JP3206000B2 - Still image transmission device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a still image transmission device for transmitting a television signal via a narrow band transmission line, and more particularly to a still image transmission device capable of connecting two lines.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of still image transmission apparatus is configured such that only one line is connected to a subscriber telephone line or a dedicated line to perform communication between a transmitting station and a receiving station, or that only a receiving apparatus is connected to a plurality of lines and a plurality of transmitting stations are connected. There is a device that selectively communicates with the user.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Information transmission using images is used for monitoring, videoconferencing, search / communication of image databases, distribution of various event information, and the like. In particular, there is a strong demand for simultaneous transmission from a center to a plurality of points for the distribution of event information and the video distribution of the president's story. However, the above-mentioned conventional devices are only one-to-one communication or selective multiple reception, and cannot satisfy these requirements. This is because the electric circuit itself is basically one-to-one communication. However, broadcast communication becomes possible by using a branch connection by a dedicated line or a broadcast service of a facsimile network. However, in the case of a dedicated line, there are drawbacks such as that it becomes uneconomical due to the frequency of use of the line and that the transmission format needs to be adjusted to the facsimile procedure in order to connect to a facsimile network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a still image transmitting apparatus capable of performing pseudo-broadcasting by a subscriber telephone line by eliminating two disadvantages of the related art by connecting two lines capable of transmitting and receiving to and from a still image transmitting apparatus and managing a connecting station. Can be performed.

[Means for solving the problem]

A still image transmission apparatus according to the present invention includes means for connecting two telephone lines, receiving from any line and transmitting to any line, and a plurality of destination telephone numbers to be transmitted at the time of transmission. Means for inserting the image data into the image data and transmitting the image data, and extracting the telephone number inserted in the received image data at the time of reception, and selecting one of the extracted telephone numbers from the extracted telephone numbers.
Means for selecting one of the telephone numbers and making a connection from the other line by using the other telephone number, and inserting the remaining telephone numbers obtained by subtracting the connected destination number from the plurality of received telephone numbers into the received image data. It has means for transmitting and means for reproducing the received image data.

It also has means for returning the telephone number of the reconnected partner station to the image transmission source.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 2
The subscriber telephone lines are connected to terminals 101 and 102, respectively. Each line connected to the terminals 101 and 102 is connected to the reception control unit 1 and the transmission control unit 2. Therefore, transmission to any line is possible.

Upon reception from the line connected to the terminal 101, the reception control unit 1 extracts the telephone number inserted in the image data, stores it in the reception telephone number storage unit 5, and gives a transmission instruction to the transmission control unit 2. . The transmission control unit 2 that has received the call instruction reads out one telephone number from the received telephone number storage unit 5 and makes a call to the line connected to the terminal 102 with the telephone number read out, and connects a new line.

After receiving from the terminal 101, it takes a certain amount of time until a new line connected to the terminal 102 is formed, so that the received data is temporarily stored in the data buffer 3.
After a new line is connected, first, the received telephone number storage unit 5
The remaining telephone numbers are read and transmitted from the transmission control unit 2 to the line. After that, the image data is read out from the data buffer 3 and transmitted to the line connected to the terminal 102, and the transmitted telephone number is returned to the transmission source (the partner station connected to the terminal 101). The received data is supplied to the data reproducing unit 4 where the data is reproduced and converted into a video signal and output from the video output terminal 103. The above description is for the case where the signal is received from the terminal 101, but the same applies to the case where the signal is received from the terminal 102, and a new line is constituted by the line connected to the terminal 101 side. The operation described above is the operation of the receiving station.

Next, the operation of the transmission source will be described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram capable of performing both transmission and reception operations. It has a video input terminal 104, a data conversion unit 6, and a switching unit 7. The data conversion unit 6 converts the video signal input from the video input terminal 104 into a form that can be transmitted to a telephone line, and then sends the switching unit 7 to send a transmission control unit. Feed to 2. The transmission control unit 2 is connected to the terminal 105
Has a plurality of receiving station telephone numbers inputted from the terminal, and transmits a call from one of the terminals 101 and 102 to connect the line. After the line is connected, it operates so that the remaining plural telephone numbers are added before the supplied image data and transmitted to the line. Further, after the image data transmission is completed, it operates to receive the telephone number returned from the partner station and output the telephone number returned from the terminal 106. With the above configuration, it is possible to transmit the image of the own station and also transmit the received data.

