JPH02155383A - Video telephone set - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To send information accurately by providing a synthesized picture transmission means sending a synthesized picture between a picture and a charac ter displayed on a display means to a transmission destination by a voice trans mission means and sending the picture synthesized with a character to a voice transmission destination. CONSTITUTION:A CPU 7 executes the transmission of a picture frozen as a still picture in a memory section 12 in advance. In the case of adding additional information, character information on an additional information memory 10 is scanned. Thus, a pattern is formed, in which additional information is synthe sized at the lower, part of the transmission picture as the picture. Moreover, a modulator-demodulator section 4 applies amplitude phase modulation to a carrier frequency based on a 5-bit density level and character information is sent to a line from a terminal 2 of a network control section 3. When the confir mation of the additional information is required, 93 lines of the information are outputted from a picture memory 12 and the remaining 7 lines of the infor mation are outputted from the additional information memory 10 under the control of a picture control section 9. Thus, an image monitor section 16 monitors the picture synthesized with the additional information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a videophone that is connected to a line and transmits images as well as audio.

[Prior art]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been a device called an answering machine that records voice information received during an absentee call on a semiconductor memory or an audio tape, and can reproduce the information later and transmit the information.

In addition, in recent years, the analog telephone band still image video system has been standardized, and a camera near the monitor display captures the face of the speaker.
A videophone that transmits data using general public telephone lines has been developed.

[Problem that the invention is trying to solve] However,
When recording an answering machine using the above telephone answering machine,
If the speaker forgets to specify the current date and time, his/her name, etc. in the recorded message, there is a drawback that sufficient information cannot be transmitted. Alternatively, even during normal calls, when transmitting information such as proper nouns such as names, numbers, etc., numbers may be difficult to pronounce or the S/N (signal/signal/signal/signal) The problem was that it was difficult to understand due to the low noise ratio.

[Means for solving problems]

According to the present invention, the image information generating means generates image information, the character information generating means generates character information, and the image information generated by the image information generating means and the character information generated by the character information generating means A display means for displaying the synthesized image, an audio transmission means for transmitting an audio signal to a line, and a composite image transmission means for transmitting the composite image displayed on the display means to a destination of the audio transmission means. With this, it is possible to send an image with combined text to the audio destination.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a device block diagram showing the configuration of a still picture video telephone embodying the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a connection terminal of a telephone having a handset and a dialer connected in series to this device, 2 is a connection terminal with a line, 3 is a CPU (central processing unit) 7, and a console section 8 The CPU 7 determines whether the image signal is received by detecting the operator's press of the image transmission key, or after the image signal is demodulated by the modulation/demodulation unit 4 and converted into a digital signal by the analog-to-digital converter 6. In this case, it is a network control unit that suppresses and controls the voice signal level between the telephone connection terminal 1 and the line. 5 is a demodulation timing creation unit connected to the modulation/demodulation unit 4, which reproduces the demodulation clock of the image signal and sets the demodulation level;
13 is an imaging unit consisting of a Sachicon and a Sachicon drive circuit;
9 is an A/D (analog/digital) converter that converts the analog image signal of the imaging section 14 into a 5-bit digital signal, and 9 stores the image captured by the imaging section 14 or the received image as a still image in the image memory section 12. This is an image control unit that records or sends transmission image data from the image memory unit 12 to the CPU 7. 15 is connected to the image control unit 9, converts the digital image signal into an analog signal, and converts the digital image signal into an analog signal.
This is a digital-to-analog converter for displaying on the image monitor 16, which is an RT (cathode ray tube) and CRT drive circuit. 10 is an additional information memory section which is driven by a backup power source 11, which is a battery, and stores and holds set character information; 17 is a character which converts characters input and set by key operations on the console section 8 into dot image data. ROM (read only memory), 18
and 19 are C for controlling the device described below, respectively.
ROM that stores the PU7 program and R used for control
AM (Random Access Memory).

Now, next, the operation of the entire device is explained by the CPU 7 shown in FIG.
This will be explained in detail using a control flowchart. In FIG. 2, 81 is a routine for detecting the setting mode state of additional character information. The CPU 7 is the slide SW of the console section 8.
(switch) status. As a result, if the SW is in the setting mode, the character information input setting routine (
The process branches to S2) and executes input processing to be described later.

