JP4325766B2 - Video conferencing equipment - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a video conference apparatus, and more particularly, to a video conference apparatus provided with a camera capable of adjusting an imaging direction and an enlargement / reduction ratio and display means for displaying a connection destination speaker image.
[0002]
[Prior art]
As shown in FIG. 8, the conventional video conference apparatus includes an information transmission unit 201, a camera control unit 202, a camera control controller 203, a camera 204, a camera driving device 205, a display unit 206, and voice input. A means 207, a transmission path 208, and an audio reproducing means 209 are included.
[0003]
As shown in FIG. 8, the operation of the conventional video conference apparatus transmits the image captured by the camera 204 and the sound input from the sound input means 207 to the connection destination through the transmission path 208 by the information transmission unit 201, and reversely When the video and audio information of the connection destination are reproduced by the display means 206 and the audio reproduction means 209 through the transmission path 208 and the information transmission unit 201 and the speaker 210 during the video conference is captured by the camera 204, the camera control controller 203 Are used to manually input the imaging direction and the enlargement / reduction ratio of the camera to the camera control unit 202.
[0004]
Further, the camera control unit 202 issues a drive command to the camera driving device 205 in accordance with the imaging direction and the enlargement / reduction ratio input as described above, and displays an image captured by the camera 204 on the display unit 206. If the result of confirmation of the imaging direction and enlargement / reduction ratio is not appropriate, the imaging direction and enlargement / reduction ratio are further input by the camera control controller 203, and the confirmation operation by the display means 206 is repeated. .
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the conventional video conferencing apparatus has to manually readjust the imaging direction and the enlargement / reduction ratio every time the speaker changes, and when the speaker moves while speaking, the imaging direction and the enlargement / reduction ratio. Since there is no means to indicate the name and department of the speaker to the speaker and inexperienced attendees, the speaker may have to speak his / her name and department. There was a problem that the progress of the meeting may be hindered.
[0006]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a video conference apparatus provided with means for automatically adjusting the imaging direction and the enlargement / reduction ratio and means for automatically displaying the name, department and title of the speaker.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above-described problems, a video conference apparatus according to the present invention includes a speaker having a light emitting unit that detects and emits a voice, a camera that captures the speaker, and the light emitting unit that is captured by the camera. Pattern detection means for detecting the light emission pattern of the camera, a camera control unit for controlling the imaging direction and the enlargement / reduction ratio of the camera based on the light emission pattern detected by the pattern detection means, and transmitting the image and sound of the speaker An information transmission unit, a display unit for displaying the video of the connection destination speaker, and a voice reproduction unit for reproducing the voice of the connection destination speaker.
[0008]
In order to solve the above-described problem, the video conference apparatus of the present invention uses the light emitting means provided with an identification code for identifying the speaker, and the speaker by the identification code provided on the light emitting means. A speaker information control unit that creates character information for identifying and displaying personal information of name, department, and title on the display means, and the character information created by the speaker information control unit And an image composition unit for composition on the video.
[0009]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Next, the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0010]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
[0011]
FIG. 2 is a camera control flowchart of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
[0012]
FIG. 3 is a camera control explanatory diagram of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
[0013]
FIG. 4 is a camera control explanatory diagram of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
[0014]
FIG. 5 is an external view of the light emitting device of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
[0015]
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a light emitting device of the video conference device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
[0016]
FIG. 7 is an image diagram of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
[0017]
As shown in FIG. 1, the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes an information transmission unit 1, a camera control unit 2, a pattern detection unit 3, a camera 4, a camera driving device 5, and a display. Means 6, voice input means 7, transmission path 8, voice reproduction means 9, light-emitting device 12, speaker information control unit 13, and image composition unit 14.
[0018]
Next, the operation of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0019]
As shown in FIG. 1, the operation of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention is as follows. First, the image of the speaker 10 in the video conference is captured by the camera 4 and converted into video information. The information is input to the information transmission unit 1 together with the audio information input from 7. The information transmission unit establishes a communication protocol necessary for bidirectional data transmission with the connection destination device 11, and transmits the above-described video information and audio information to the connection destination device.
[0020]
Second, video information and audio information transmitted from the connection destination device are received by the information transmission unit 1 and output to the display means 6 and the audio reproduction means 9 as video signals and audio signals, respectively. A video conference is established by transmitting the video information and audio information and receiving the video information and audio information from the connection destination device.
[0021]
Third, the voice of the speaker 10 is detected and the light emitting device 12 having a specific identification code emits light.
[0022]
Fourth, the video information of the camera 4 is input to the pattern detection unit 3, and whether or not the video information from the camera 4 includes the video information of the light emitting device 12 determined in advance by the pattern detection unit 3, If it is included, the position and size on the screen are determined.
[0023]
Fifthly, based on the determination result by the pattern detection unit 3 described above, the camera control unit 2 captures the image of the camera 4 so that the light emitting device 12 is always imaged at a predetermined position on the screen. By determining the direction and the enlargement / reduction ratio and transmitting the driving information to the camera driving device 5, the camera 4 always captures the speaker at the center of the screen.
[0024]
Sixth, after displaying the speaker 10 in the center of the screen, the speaker information control unit 13 obtains an identification code expressed in the order of the emission colors of the light emitting device 12 from the pattern detection unit 3.
[0025]
Seventh, the speaker information control unit 13 specifies the speaker from the identification code of the light emitting device 12 and inputs character information of the department to which the speaker belongs and the name to the image composition unit 14.
