiment of the interactive dialogue using the image transmission method which concerns on this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating notionally the image transmission method which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the image transmission procedure (The image transmission method which concerns on this invention) in the transmission side terminal of image data. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the motion detection operation | movement in the image transmission method which concerns on this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the display operation | movement of the image data transmitted by the image transmission method which concerns on this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1A, 1B ... Terminal device, 2 ... Network, 2a, 2b ... Node, 8A, 8B ... Display screen (monitor screen), 100A, 100B ... PC main body, 200A, 200B ... Display, 801A ... Image capture frame, 801B ... Display window.

Claims (9)

A part of a display screen of the first terminal device is selectively transmitted from the first terminal device to the second terminal device set to be in a state where they can interact with each other via a predetermined transmission means. An image transmission method for transmitting,
In the first terminal device, while monitoring the relative position on the display screen of one or a plurality of image capture frames set on the display screen by the user of the first terminal device, Cut out a frame image that is a part of the enclosed display screen at every predetermined timing,
An image transmission method for transmitting the cut frame image to the second terminal device. 2. The image transmission method according to claim 1, wherein the frame image defined by the image capture frame is divided into a plurality of regions each serving as a processing unit. Each time a display change in the image capture frame set on the display screen is detected, a frame image that is a part of the display screen defined by the image capture frame is transmitted to the second terminal device. 3. The image transmission method according to claim 1, wherein the image transmission method is performed. The image transmission method according to claim 2, wherein an area in which a display change is detected among the plurality of divided areas is transmitted to the second terminal device. 5. The image transmission method according to claim 3, wherein the display change in the image capture frame includes a display change accompanying a setting change of the image capture frame in the display screen. The transmission quality or the image size is sequentially changed for the entire frame image or the divided area cut out so that the total transmission amount between the first and second terminal devices is constant or less than a predetermined value. The image transmission method according to any one of claims 1 to 5. 7. The cut frame image is sequentially recorded every time the frame image is transmitted in at least one of the first and second terminal devices. The image transmission method according to item. A computer program for executing the image transmission method according to claim 1 by a computer. A recording medium in which a computer program for executing the image transmission method according to claim 1 is recorded by a computer.

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