FIG. 3 shows a system embodiment utilizing the present invention.
Reference numerals 8 to 12 denote the still image transmission device of the present invention, 13 to 17 denote still image display monitors, 18 denotes a camera, and 19 denotes a system controller.

In the present system, the still image transmission device 8 is a source of an image, captures an image captured by the camera 18, connects the line to the still image transmission device 9 according to the telephone number controlled by the system controller 19, and sets the telephone number (10 ~ 12
And the image is transmitted. The still image transmission device 9 that has received the image is a still image transmission device.
While performing line connection, telephone numbers (11 to 12) and image transmission for 10, the telephone number of the still image transmitting device 10 is returned to the still image transmitting device 8. Similarly, the device 10 sends the image and the telephone number to the device 11, and returns the telephone number of the device 11 to the device 9. The device 11 sends the image and the telephone number to the device 12 and the telephone number of the device 12 to the device 10. The device 12 only performs reception because there is no destination to send.

Next, if the returned telephone numbers are operated so as to be sequentially returned unless they are the transmission source, the telephone numbers of the respective devices 10 to 12 are returned to the transmission source still image transmission device 8, so that the connection is established. You can understand the stations that have been assigned and manage the participating stations.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the still image transmission apparatus of the present invention, two lines can be connected, transmission / reception is possible from any of them, and at the time of transmission, a plurality of stations to be received are transmitted when the source is the source. In the case of reception, the telephone number is inserted before the image data and transmitted. In the case of reception, the telephone numbers of a plurality of receiving stations are extracted from the received data, one of them is selected, and the line is connected with the other line, By having the function of transmitting the remaining telephone numbers and image data to the partner station, it is possible to sequentially connect the lines. In addition, the connected telephone station can be managed by sequentially returning the transmitted telephone numbers to the transmission destination unless they are the transmission source and the final reception destination. After the connection, when the image data is transmitted from the source, the receiving station can receive it and retransmit the image data to the other party connected on the other line, enabling pseudo broadcast communication Becomes That is, a pseudo broadcast function can be realized in a general subscriber telephone line or the like without using a special line or protocol, and connection stations can be managed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a still image transmission device having a function of transmitting after receiving in a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 has a function of the device of FIG. 1 and a function of a transmission source. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a still image transmission device according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure shows the configuration of the still image transmission system using the present invention. 1 reception control unit, 2 transmission control unit, 3 data buffer, 4 data reproduction unit, 5 received telephone number storage unit, 6 data conversion unit, 7 switch unit, 8 -12: Still image transmission device, 13-17: Image display monitor, 18: Camera, 19: System controller, 20: Telephone line, 101: Line connection terminal A, 102: Line connection terminal B ,
103: Video output terminal, 104: Video input terminal, 105
… Power supply number input terminal, 106… Phone number output terminal.

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N ^7/ 025-7/088 H04N ^7/ 14-7/15 H04M 3/56 H04N 1/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A still image transmitting apparatus for transmitting an image via a narrow band transmission line, comprising: means for connecting two lines, receiving from any line, and transmitting to any line; Means for inserting a plurality of telephone numbers to be transmitted from a transmission destination (reception station) to another reception station at the time of transmission into image data and transmitting the telephone numbers; Means for detecting and storing a plurality of telephone numbers, means for storing received image data, means for transmitting a call from another line in accordance with the stored telephone number and connecting a line, and receiving the received image data. Means for transmitting, to the connected station, data obtained by deleting only the telephone number of the station connected from a plurality of telephone numbers, means for reproducing received image data, Telephone number of the still image transmission apparatus characterized by having a means for transmitting return to the image source.