Also, during a call using the handset of the telephone connected to terminal 1, the image reception detection S3 in this device first detects the dual tone, which is the identification signal of the image data, and receives control information from the synchronized demodulated signal. do. Furthermore, based on the control information, for example, in the case of image mode A, an address counter for receiving an image of 160 pixels horizontally and 100 pixels vertically is set in the image control section 9, and an address counter is set in the image memory section 12 for storing the image. Select the area and set the display. Thereafter, the transmitted images are received line sequentially (S4).

On the other hand, if the CPU 7 detects pressing of the "send" key at 85 on the console 8 during the call, the process branches to S6.

Then, the image that has been frozen as a still image in the memory section 12 in advance is transmitted. In s6, first, the modulation/demodulation section 4 is instructed to send out an image identification signal.

At the same time, control signals such as a synchronization signal and an amplitude calibration signal are sent. Next, image information is sent from the image memory I2. At this time, the image memory is scanned and image data is sent out. At that time, when adding additional information,
For example, in A mode (100x160 pixels), memory 1
After scanning 2 for 93 x 160 pixels or 93 lines,
For the remaining 7×160 pixels, d character information on the additional information memory 10 is scanned. As a result, the additional information is combined as an image at the bottom of the transmitted image, resulting in two γ screens. Note that the character information is stored as the darkest value and the lightest value among the 5-bit density levels. Based on the level, the modulator/demodulator 4 modulates the amplitude and phase of the carrier frequency and sends it to the line from the terminal 2 of the network controller 3.

Now, if pressing of the "self/other" key SW on the console section is detected at 87, the process branches to S8. Here, on the image memory section 12 to be displayed on the image monitor section 16, the display memory address is switched between the received other party's screen data area and the "own" screen area frozen in this device. At this time, the user's screen is selected. In addition, if it is necessary to confirm additional information, the image control unit 9
The remaining 7 lines are stored in the image memory 12 under the control of
The input information is output from the additional information memory 10. This allows the image monitor unit 16 to monitor the composite image with the additional information.

In the case of taking an image, first, when the depression of the "view" key is detected at 89, the output of the imaging section 14 is repeatedly rewritten in the memory 12 and directly connected to the image monitor section 16 (S10). Then, it is displayed on a monitor as a moving image. Thereafter, when the Sll detects that the "take" key on the console section 8 has been pressed, writing and scanning of the image signal to the image memory section 12 is stopped (S12), and the image is frozen as a still image.

Next, the additional information input and setting process S2 will be explained in detail using the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 and the monitor screen diagram shown in FIG.

In this embodiment, information is displayed using 26 alphabetical characters and numbers. For this purpose, first, in S20, CPU7
displays available characters from the character ROM 1T in a menu on the monitor 16 as shown in FIG. 4(a). At this time, the cursor PI for selective scanning and the setting position cursor P2 are kept blinking.

Next, the process branches to S21, detects the positional movement of the cursor P1, and displays the movement of the cursor PL. The cursor PI is moved left and right using the "view" and "take" keys on the console section 8, and up and down using the "other party/self" switching key and the send key. Therefore, the cursor PI converts all characters to 1
Can be scanned character by character. Now move cursor P1 to the letter “Y”
”, and if the press of the “mode switching SW” (A or 8 screen switching), which is the information setting key on the console unit 8, is detected at 323, the process branches to S24.The character at the cursor P1 position is now Y is set and displayed at the cursor P2 position. This state is shown in Fig. 4(b), and the set character Y is composed of 5 x 7 dots. Shift to and blink to indicate the next character setting position.

By repeating the above operations, you can add up to 32 characters of additional information.
The settings can be displayed in the lower 7x160 pixel area of a 100x160 pixel screen (Fig. 4C). Now, to complete the setting, the state of the setting mode SW is detected at 325. At 326, the character string at that point is stored in the additional information memory section 10 as dot data using binary levels of the darkest and lightest 5-bit density levels.

