JPH04326239A - Conference telephone system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize a system which can transmit/receive the data of images or the like together with voices in the conference telephone system connecting plural conference telephone devices in the shape of a chain. CONSTITUTION:Two channel dividing circuits are provided at least to divide a communication channel into the respective sub channels of control, voices and plural data in the case of connecting a conference telephone device being connected through one of more than two communication channels to the other conference telephone device and through the other channel to the different conference telephone device, a data channel switching circuit is provided to select whether data transmitted from the own device or data received from the other communication channel are outputted to a communication line and therefore, the data (image data) from the plural conference telephone devices can be simultaneously received.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to a conference telephone device capable of connecting a plurality of conference telephones via a communication network and communicating with each other using data such as image information as well as voice. It is.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a teleconference service, a service has been provided in which three or more parties are connected to make a call over a private communication network (such as a PBX) or a public communication network. In a conference system for conducting teleconference services via these communication networks, the method for connecting multiple telephones is (a) using a main device for connecting multiple conference telephone devices; Start multiple conference phone devices around the main device.
Two methods are being considered: (b) a method in which a plurality of conference telephone devices having two or more communication channels are connected in a chain manner; Conventional telephone conference services use the method (a), and the conference phone system (b) uses, for example,
There is a method described in the specification and drawings of Japanese Patent Application No. 175291/1982. As shown in Figure 3, this involves connecting multiple conference telephone devices in a cascading manner.
, C, D, and E are connected in a chain to make a conference call, all the connected conference telephone devices (A, B,
, C, D, E). Here, the chain connection means, for example, conference telephone devices A and B.
, C, D, E, A and B, B and C, C and D
, D and E, and each conference telephone device is connected directly or indirectly via another conference telephone device.

FIG. 3 is a connection diagram of the conference telephone system described in the above specification and drawings. In the system shown in FIG. 3, a first conference telephone device 27-1 and a second conference telephone device 27-2 are connected via a communication network 40, and then a first conference telephone device 27-2 is connected to a second conference telephone device 27-2. and the third conference telephone device 27-3, then the third conference telephone device 27-3 and the fourth conference telephone device 27-4, and finally the N-1st Conference telephone device 27-(N-1
) and the Nth conference telephone device 27-N are connected. At least the second to N-1th devices are 2
Each conference phone device 2 has more than one communication channel.
7 uses different communication channels in order to connect with the other two conference telephone devices 27. That is, one of the two devices connected is the other conference phone device connected to the left side of the conference phone device, for which communication channel 1 is used to connect, and the other device is connected to the left side of the conference phone device. other conference telephone equipment connected to the right side of the
For this purpose, communication channel 2 is used for connection. By the way, compared to the method of connecting the conference telephone devices 27 in a chain, the system can be configured at a lower cost because an expensive main device is not required, and the connection between the conference telephone devices can be reduced. By optimizing the order, there are advantages such as lower communication costs.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional conference telephone device used in a system in which conference telephone devices are connected in a chain. In FIG. 4, the user's transmitting/receiving device is connected to the left side of the device, and another conference phone device (communication network) is connected to the right side. In FIG. 4, 28 is a network interface circuit that converts signals between the first and second communication channels and the communication line, 29 is a conference call circuit, and 30 and 31 are the conference call circuit 29. Codec, 32, 33,
