JPH0338989A - Video telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the invasion of privacy to project even unnecessary pictures in back of a user by picking-up only the pictures of objects, which are caught by a camera, within a fixed distance as picture signals. CONSTITUTION:The pictures existent in less than the fixed distance are changed to strong alternative current analog signals and the other pictures are changed to weak analog signals by a camera 4 and transmitted to a weak filter 5 and a strong filter 6. In the weak filter 5, out of the received analog signals, only the strong alternative current analog signals are passed and namely, signals corresponding to the picture of the speaker are digitally encoded and transmitted to a terminal adapter 18. The weak analog signals passed through the strong filter 6, namely, signals corresponding to the picture of background are digitally encoded and defined as one input of a selecting circuit 9. Thus, only the picture of the user itself to use a telephone set is projected on a monitor and the background can be filled with fixed still pictures. Then, the invasion of the privacy to project even the unnecessary objects can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a videophone system, and particularly to a videophone system combining I5DN technology.

[Conventional technology]

When sending an image, conventional videophone systems first convert the image captured by a camera into an electrical, analog, or digital signal, then transmit it to the other party and display it on the receiver's monitor without any additional processing other than the conversion process. The image was restored to its original state.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

When sending an image, the conventional videophone system described above converts the image captured by a camera into an electrical signal or digital signal, and then transmits and receives the image to the other party without any additional processing other than the exchange process. Since the original image was restored to the side monitor, all images captured by the camera were transmitted without the person's choice.For example, only the image of the person using the phone was transmitted. In addition, an unnecessary image of the person behind the person is displayed, and depending on where the videophone system is installed, there is a problem in that it may infringe on privacy.

[Means to solve the problem]

The videophone system of the present invention includes a transmitter that converts voice into an AC analog signal and transmits it, a transmitter amplifier that amplifies and transmits the AC analog signal received from the transmitter, and an AC analog signal that is received from the transmitter amplifier. A voice encoding device digitally encodes and transmits the amplified analog signal, and the distance between the object in front is determined, and the image of the object within a certain distance is
A camera that converts into a strong AC analog signal and transmits it, a weak filter that judges the strength of the analog signal received from the camera and passes only the strong analog signal, a strong filter that passes only the weak analog signal, and a weak filter that passes only the weak analog signal. An image encoding device that converts a received signal into a digital signal and transmits the same, a still image transmitting device that converts a pre-manufactured fixed image into a digital signal and outputs it, the output of the strong filter, and the still image transmitting device. A selection circuit that selectively outputs one of the outputs, a selection switch that controls the selection circuit, one set of audio digital signal input/output interfaces, two sets of image digital signal input/output interfaces, and one set of r interfaces. It has 2B10 input/output interfaces, and the digital signal input from the audio encoder is input to one B channel at 64 kbps, and the digital signal input from the image encoder is input to the other B channel at 54 kbps.
ps and the digital signal input from the selection circuit is inserted into the D channel 16 kbps at a certain timing and transmitted to the network, and received from the network ■Interface 2
A terminal adapter that separates and separately outputs two B channels 64 kbps and one D channel 1 5 kbps out of B+D signals, and various functions such as call processing functions using the D channel for this terminal adapter. A call processing device that controls timing and a voice decoding device that decodes the voice digital signal within 5 Jkbps of one B channel received from the terminal adapter, converts it into an AC analog signal, and outputs it, and a voice decoder that receives it from the voice decoder. The receiving side amplifier that amplifies and outputs the AC analog signal received from the terminal adapter receives an image digital signal within the B channel of 64 kbps and an image digital signal within the D channel of 15 kbps, and converts the two signals. Combined,
An image synthesis device that generates a new image digital signal, an image decoding device that decodes the image digital signal received from the image synthesis device, converts it into an AC analog signal, and transmits it; and an image decoding device that receives the image signal from the image decoding device. It has a monitor that displays the AC analog signal as an image.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

The output of the transmitter 1 becomes the manual power of the transmitting side amplifier 2, and the output of the transmitting side amplifier 2 is connected to the input of the audio encoding device 3,
The output of the camera 4 becomes the input of the weak filter 5 and the strong filter 6, the output of the weak filter 5 becomes the input of the image encoding device 70, and the output of the strong filter 6 and the still image transmitting device 8 are both input to the selection circuit 9. Human-powered audio decoding device 1
The output of the receiver amplifier 12 is connected to the input of the receiver amplifier 12, the output of the receiver amplifier 12 becomes the input of the receiver 13, and the output of the image decoder 14 is connected to the input of the image decoder 15. The output of the decoding device 15 becomes the input of the monitor 16. The selection switch 10 serves as a control input for the selection circuit,
The terminal adapter 18 has one set of input/output for audio digital signals, two sets of input/output for image digital signals, and one set of input/output interfaces for interface 2B+D, and includes an audio encoder 3 and an image encoder 3. The outputs of the encoding device 7 and the selection circuit 9 become the inputs of the terminal adapter 18,
Among the outputs of the terminal adapter 18, the output of the audio digital signal becomes the input of the audio decoding device 11, and the outputs of the two image digital signals are both input to the image synthesis device 1.
There are 4 inputs.

