JPH01300783A - Video telephone set - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To irradiate an object to be photographed by an illumination being enough for an image pickup without giving dazzle to the object to be photographed by providing a lighting equipment for irradiating near infrared rays, and a television camera having an image pickup characteristic for covering from a visible light region to a near infrared-ray region, on a telephone set main body. CONSTITUTION:When a telephone receiver 5 is picked up, a near infrared-ray light equipment 6 provided on a telephone set main body is lighted, a caller's face being an object to be photographed is irradiated by near infrared rays, a reflected illuminating light is brought to image pickup with high sensitivity by a television camera 1A, and it is brought to monitor display on a display 4. Subsequently, this image is sent as a video signal to a transmitting/receiving part 2, transferred to a telephone set of the other party being a called party side, and brought to monitor display as a distinct image on the display 4 of the telephone set of the other party. That is, according to this inversion, a caller's face being an object to be photographed is illuminated by near infrared rays by which eyes scarcely sense brightness, therefore, a sufficient illumination irradiates without giving dazzle to the object to be photographed, and a distinct and satisfactory image can be obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a video telephone that can transmit and receive video together with telephone calls.

[Prior Art] Conventional video telephones include those shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Figure 3 shows, for example, foreign communication technology 1986
A block diagram showing the outline of the configuration of the simple still image telephone disclosed on pages 62 to 65 of the October issue, and Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing the front appearance. (2) is a transmitting/receiving unit that transmits and receives the imaged video signal; (3) is a transmitter/receiver unit that transmits and receives the video signal from the TV camera (1) and the video signal sent from the other party's phone. (4) is a display composed of a CRT or the like for displaying the video signal switched by the changeover switch (3>) on a monitor; (5) is a telephone receiver.

A simple still image telephone is a video telephone that transmits still images (snapshots) for analog telephone networks, and is characterized in that it does not require a special broadband transmission line or expensive band compression technology.

Next, the operation of the video telephone shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 will be explained. When you pick up the handset (5) to start a call, the TV camera (1) captures an image of the caller's face, which is displayed on the display (4), and at the same time, by switching the changeover switch (3), you can The video signal is sent to the transmitting/receiving section (2), and transferred from the transmitting/receiving section (2) to the called party's telephone. In addition, the video signal sent from the called party is received by the transmitting/receiving unit (2), and by switching the changeover switch (3), the image is displayed on the display (4) and snapshots can be exchanged. .

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Since the conventional video telephone set described above is configured as described above, for example, when it is installed indoors, it must be installed along the wall in the corner of the room when fishing on a boat. However,
If installed in this way, lights placed near the center of the room will be backlit. That is, when talking while looking at the display, the face of the person making the call, which is the subject of the television camera, faces the wall and is backlit by indoor lighting, making it impossible to obtain a good image. in this case,
It is possible to equip the phone with a lighting device that uses a point light source such as a light bulb, but if the lighting device uses a normal point light source, if the lighting is provided with sufficient illuminance to obtain a good image, it may be too bright and cause dazzling. However, there was a problem in that it was difficult to clearly see what was displayed on the display, and it was not possible to provide sufficient brightness of illumination.

This invention was made to solve this problem, and aims to provide a video phone that can provide a clear and good image by illuminating the subject with sufficient brightness without dazzling the subject. .

[Means for Solving the Problems] The videophone according to the present invention includes a lighting device that emits near-infrared rays to the phone body, and a television camera that has imaging characteristics that cover from the visible light region to the near-infrared light region. It is prepared.

[Function] In this invention, a lighting device that emits near-infrared rays illuminates the face of the person making the call, and the reflected light is imaged by a television camera that has imaging characteristics that cover up to the near-infrared light region. This makes it possible to obtain a good image without dazzling the subject.