Reference numeral 34 denotes an adder circuit constituting the conference call circuit 29, 35 a communication line connected to the communication network, 36-1 a transmission signal of the first communication channel sent to another conference telephone device, 36-2
Similarly, 37-1 is a received signal of the first communication channel, 37-1 is a transmitted signal of the second communication channel, 37-2 is a received signal of the second communication channel, and 38 is sent from the own device to another conference phone device. A transmitting signal, that is, a transmitting signal from the user using the own device, and a receiving signal 39 received from another conference telephone device, that is, a receiving signal sent to the user using the own device. When the conference call circuit 29 receives the reception signal 36-2 of the first communication channel from the network interface circuit 28, the adder circuit 33 adds the own device transmission signal 38 to the transmission signal 36-2 of the second communication channel. It is output as a signal 37-1. Similarly, when receiving the second channel reception signal 37-2, the adding circuit 32 adds the transmission signal 38 of the device itself and outputs the result as the transmission signal 36-1 of the first communication channel. Also, the received signal 36-2 of the first communication channel
and the received signal 37-2 of the second communication channel are added to the adder circuit 3.
4 and outputs this as the receiving signal 39 of the own device. The network interface circuit 28 converts the signal received from the communication line 35 into a received signal 36-2 of the first communication channel.
and the received signal 37-2 of the second communication channel, further assemble the transmitted signal 36-1 of the first communication channel and the transmitted signal 37-1 of the second communication channel, and send this to the communication line 35. Send. Through the above operations, all the conference telephone devices 27 connected in a chain are connected to other conference telephone devices 2.
It is possible to send a transmission signal to the conference telephone device 7 and receive transmission signals from other conference telephone devices 27. Note that the codecs 30 and 31 are circuits that convert analog signals and digital signals, and are necessary when the signals of the first communication channel and the second communication channel are digital signals. is not necessary if the signal is an analog signal. Further, in FIG. 4, the configuration is such that the addition is performed after converting the signals back to analog signals, but it is of course possible to add the digital signals as they are.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the conventional conference telephone system, a conference call can only be made by a plurality of users using voice only using the conference telephone system shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. On the other hand, in a conference held using a plurality of conference telephone devices, it is desired to send data such as images of participants and conference materials to each participant along with audio. However, in conventional conference telephone systems, it has been impossible to send data other than voice without adding expensive optional features. An object of the present invention is to solve such conventional problems and to provide a conference system in which data such as images can be transmitted and received at the same time as audio when holding a conference by connecting a plurality of conference telephone devices in a chain. The purpose of the present invention is to provide telephone equipment.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the conference telephone device of the present invention provides a first channel division method that divides a first communication channel into a control channel, a voice channel, and one or more data channels. a second channel dividing circuit that divides the second communication channel into a control channel, an audio channel, and one or more data channels; and a second channel dividing circuit connected to data channel input/output terminals of the first and second channel dividing circuits, respectively. , select and output either the transmission data from the own device or the reception data from one of the data channels of the second communication channel to each data channel of the first communication channel. In addition, each data channel of the second communication channel receives transmission data from its own device or the first
A data channel switching circuit that selects and outputs one of the received data from one of the data channels of the communication channel, connected to the audio input/output terminal of the first and second channel dividing circuits. conference call circuit, as well as the
The present invention is characterized in that it includes a control circuit connected to the control signal input/output terminal of the second channel division circuit.

