JPH01129684A - Television conference system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the time when a voice and a video image of a talker in an opposite party conference room do not coincide by providing a still picture storage device and a talker equipment an displaying a still picture of a talker when other talker makes utterance. CONSTITUTION:When a talker is changed or added, a voice discriminator 17 being a talker discriminator discriminates the change or addition of the talker by the input form microphones 1-5 and sends the result to the opposite party. When the data is received from the opposite conference room reversely, a still picture storage device 18 outputs a still picture corresponding to a microphone number received to a person monitor TV 11. When the adjustment of a universal head 9 or the like is finished by a local operating unit 16b at the opposite side, the picture of the monitor TV 11 is switched into a moving picture of a talker by the picture processing unit 13 and when the talker is changed, the video image of a new talker is displayed immediately on the monitor TV 1 and the voice and video image are displayed on the monitor 11 and the voice and video image of the talker are quickly made coincident.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a television conference system in which conference rooms located at different locations are connected via communication lines to hold a conference.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a conventional video conference system, and 1 to 5 are microphones assigned to each speaker;
6 is a mixer amplifier that receives signals from these microphones 1 to 5, 7 is a speaker, 8 is a camera with a zoom lens for taking a picture of the speaker at a conference, 9 is a camera rotating table on which this camera 8 is attached, and 10 is a conference room 11 is a reception monitor TV for people that shows the speaker in the conference room on the other side where the meeting is being held; 12 is a reception monitor TV for panoramic view that shows the entire view of the conference room on the other side where the conference is being held. ,
13 is an image processing device that encodes video signals from the cameras 8 and 10; 14 is a communication control device for transmitting and receiving data via a communication line; 15 is a communication line connection terminal;
Reference numeral 16a is a hand-held operating device for remotely controlling the mixer amplifier 6, camera rotary table 9, image processing device 13, and communication control device 14.

Next, the operation will be explained. Audio input from one or more of the microphones 1 to 5 is mixed by the mixer amplifier 6 and input to the communication control device 14 . The camera 8 with a zoom lens attached to the rotary table 9 adjusts the rotation angle of the rotary table 9, the zoom of the camera 8, etc. using the hand controller 16a so as to take a picture of the current speaker. The video signal output is input to the image processing device 13 together with the video signal output of the panoramic camera 10. Next, the video signal is encoded by the image processing device 13 and input to the communication control device 14. Next, the communication processing device 14 processes the input audio and video signals.
Performs necessary processing for transmission and reception via a communication line and outputs it to the communication line connection terminal 15, and receives the other party's audio and video signals from the other party's conference room input from the communication line connection terminal 15, The audio is output from the speaker 7, and the video is sent to the person receiving monitor TVII and the panoramic receiving monitor TV through the image processing device 13.
Displayed at 12.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Since the conventional video conference system is configured as described above, in order to capture the speaker using the camera, the rotating table and zoom lens must be adjusted 8 times using the handheld controller 16a. Must be. Therefore, due to the speed of the camera turntable 9, the unfamiliarity with handling the handheld controller 16a, etc., it takes time for the image of the speaker to be displayed on the person receiving monitor TVII in the conference room on the other side. There was a problem in that it took some time for the image to match the image.

This invention was made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a video conference system that can eliminate the time when the audio and video of the speaker in the conference room on the other side do not match. With the goal.

[Means for solving problems]

The video conference system according to the present invention includes a still image storage device that registers and stores a list of conference speakers on the other side as still images in advance, and a speaker discrimination device that discriminates the speaker who has been replaced when a speaker on the other side is replaced. It has the following.

[Effect]

The still image storage device according to the present invention is controlled by a speaker discriminating device, and when a speaker changes, it immediately outputs a still image of the new speaker, and immediately matches the voice and video of the new speaker. It can be measured.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

In Figure 1, 1 to 5 are five microphones installed in the conference room, 6 is a microphone mixer that receives the output of microphones 1 to 5, 7 is a speaker, and 8 is a zoom lens for photographing speakers in this conference room. A camera with a lens, 9 a rotary table on which the camera 8 is attached, 10 a camera for taking a panoramic view of the conference room, 11 a reception monitor TV for people that shows the speaker in the conference room on the other side of the conference. , 12 is a panoramic reception monitor that displays a panoramic view of the other party's conference room, 13 is an image processing device that encodes video signals from the cameras 8 and 10, and 14 is a communication control device that performs transmission and reception via a communication line. , 15 is a communication line connection terminal, 16b is used to remotely control the microphone mixer 6, camera rotating table 9, image processing device 13 and communication control device 14,
A hand-held controller that allows input of numbers such as a microphone number using a numeric keypad; 17 a voice discrimination device that determines which of the microphones 1 to 5 is inputting voice; and 18 a voice recognition device that detects the face of a conference speaker in the other party's conference room; This is a still image storage device that stores still image data that is transmitted in advance through a communication line, then converted into still image data through processing by the image processing device 13. Note that the voice discriminating device 17 constitutes a speaker discriminating device that discriminates the replaced speaker when the speaker changes.