[Example] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a video telephone according to the present invention, where the same reference numerals as in FIGS. 3 and 4 indicate the same or corresponding parts, and (IA) is a television camera according to the present invention;
The image sensor uses a CCD type solid state image sensor that has an imaging sensitivity that covers from the visible light region to the near-infrared light region (including the infrared light region; the same applies hereinafter). (6) is a near-infrared illumination device, which has a built-in light source that mainly emits near-infrared light, such as a discharge lamp using a gas such as argon, krypton, or xenon.

Figure 2 is a diagram showing the relationship between the relative sensitivity of the television camera and the spectral intensity of the near-infrared illumination device at each wavelength.
The example shows a near-infrared illumination device with a built-in discharge lamp using argon gas, but as shown in the figure, most of the emission wavelengths are in the near-infrared light region of 800 nm or more. If an infrared illumination device is used, even with strong illumination, the brightness will hardly be perceived by the naked eye.

Next, the operation of the video telephone according to the present invention will be explained. When you pick up the handset (5) to start a call,
The near-infrared illumination device (6) provided in the phone body is turned on, near-infrared light is irradiated onto the face of the caller, who is the object of the photograph, and the reflected illumination light is imaged with high sensitivity by the television camera (IA). , this is displayed on the display (4). This image is then sent as a video signal to the transmitter/receiver section (2), transferred to the called party's telephone, and displayed as a clear image on the display (4) of the called party's telephone. In other words, in this invention, the face of the person making the call, which is the subject, is illuminated with near-infrared light, which is almost invisible to the eyes, so that sufficient illumination is irradiated without dazzling the subject, and the face of the person making the call is clear. You can get good images with this.

In the above embodiment, whether a CCD-type solid-state image sensor with an imaging sensitivity covering from the visible light region to the near-infrared light region is used as the image sensor of the television camera (IA), or the sensitivity characteristics of this image sensor are By using an image sensor whose sensitivity in the near-infrared light region is higher than the sensitivity in the visible light region, for example, the sensitivity in the near-infrared light region is more than twice as high as the sensitivity in the visible light region, the face of the caller who is the subject is Even when backlit by an indoor lighting device in the background, the TV camera (IA) automatically closes down due to the low relative sensitivity in the visible light range (not shown).
This prevents the erroneous operation of adjusting the exposure to the brightness of the background. Therefore, by using a television camera (IA) having such imaging characteristics, it is possible to obtain clear and natural images almost unaffected by the brightness of the background.

Further, in the above embodiment, a near-infrared illumination device incorporating a discharge lamp using a gas such as argon is shown, but the present invention is not limited to this, and as long as it emits near-infrared rays, for example, A wide variety of light sources can be used, such as an incandescent light bulb with a filter and an LED light source that efficiently emits near-infrared light.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the present invention includes an illumination device that irradiates near-infrared light onto the phone body, and a television camera that has imaging characteristics that cover from the visible light region to the near-infrared light region. It is possible to irradiate a subject with sufficient illumination for imaging without dazzling the subject, and there is an effect that a good image can be obtained without being affected by external environmental conditions.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a video telephone according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the relationship between the relative sensitivity of the TV camera and the spectral intensity of the near-infrared illumination device, and Fig. 3 is the configuration of the conventional device. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the conventional device. (IA) is a TV camera, (3) is a selector switch, (4
) is the display, (5) is the receiver, and (6) is the near-infrared illumination device. Note that the same reference numerals in each figure indicate the same parts.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A telephone function having an operation section on the telephone body, a television camera provided on the telephone body for capturing an image of the face of a caller, and a monitor displaying an image captured by the television camera provided on the telephone body. and a display for
In a video telephone having a transmitting/receiving section that transmits the image captured by the television camera as a video signal to the other party's telephone or receives the video signal sent from the other party's telephone, the telephone body has near-infrared rays (including infrared rays). 1. A video telephone set comprising: an illumination device that emits light (hereinafter the same applies), and having imaging characteristics of the television camera that cover a range from a visible light region to a near-infrared light region. (2) The video telephone set according to claim 1, wherein the imaging characteristic of the television camera is that the sensitivity in the near-infrared light region is higher than the sensitivity in the visible light region.