[0007]

[Operation] In the present invention, in a conference telephone system in which a conference is held by connecting conference telephone devices in a chain, two or more communication channels are provided, and the first communication channel is used to communicate with other conference telephone devices. The second communication channel is used to connect to and talk to another conference telephone device and talk to it. The first channel dividing circuit divides the first communication channel into a control channel, a voice channel, and one or more data channels, and
A second channel division circuit divides the second communication channel into a control channel, a voice channel, and one or more data channels. Further, the data channel switching circuit allows each data channel of the first communication channel to receive data transmitted from the device itself or received data from one of the data channels of the second communication channel. The data transmitted from the own device or the data of the first communication channel is output to each data channel of the second communication channel.
Select and output one of the received data from one of the data channels. Note that the present invention can also be applied to a conference telephone device that is connected to a communication network through two independent lines instead of a line having two or more communication channels. This allows you to receive data from multiple conference phone devices at the same time, so you can display images of the moderator and speaker on all conference phone devices, or display images of all participants. is possible.

[0008]

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conference telephone device showing one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 includes a first communication channel, a control channel, an audio channel, and one or more data channels.
2 is a second channel dividing circuit that divides the second communication channel into a control channel, an audio channel, and one or more data channels; 3 is a channel dividing circuit that divides the communication channel into a control channel, a voice channel, and one or more data channels; 4 is a data channel switching circuit that outputs data to a designated data channel and outputs received data from the designated data channel to other circuits of its own device; A conference call circuit 5 for transmitting a control signal to a control channel, receiving a control signal sent through the control channel, and receiving a control signal sent through the control channel of the first and second communication channels. A control circuit 6 relays the other communication channel to the control channel and specifies the transmission data channel and reception data channel to the data channel switching circuit 3; A network interface circuit 7 is a communication line that performs conversion with signals on the line. Next, each signal will be explained. 8, 8-1, 8-2 are first communication channel signals (8
-1 is the transmitted signal, 8-2 is the received signal), 9, 9-1, 9
-2 is a second communication channel signal input/output from the network interface circuit 6 (9-1 is a transmission signal, 9-2 is a reception signal); 10 is a control channel signal of the first communication channel; 11 is a signal of the audio channel of the first communication channel;
12, 12-1, 12-2, 13, and 14 are the first
data signal of the communication channel (12-1 is the transmission signal, 1
2-2 is a received signal), 15 is a control signal of the second communication channel, 16 is a data signal of the first communication channel, 17,
17-1, 17-2, 18 and 19 are data signals of the first communication channel (17-1 is a transmission signal, 17-2 is a reception signal), 20 is a transmission data signal of the own device, 21 -1,
21-2 and 21-3 are data received from other conference telephone devices.
data signals (21-1 is the first received data signal, 21-2 is the second received data signal, and 21-3 is the third received data signal). Further, 22-1, 22-2, 22-3 are partial circuits constituting the data channel switching circuit 3;
4 and 25 are partial circuits 22-1 of the data channel switching circuit.
This is a selector switch that makes up the In this embodiment, the case where the number of data channels is three is shown, but the same applies to cases where the number of data channels is other than that. Also,
The transmitted data signal 20 includes image information input from a camera or image scanner installed in another part of the conference equipment, and the output destination of the received data signal 21 is an image monitor device, etc. be. Furthermore, since multiple received data signals can be obtained, it is also possible to display data from multiple conference devices simultaneously by providing a screen split display circuit that displays these received data simultaneously. It is.

First, the channel division circuit 1 in FIG.
The second operation will be explained. Channel division circuits 1 and 2 are
A circuit that decomposes a continuous signal train on a communication channel into multiple independent subchannel signal trains, or assembles multiple independent subchannel signal trains to create one continuous communication channel signal train. . Generally, ISDN
In public digital communication lines such as A bit synchronization clock synchronized with each bit of the frame and a frame synchronization clock for identifying the bit position on the frame can be extracted from the communication line. Also, the bit positions on this frame are usually guaranteed not to change during transmission over the communications network. In communication devices connected to such communication networks, dividing circuits can be divided by using these bit synchronization clocks and frame synchronization clocks and associating each bit position of the communication channel with the bit of each subchannel. Can be easily configured. Also, this correspondence is not one-to-one; for example, it is also possible to have one bit for the control channel, which is a subchannel, four bits for the audio channel, and one bit for each of the three data channels. It is. In the channel division circuits 1 and 2, the control channel signals 10 and 15 are connected to the control circuit 5, and the voice channel signals 11 and 16 are connected to the conference call circuit 4 to become a transmitting signal and a receiving signal. In addition, data signals 12 to 14, 17 such as image signals
-19 are partial circuits 2 in the data channel switching circuit 3
2-1, 22-2, and 22-3, and become a transmission data signal 20 or a reception data signal 21 through selector switches 23, 24, and 25, respectively.