Also, the terminal adapter 18 is ■1 with interface 2B+D
The call processing device 17 is connected to the terminal adapter 18, and performs call control for connecting to the network using the D channel.

Next, the operation will be explained.

Now, the user of the video telephone system of the present invention first dials the destination to which he/she wishes to connect using the call processing device 17, and the terminal adapter 18 receives the destination dial information and sends it to the terminal adapter I8. The terminal adapter 18 connects to the network 19 based on the dial information, and when the connection with the other party terminal is finally completed, the terminal adapter 18 inputs the human power from the voice encoding device 3 to one B channel on the uplink line at 64 kbps (for example, B1 channel on the line and input from the image encoder 7 to the other B channel 54 kbp on the up line.
s (for example, the B2 channel on the uplink), connect the human power from the selection circuit 9 to the D channel on the uplink, and connect one B channel (for example, the B channel on which the audio digital signal on the downlink 2B+D from the network 19 is carried). In the above example, the B1 channel> is connected to the input of the audio decoding device 11, and the other B channel (B2 channel in the above example) 64 kbps and D channel 15 kbps are connected to the two inputs of the image synthesis device 14. When a user of the videophone system stands in front of the camera 4 and speaks from the transmitter 1, the speaker's voice passes through the transmitter 1 and is converted into an AC analog signal, which is then manually input to the transmitting side amplifier 2. The amplified analog signal output from the transmitter side amplifier 2 is converted into a digital signal by the audio encoder 3, and then input to the terminal adapter 18 and sent to one B channel on the uplink. 6
4 kbps (for example, channel B on the uplink) and is converted by the network 19. On the other hand, audio signals from other terminals sent from the network on the B channel 64kbps (for example, B1 channel) on the downlink 2B+D are sent to the terminal adapter 1.
8, the signal is branched from other signals, transmitted to the audio decoding device 11, decoded into an AC analog signal, and then transmitted to the receiver amplifier 12, where it is amplified, and then outputted as audio by the receiver 10. Ru. Further, the camera 4 converts images closer than a certain distance into strong AC analog signals and other images into weak analog signals, and sends them to a weak filter 5 and a strong filter 6. The weak filter 5 passes only the strong AC analog signal among the received analog signals, and the image encoding device 7 passes the strong analog signal that has passed through the weak filter 5.
That is, a signal corresponding to the image of the speaker is digitally encoded and transmitted to the terminal adapter 18. The terminal adapter 18 converts the signal corresponding to the image of the speaker inputted from the image encoding device 7 to the other B channel at 64 kbps (for example, B
2 channel) and through the 2B+D line, network 19,
sent to and exchanged. On the other hand, a digital signal corresponding to the image of the speaker at the other terminal sent from the network on the B channel 64 kbps (for example, B2 channel) of the downlink 2B+D is branched into two other signals to the terminal adapter 18, and then sent to the image synthesis device. This is one input of 14. Also strong filter 6
The weak analog signal passed through the selection circuit 9, that is, the signal corresponding to the background image, is digitally encoded and becomes the sole power of the selection circuit 9. Further, a still image inputted in advance to the still image transmitting device 8 is converted into a digital signal and becomes another input to the selection circuit 9. By controlling the output of the selection circuit 9 using the selection switch 10, the user can send his/her favorite image to the network side as his/her background image. On the other hand, the digital signal corresponding to the background image of the other party sent from the selection circuit of the other party is sent from the network 19 to the terminal adapter 1 on the D channel.
8, and after being branched from other signals, becomes the other input of the image synthesis device 14. Based on the above-mentioned two-manpower, the image synthesizing device 14 synthesizes both digital signals and transmits the synthesized digital signal to the image decoding device 15. The image decoding device 15 decodes the received digital signal into an AC analog signal, and then an image of the background image selected by the other party and the image of the other party is displayed on the monitor 13. .

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention uses image synthesis technology in a conventional videophone system, and selectively transmits a background image using the D channel after the call processing of interface 2B+D has been completed. It is possible to display only the image of the person using the device on the other party's monitor, and fill the background with a fixed still image, which has the effect of preventing invasion of privacy by showing unnecessary things. .

4,

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plot diagram of the video telephone system of the present invention. 1... Transmitter, 2... Transmitting side amplifier,
3...Encoder for audio, 4...Camera, 5...Weak filter, 6...Strong filter, 7...For images Encoding device, 8... Still image transmitting device, 9... Selection circuit, lO...
...Selection switch, 11...Audio decoding device,
12... Receiving side amplifier, 13... Receiver, 14... Image composition device, 15...
...Image decoding device, 16...Monitor, 17.
... Call equipment, 18 ... Terminal adapter, 19 ... Network.

Claims (1)

[Claims] An image processing means that extracts only the image of an object within a certain distance captured by the camera as an image signal, and an image synthesis means that synthesizes the image of the object extracted by the image processing means and a still image prepared in advance as a background image. A videophone system characterized by having.