JPH0715712A - Electronic conference system and conference image display method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To minimize the difference between the time when the image of a speaker himself is shown on a conference terminal equipments of other conference attendants and the time when the speaker's image is shown on his own conference terminal equipment. CONSTITUTION:The image data fetched through a data input part 22 of the conference terminal equipment of a speaker are sent to the conference terminal equipment of other attendants via a network device 10. At the same time, these image data are stored in a buffer 25. Then the time needed for transmission of data to other attendant conference terminal equipments is read out of a control table 27. When this time passed, the image data are read out of the buffer 25 and shown on a display device 30 of the speaker's conference terminal equipment.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic conferencing system used for communication conferences between remote places such as video conferences and desktop conferences that are conducted using conference terminal devices connected by a network, and more particularly to an image display method. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art First, a conventional electronic conference system will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a conventional electronic conference system. In FIG. 6, reference numerals 1a to 1d denote conference terminal devices including an image pickup unit, a display unit, a communication circuit, and the like, and 2 denotes a network connecting the conference terminal devices 1a to 1d.

In an electronic conference system as shown in FIG. 6, for example, a conference terminal device for transmitting image data of a speaker is designated as 1a, and a conference terminal device for receiving image data is designated as 1a.
In the case of b, 1c, and 1d, a difference occurs in the timing at which the conference terminal devices 1b, 1c, and 1d receive the image data due to the difference in the transmission time of the image data. This difference in timing is caused by the transmission capacity of the network 2 and the conference terminal device 1
It depends on the distance of the transmission path between a to 1d and is not constant. Therefore, there is a problem in that the timing at which the video of the speaker is displayed differs for each conference terminal device.

As one measure to solve this problem,
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 02-094731 discloses a technique for reducing the difference in reception time by packetizing transmission data and preferentially transmitting information packets for remote areas.

The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 02-094731 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 7, reference numeral 4 is a packetizing unit that packetizes transmission data, 41 is a distance determining unit that determines the distance to the conference terminal device of the transmission destination, and 42 stores an index of the distance to another conference terminal device. An address database, 43 is a header addition unit, and 44 is a transmission buffer.

In FIG. 7, when the transmission data is input to the packetizing unit 4, the distance determining unit 41 refers to the address database 42 to check the distance to the conference terminal device of the transfer destination, and arranges the destination addresses in order from the remote place. Change. The header adding unit 43 makes a copy of the data to be transmitted by the number of transmissions, adds the destination address to the transmission data, and sends it to the transmission buffer 44. The transmission buffer 44 sequentially transmits the supplied data, that is, sequentially from the information packet destined for the remote place. According to this conventional technique, it is possible to reduce the deviation of the timing at which the conference terminal device receives the image data.

[0007]

However, in this prior art, since the speaker himself cannot grasp the timing at which the image of the speaker is displayed on the conference terminal device of the other participant, the timing of the statement or the presentation. There were problems that the proceedings of the agenda such as gaps were disturbed and that the communication between the speaker and other participants was not carried out smoothly.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic conference system and an image display method capable of smoothly communicating with a speaker and other participants. To do. The present invention also provides an electronic device that minimizes the display time difference between the time when the video of the speaker himself is displayed on the conference terminal device of another conference participant and the time when it is displayed on his own conference terminal device. An object is to provide a conference system and an image display method.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an electronic conference system according to the present invention comprises a plurality of conference terminal devices connected to a network, each conference terminal device serving as another conference terminal device. A means for transferring the video information of the speaker and a time until the video information is displayed on another conference terminal device are obtained, and the video information of the speaker is displayed on the conference terminal device of the speaker after at least that time has elapsed. And a display means for displaying.

Further, the conference image display method according to the present invention is
In a conference terminal device that has the right to transfer the image of the participant, the time required for the image of the participant to be transferred to another conference terminal device is detected, and after that time, the transferred image of the participant is automatically transferred. Is displayed on the conference terminal device.

[0011]

The electronic conference system and the conference image display method according to the present invention are configured as described above, and the image of the speaker is displayed on the conference terminal device of the speaker himself and the conference terminal devices of other participants almost at the same time. By doing so, the speaker can easily grasp at what time the image of the speaker himself is displayed on the conference terminal device of the other participant, and the conversation shift due to the transmission delay, etc. It is possible to visually check and adjust the timing of remarks and presentations. Therefore, the communication between the speaker and other conference participants can be carried out smoothly.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numerals denote the same components throughout the drawings. The overall configuration of the electronic conference system according to this embodiment is the same as that of the conventional electronic conference system shown in FIG. 6, and is configured by connecting a plurality of conference terminal devices via a network.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of a conference terminal device according to this embodiment. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 is a network device, 20 is a conference device, and 30 is a display device.
In the conference device 20, reference numeral 21 is a communication control unit, 22 is a data input unit, 23 is a data control unit, 24 is an image data table, 25 is a buffer, 26 is a conference control unit, 27 is a management table, 28 is display control. Indicates a part.