Next, the operation of the data channel switching circuit 3 will be explained. The data channel switching circuit 3 includes the same partial circuits 22-1, 22-2, 2 corresponding to each data channel.
For example, the partial circuit 22-1 is composed of three selectors 23, 24, and 25. The selector 23 selects the transmission data signal 2 of the own device as the transmission signal 12-1 of the first data channel of the first communication channel.
0 or the received data 17-2 of the first data channel of the second communication channel and sends it to the communication line. The selector 24 also selects the transmission signal 17- of the first data channel of the second communication channel.
1, the transmitted data signal 20 of the own device or the received data 12 of the first data channel of the first communication channel.
-2 is selected and the operation to send to the communication line is performed. Further, the selector 25 selects the first received data signal 21 of its own device.
-1, the received data signal 12-2 of the first data channel of the first communication channel or the received data signal 17-2 of the first data channel of the second communication channel is selected. and perform the sending operation. In addition, the conference call circuit 4
is a circuit for transmitting the transmitting signal of the own device to other conference telephone devices and receiving the transmitting signal of the other conference telephone device, and is the same as the conference call circuit 29 shown in FIG. Can be configured. Further, the control circuit 5 can be constructed by a general-purpose microprocessor, and the network interface circuit 6 can be constructed by a dedicated LSI. Note that codecs used in Figure 4 have been developed that have higher encoding efficiency than μ-law encoding, and by using these high-efficiency codecs, channel division Therefore, it is possible to transmit audio signals through an audio channel that is slower than the usual 64 Kbit/s.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a conference telephone system using the conference telephone device of FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, 26
-1, 26-2, and 26-3 are conference telephone devices A, B, and C according to the present invention, respectively. Here, to simplify the explanation, the communication network, network interface circuit 8, and channel division circuits 1 and 2 will be omitted, and each subchannel (control channel, voice channel, data channel) of the conference telephone device will be described. −
(data channels) are directly connected to each other, and control channels are described so as to be connected without going through a control circuit. In FIG. 2, conference phone 26-1 transmits data on a first data channel and receives data from second and third data channels, and conference phone 26-2 transmits data on a first data channel and receives data from second and third data channels. transmit data to the second data channel, and transmit the data to the first and third data channels.
conference telephone device 26-3.
data from the first, second and third data channels.
Indicates that data is being received. The transmission and reception states of these data signals can be switched by the data channel switching circuit 3 shown in FIG. Therefore,
Now stop the data transmission of the conference telephone device 26-1,
The conference telephone device 26-3 transmits data to the first data channel, or the conference telephone device 26-1 receives data from the first data channel of the second communication channel. etc., it is possible to switch the data channel used. As a result, the number of conference telephone devices that transmit data at the same time is limited, but even if more conference telephone devices are connected than the number of data channels, all conference telephone devices can be transmitted by switching the data channels used. It is possible to transmit data from a telephone device. These data channel switching circuits can be controlled by determining appropriate control signals between the conference telephone devices and exchanging the control signals using the control channel.

0012

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention,
Even in a system in which conference communication is performed by connecting conference telephone devices in a chain, it becomes possible to transmit and receive data such as images and audio at the same time. As a result, it is possible to receive data from multiple conference telephone devices at the same time, so by adding an image input/output device to the conference telephone device, images of the moderators and speakers of all conference telephone devices can be transmitted. It is also possible to display images of all participants, or when there is a small number of participants, images of all participants can be displayed.

[0013]

[Brief explanation of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a conference telephone system using the conference telephone device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of a conference phone system to which conventional conference phone devices are connected.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional conference telephone device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 First channel division circuit, 2 Second channel division circuit, 3 Data channel switching circuit 4 Conference call circuit 5 Control circuit 6 Network interface circuit 7 Communication line 8, 8-1, 8-2 First communication channel signal 9,
9-1, 9-2 Second communication channel signal 10
First communication channel control signal 11 First communication channel audio signal 12, 12-1, 13, 14 First communication channel data signal 15 Second communication channel control signal 16 First communication Channel audio signals 17, 17-1, 17-2, 1
8, 19 First communication channel data signal 20 Transmission data signal 21-1, 21-2, 21-3 Reception data signal 22
-1, 22-2, 22-3 Partial circuits 32, 33, 34 of data channel switching circuit Adding circuit 35 Communication lines 36-1, 37-1 Communication channel transmission signal 36-
2, 37-2 Communication channel reception signal 38 Self-device transmission signal 39 Self-device reception signal

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A plurality of conference telephone devices are connected in a chain via a communication network, and any one of the conference telephone devices connects to another conference telephone device via a first communication channel and the communication network. In a conference telephone system further connected to a second communication channel and another conference telephone device via the communication network, a first communication channel is divided into a control channel, a voice channel, and one or more data channels. a second channel division circuit that divides the second communication channel into a control channel, a voice channel, and one or more data channels;
Each data channel of the first communication channel is connected to the data channel input/output terminals of the first communication channel to transmit data transmitted from the own device or received data from one of the data channels of the second communication channel. Either one is selected and output, and the transmission data from the own device or the reception data from one of the data channels of the first communication channel is sent to each data channel of the second communication channel. a data channel switching circuit that selects and outputs one of the data, a conference call circuit connected to the audio input/output terminals of the first and second channel division circuits, and a conference call circuit that selects and outputs one of the first and second channel division circuits; A conference telephone device comprising a control circuit connected to a control signal input/output terminal of the circuit.