Next, the operation will be explained. Before entering the meeting, turntable 9
A camera 8 with a zoom lens attached to the camera 8 takes pictures of each conference participant (speaker), and also a hand-held controller 16b.
When the conference participant inputs the numbers of the microphones 1 to 5 used by the conference participants, the video signal output from the camera 8 is encoded by the image processing device 13, and the corresponding microphone number is added to the communication control. Device 14, communication line connection terminal 1
5 to the other party's conference room via a communication line.

Conversely, the data transmitted through the above procedure (i.e., the images of the participants in the conference room on the other side and their microphone numbers) is received from the communication line connection terminal 15, and the communication control device 14 and image processing device 13 convert the data into image data. Then, each participant in the conference room on the other side is stored in the still image storage device 18 in advance as a still image in a form corresponding to the microphone number. During the actual meeting, the camera 8 captures the image (face) of the speaker.
Also, the panoramic camera 10 captures the panoramic view, and the video signals from each camera 8 and 10 are input to the image processing device 13, and output to the line from the communication control device 14 and the communication line connection terminal 15. . Also, audio is inputted from the microphones 1 to 5, mixed by the mixer amplifier 6, and outputted to the line from the communication control device 14 and the communication line connection terminal 15. When a speaker is replaced or added, the voice discriminating device 17 determines the replacement or addition based on the input from the microphones 1 to 5, and sends a message via the still image memory word W18, the image processing device 13, and the communication control device 14. and sends the microphone number, which is the result of the determination, to the other party. Conversely, when this data (microphone number) is received from the other party's conference room via the communication line connection terminal 15, the still image storage device 18 displays a still image corresponding to the received microphone number on the person monitor TV 11. (i.e. the face of the speaker in the other party's conference room)
Output. Then, when the adjustment of the rotary table 9, etc. is completed using the hand-held controller 16b on the other party's side, the monitor TVI
The image of I is switched to a moving image of the speaker by the image processing device 13. As a result, the human reception monitor TVII
When the speaker in the other party's conference room is replaced, first, the face of the replaced speaker is displayed as a still image using still image data registered in advance in the still image storage device 18, and then the face of the speaker in the other party's conference room is displayed as a still image. When the adjustment of the handheld controller 16b in the side conference room is completed and the image (face) of the speaker is transmitted, the still image of the speaker up to that point is displayed on the person reception monitor TVII. A moving image will be displayed instead.

Therefore, when a speaker is replaced, the image of the new speaker is immediately displayed on the person reception monitor TVII, and the voice and image of the speaker quickly match.

In addition, as shown in Fig. 2, the still image reception monitor TV19
If additionally installed and the person monitor TVII is used exclusively for moving images, there is no need to switch between moving images and still images in the image processing device 13, and the person who is the main speaker is displayed on the person receiving monitor TVII. The still image reception monitor 19 may display an auxiliary speaker.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a still image storage device and a speaker discriminating device are provided to store each conference speaker on the other side as a still image in advance, and to interlock with microphone input during the conference. Since the still image of the speaker can be read out, the speaker's face is displayed instantly, allowing the speaker to be recognized immediately and the meeting to be held smoothly without any discomfort.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video conference system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a video conference system according to another embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional video conference system. It is. 1 to 5 are microphones, 6 is a mixer amplifier, 7 is a speaker, 8
is a camera with a zoom lens for people, 9 is a camera rotating stand, 1
0 is a panoramic camera, ] 1 is a reception monitor TV for people, 12
1 is a panoramic reception monitor TV; 13 is an image processing device; 14 is a communication control device; 16b is a hand-held controller; 17 is a voice discriminator which is a speaker discriminator; 18 is a still image storage device;
9 is a still image reception monitor TV. In addition, in the figures, the same numbers indicate the same or equivalent parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a video conference system in which conference rooms located at different locations are connected via a communication line and a conference is held using video and audio, each conference speaker on the other side of the conference room is registered and stored in advance as a still image. It has a still image storage device and a speaker discriminating device for discriminating the substituted speaker when the other party's conference speaker is replaced, and the speaker discriminating device identifies the substituted speaker from the still image storage device based on the discrimination output of the speaker discriminating device. A video conference system characterized by reading and displaying still images.