[0026]
Eighth, the image synthesis unit 14 synthesizes the image of the camera 4 and the character information of the speaker to generate synthesized data.
[0027]
Ninth, by transmitting the composite data to the connection destination device 11 via the information transmission unit 1, the speaker image, the name, the department, and the character of the title are displayed on the display means of the connection destination device.
[0028]
Next, the light emitting device 12 of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. 5 and 6 are a light-emitting device outline view and a block diagram. First, the voice signal of the speaker 10 is transmitted from the microphone 21 to the lighting control circuit 24.
[0029]
Second, the lighting control unit 24 turns on or off the lighting switch 25 depending on the presence or absence of the voice of the speaker 10. That is, the lighting switch 25 is turned on when the voice of the speaker 10 is present, and the lighting switch 25 is turned off when a state where there is no voice of the speaker 10 continues for a predetermined time or longer.
[0030]
Third, when the lighting switch 25 is on, the red LED 27 and the green LED 23 are lit by the power source 26. When the lighting switch 25 is off, the red LED 27 and the green LED 23 are turned off.
[0031]
Fourthly, the light diffuser plate 22 diffuses and equalizes the light of the LED, thereby facilitating pattern detection by the pattern detector 3 in the previous period.
[0032]
Fifth, the arrangement of the red LED and the green LED is set to a different pattern for each participant in the video conference, and this arrangement information is used as the speaker identification code.
[0033]
Next, the camera driving operation of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 2, first, the enlargement / reduction ratio of the camera 4 is set to the widest angle, and the pattern detection unit 3 detects whether or not the light emitting device 12 is included in the video information. When the video information does not include the light emitting device 12 or when two or more light emitting devices 12 are included, the pattern detection is sequentially performed until only one light emitting device 12 is detected.
[0034]
Secondly, when the light emitting device 12 is included in the above-described video information, the camera control unit 2 receives the position information x, y on the screen of the light emitting device 12 from the pattern detection unit 3 and performs predetermined light emission. Errors Δx and Δy with respect to the coordinates X and Y of the ideal position 16 of the device 12 are calculated. When Δx and Δy are compared with preset allowable errors ΔaX and ΔaY and Δx and Δy are larger than ΔaX and ΔaY, Δx and Δy are transmitted to the camera driving device 5 as drive information in the imaging direction. After the driving of the camera 4 by the camera driving device is completed, new video information is read again, and the above processing is repeated until Δx and Δy become smaller than ΔaX and ΔaY, so that the center of the screen is displayed as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3 (B), the speaker 10 displayed in a shifted state is displayed at the center of the screen.
[0035]
Thirdly, the camera control device 2 receives the length l on the screen of the light emitting device 12 from the pattern detection unit 3 and calculates an error Δl with respect to a predetermined ideal length L of the light emitting device 12. If Δl is compared with a preset allowable error ΔaL and Δl is larger than ΔaL, Δl is transmitted to the camera driving device 5 as drive information of the enlargement / reduction ratio. After the driving of the camera 4 by the camera driving device is completed, new video information is read again, and the above processing is repeated until Δl becomes smaller than ΔaL, so that it is displayed small on the screen as shown in FIG. The speaker 10 is displayed at the optimum enlargement / reduction ratio as shown in FIG.
[0036]
Fourthly, the speaker information control unit 13 receives the identification code of the light emitting device 12 from the pattern detection unit 3, and identifies the speaker from the pre-registered identification code and speaker correspondence table.
[0037]
Fifth, the speaker information control unit 13 generates character information for displaying the name, department, and title of the speaker 10 and inputs the character information to the image composition unit 14.
[0038]
Sixth, the image synthesizing unit 14 synthesizes the character information and the speaker video to create synthesized data. This synthesized data is transmitted to the partner apparatus 11 through the information transmission unit 1, and the speaker video, name, department, and title are displayed on the display means of the partner apparatus 11 as shown in FIG.
[0039]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the video conference apparatus of the present invention, since the speaker is automatically searched and the camera direction and the enlargement / reduction ratio can be automatically adjusted to the optimum position, the video conference attendee can adjust the camera. Video conferencing is possible without consciousness, and even if the speaker moves while speaking, the camera can automatically follow the speaker, and the department and name of the speaker displayed on the screen are displayed at the same time. There is an effect that can be smoothly performed.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a video conference apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a camera control flowchart of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a camera control explanatory diagram of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a camera control explanatory diagram of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is an external view of a light emitting device of the video conference device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a block configuration diagram of a light emitting device of the video conference device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is an image diagram of the video conference apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a conventional video conference apparatus.
[Explanation of symbols]
1,201 Information transmission unit 2,202 Camera control unit 3 Pattern detection unit 4 Camera 5, 205 Camera drive unit 6, 206 Display means 7, 207 Audio input means 8, 208 Transmission path 9, 209 Audio reproduction means 10, 210 11, 211 Video conference partner device 12 Light emitting device 13 Speaker information control unit 14 Image composition unit 15 Light emitting device position deviation example 16 Light emitting device ideal position 17 Imaging direction automatic adjustment example 18 Light emitting device size deviation example 19 Light emitting device ideal size 20 Example of automatic adjustment of enlargement / reduction ratio 21 Microphone 22 Light diffusion plate 23 Green LED
24 lighting control unit 25 lighting switch 26 power supply 27 red LED
28 Image image 203 Camera control controller

Claims (1)

A light emitting means for detecting and emitting a voice;
A camera for imaging the light emitting means;
Pattern detecting means for detecting the light emitting means imaged by the camera;
The position and size of the light emitting means detected by the pattern detecting means are detected, and based on the position and size, the light emitting means is imaged at a predetermined size on a screen at a predetermined size. A camera control unit for controlling the imaging direction and enlargement / reduction ratio of the camera;
An information transmission unit for transmitting images and sounds;
Display means for displaying the connection destination video;
A video conferencing apparatus, comprising: audio reproduction means for reproducing the connection destination audio.

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