The network device 10 is connected to the network, transmits data to another conference terminal device via the network, and receives data supplied from another conference terminal device. The display device 30 displays the image of the speaker in the conference.

The conference device 20 processes the transmission data and the reception data. The communication control unit 21 processes a communication protocol. The data input unit 22 includes an image pickup device such as a CCD camera, and supplies the image data of the conference participants to the data control unit 23, for example, at a constant cycle. The data control unit 23 manages data input / output. The image data table 24 stores information about image data in a table format. The buffer 25 stores the transmitted image data. The conference control unit 26 manages the progress of the conference. The management table 27 stores information necessary for meeting management. The display control unit 28 controls the display on the display device 30.

FIG. 2 shows the image data table 24 shown in FIG.
It is a block diagram showing in detail. Image data table 24
Is a display order table 241 indicating the order of images to be displayed.
And a storage area table 242 for storing the address of the area in the buffer 25 in which the corresponding image data is recorded,
It is composed of a transmission time table 243 which stores the time when the recorded image data is transmitted to another conference terminal device. Note that, in FIG. 2, ADR1 to ADRn are addresses indicating storage areas in the buffer 25 that store image data, and T1 to Tn indicate times when the image data is transmitted.

FIG. 3 is a detailed block diagram of the management table 27 shown in FIG. The management table 27 is a conference participant table 271 that stores the participants of the conference, a route time information table 272 that stores the transmission time required when transmitting data to the conference terminal device of each conference participant, and a conference table. And a speaking right table 273 storing whether or not the participant has a right to speak data (speaking right). In FIG. 3, reference characters vt1 to vtn are registered names of conference participants, r1 to rn are route time information, and flags indicating presence / absence of presence / absence, presence of a right to speak and absence of a right to speak. Indicates none.

As the hardware constituting each function described above, for example, the data control unit 23 and the conference control unit 26 are constituted by a microprocessor having a timer function, and the image data table 24 buffer 25 and management table 27. Is composed of RAM and the like.

Next, the operation of the conference terminal device shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. First, at the start of a conference, the conference device 20 of each conference terminal device calls the conference terminal devices of other participants via the network device 10, connects the participants so that data can be exchanged between the participants, and connects the conferences. The participant is registered in the conference participant table 271 of the management table 27. At this time, the speaking right, which is the right to transmit the image of the conference participant to the conference terminal device of another participant, is uniquely set from among the participants, and the speaking right table 273 of the management table 27 has the speaking right. Who remembers. For example, in the example of FIG. 3, it can be seen that the participant vt1 has the floor.

The route time information indicating the time required to transmit the data to the conference terminal device of each participant is such that the confirmation data is transmitted to the conference terminal devices of other participants and the data is transmitted from the conference terminal device of the other party. It can be obtained by receiving the reply data indicating that it has arrived and dividing the time required for data transmission / reception by two. The conference device 20 obtains route time information in advance before the conference and stores it in the route time information table 272.

Next, the flow of the image data transmission processing of the conference terminal device having the floor will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The process of transmitting image data according to FIG. 4 is repeatedly executed while the conference terminal device has the speaking right.

First, when the processing of FIG. 4 is started, the conference control unit 26 permits the input of image data, and the data input unit 22
Further, the image data, that is, the image data of the conference participant who is the speaker is input to the data control unit 23 (501). Next, the input image data is transmitted to the network device 10 via the communication control unit 21, and the image data is transmitted to the conference terminal devices of other participants (502). The transmitted image data is recorded in the buffer 25 (503).

The data control section 23 displays the display order of the image data, the address of the area of the buffer 25 in which the image data is recorded, the transmission time, etc., in the image data table 2.
4 display order table 241 and storage area table 242
And the transmission time table 243 and the like are registered (504). As a result, the same image data as the image data transmitted at fixed time intervals when the image data is input from the data input unit 22 is recorded in the buffer 25, and the address of the storage area of the image data and the transmission time are the image data. It is recorded in the table 24. With the above, the processing of FIG. 4 ends.

4 Next, based on the flowchart of FIG.
The flow of the process of displaying the image data recorded in the buffer 25 by the process of FIG. 4 on the display device 30 of the conference terminal device itself will be described. The process according to FIG. 5 may be activated at the same time as the process of FIG. 4 is activated.

When the processing of FIG. 5 is started, first, the data control unit 23 selects the image data having the smallest value in the display order table 241, that is, the highest display order among the image data recorded in the image data table 24. The image data is selected, the address of the area where the image data is recorded is discriminated from the storage area table 242, and the time when the image data is transmitted is further acquired from the transmission time table 243 (601). Next, the conference control unit 26 selects the one having the longest transmission delay time from the route time table 272 and sets the value of the transmission delay time as the route time information (60).
2).

Next, the conference control unit 26 calculates the time elapsed up to the present from the time when the image data was transmitted (603). The calculated time is compared with the time of the route time information, and if the time value of the route time information is small or equal (604), the image data is read from the buffer 25 and supplied to the display control unit 28 (605). The display control unit 28 displays the supplied image data, that is, the image of the conference participant of the transmission source having the speaking right transferred to the other conference terminal device on its own display device 30 (606).

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 604 that the value of the route time information is larger than the elapsed time up to the present, the flow returns to the process of step 603, and the elapsed time becomes equal to or larger than the route time information. At that time, the processes of steps 605 and 606 are executed. With the above, the process of FIG. 5 ends.

On the other hand, in the conference terminal device that does not have the right to speak, when the image data is sent from the conference terminal device that has the right to speak, the network device 10, the communication controller 21,
This is received via the data control unit 23, and the received image data is stored in the buffer 25 as needed. Further, the data control unit 23 supplies the received image data to the display control unit 28 via the conference control unit 26. Display control unit 28
Displays the received image data, that is, the moving image of the participant of the conference terminal device having the speaking right on the display device 30.

According to the above configuration and operation, the same moving image is displayed on the conference terminal device itself at almost the same time as the time when the moving image of the speaker is displayed on the remotest conference terminal device.
This allows the speaker to know at what timing his or her image is displayed on another conference terminal device,
The conversation between the speaker and other participants can be eliminated to improve communication.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above embodiment, the route time information is obtained by transmitting / receiving confirmation data before the start of the conference and dividing the time required for transmission / reception by two. However, the average value of the route time information that can be obtained each time a conference is held, or each value for the case where the configuration of the conference participants is different, is stored in the conference device 20, and this value is stored at the next conference. The route time information may be obtained based on an empirical rule such as using a value.

In the above embodiment, the longest transmission time (the transmission time of the image data to the farthest conference terminal device) is used as the route time information. However, the shortest transmission time, intermediate transmission time, average value, etc. may be used as the route time information. Further, the conference participant may specify the transmission time to an arbitrary conference terminal device (for example, the conference terminal device of the most important conference participant) and use this as the route time information. Furthermore, the time required from the reception of the image data to the display by the conference terminal device may be added to the transmission time, and this may be used as the route time information.

In the above embodiment, the route time information table 27
The value of 2 was set once before the start of the conference, but the same effect can be obtained by updating the value by the same method at any time during the conference. Further, in the above embodiment, the timing of displaying the image data on the conference terminal device is adjusted based on the holding value of the route time information table 272, but the sounding timing of the audio data may be adjusted by the same process.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, the transmission time between conference terminal devices is measured, and based on the measured transmission time, the image of the speaker is adjusted according to the time until it is displayed on the conference terminal devices of other participants. By displaying on the own conference terminal device, the speaker himself / herself can visually confirm the shift of the conversation or the image display due to the transmission delay, and the communication between the participants can be made by adjusting the timing of the speech. Can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conference terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image data table shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a management table shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of image data inputting / transmitting processing in the conference terminal device shown in FIG. 1.

5 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing for displaying the image data input by the processing of FIG. 4 on the conference terminal device itself.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional electronic conference system.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an image data transmission method in a conventional electronic conference system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a-1d conference terminal device 2 network 4 packetizer 41 distance determination unit 42 address database 43 header addition unit 44 transmission buffer 10 network device 20 conference device 21 communication control unit 22 data input unit 23 data control unit 24 image data table 25 buffer 26 conference control unit 27 management table 28 display control unit 30 display device 241 display order table 242 storage area table 243 transmission time table 271 conference participant table 272 route time information table 273 speaking right table

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Yoshinori Gunji 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (72) Yutaka Doi, 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Taku Matsuda 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic conferencing system for performing a conference by displaying video information of a speaker on a plurality of conference terminal devices connected to a network, wherein each conference terminal device is a speaker for another conference terminal device. Means for transferring the video information, storage means for storing the time required for the video information to arrive and be displayed at the other conference terminal device, and until the video information is displayed for the other conference terminal device. And a display unit for displaying the video information of the speaker after the time has elapsed from the storage unit. 2. An electronic conferencing system in which a conference terminal device displays an image of a participant himself / herself via a network to hold a conference, wherein the conference terminal device having the right to transfer the image information of the participant is The time until the transferred image information reaches another conference terminal device is determined, and after at least the time has elapsed, the image information of the participant is displayed on the conference terminal device having the right to transfer the image information. Meeting image display method.