The display data processing described above is performed using the "self" screen area in the pixel memory section 12. Then, the CPU 7 converts it into dot data in the character ROM 17 and executes it by rewriting the memory. Therefore, the process of S26 can be executed by copying the additional information display area portion of the image memory 12 into the additional information memory 10 under the control of the image control section 9. As a result of the above, the image shown in FIG. 5 can be transmitted.

In this way, it is possible to combine text additional information into a transmitted image and transmit it without being restricted by standards, and accurate information can be transmitted.

In this embodiment, we have described an example in which character strings are input and set as additional information, but in addition to name and phone number,
You can also add the date and time of sending. For this purpose, the counter (clock) output driven by the backup power supply is
Input to U7. Then, at the time of transmission, character ROM1
7 to convert it into dot data and write it into a preset area in the additional information memory.

Although this embodiment has been described using a still image videophone, it can be similarly implemented in a video videophone.

[Other Examples]

In the embodiment described above, additional character information such as Mi's name, phone number, date and time, etc., is uniformly added to the bottom of the screen. however,
If the image to be transmitted is located at the bottom of the screen as shown in FIG. 6, it is better to add additional character information to the top of the screen.

In this embodiment, an image to which text information is added is displayed on the screen once, and the position at which the text information is added can be changed.

The configuration diagram of this embodiment is common to the block diagram shown in FIG. 1, and detailed explanation will be omitted.

A call is made from the dialer of the telephone connected to terminal l in FIG. 1, and a line connection is established with the other party (step 321).
). Then, the CPU 7 determines whether or not the image transmission mode is set by the console section 8 before the line is disconnected (step S22.523).

When the image transmission mode is set, an image captured by the imaging unit 14 or an image registered in advance in the RAM 19 is read out to the image memory unit 12 and displayed on the monitor 16. If the operator wants to send the image as is, he presses the send key on the console unit 8. In addition, if characters are to be added and sent, the character addition switch on the console section 8 is operated. When the CPU 7 detects that the transmission key is pressed (step 524), the CPU 7 outputs the image read into the image memory section 12 to the line 1 via the modulation/demodulation section 4 (step 828).
).

On the other hand, when the CPU 7 detects the text addition mode, it performs a preliminary procedure with the other party and detects the image mode of the other party. Then, a character addition area is determined according to the image mode of the other party. That is, in the case of image mode A, an area of 160 pixels horizontally and 7 pixels vertically is set on the memory 10.

Further, when the CPU 7 detects the character addition mode (step 525), a wait time of 5 seconds is set in the timer area of the RAM 19. The operator determines whether or not the character addition position should be changed during these five seconds. If you want to change it, press the change key on the console section 8. CPU
7, if the change key is not pressed by the time the 5-second timer counts up (step 826), characters are added to the bottom of the image as shown in FIG. 5 and transmitted (step 82).
8). Also, if the change key is pressed (step 527
), characters are added to the top of the image as shown in FIG. 6 and transmitted (step 828).

In this way, in this embodiment, it is possible to display the image to be transmitted once and select the character addition position.

Furthermore, if the character addition position is not changed, the timer is sent when the timer is up, so there is no need to further press the send key. Furthermore, even when changing the position, the change instruction is transmitted, so there is no need to press the send key further.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, by displaying characters before transmitting them, it is possible to provide a video telephone device that can accurately transmit information.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an overall operation flow diagram of this embodiment, Fig. 3 is a character input operation flow diagram of this embodiment, and Fig. 4 is a monitor of this embodiment. 5 is a composite image diagram of this embodiment, FIG. 6 is a composite image diagram of another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is an overall operation flow diagram of another embodiment. 1.2 is a terminal, 7 is a CPU, 8 is a console section, 10 is an additional information memory, 12 is an image memory section, and 16 is a monitor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] Image information generation means for generating image information; character information generation means for generating character information; and image information generated by the image information generation means and character information generated by the character information generation means. A display means for displaying the synthesized image, an audio transmission means for transmitting an audio signal to a line, and a composite image transmission means for transmitting the composite image displayed on the display means to a destination of the audio transmission means. A videophone device featuring: