JPH0758859A - Information transmitter and information receiver for conference - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To sufficiently understand each other with full of presence by using one voice channel. CONSTITUTION:A microphone 41 of an information transmitter-receiver 40 is provided to each of conference participants A-D to acquire a voice signal of corresponding conference participants A-D. A microphone control section 42 selects voice information SI of an utterance party and provides an output of microphone selection information MI being indentification information of the speaker. An information transmission section 47 transmits information Si and MI. A display device 51 of the information transmitter-receiver 50 displays a picture of the conference participants A-D. A loud speaker 52 is provided to each of the conference participants A-D and arranged along with its display position. An information reception section 53 receives the sets of information SI, MI. A loud speaker control section 56 shares voice information SI to a loud speaker 52 corresponding to each speaker based on the microphone selection information MI.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote conference system which enables a conference between a plurality of spatially separated points by transmitting voice information of conference attendees via a communication line. In particular, it relates to an information transmitting device and an information receiving device for configuring this system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the demand for remote conference systems has increased. A typical example of this remote conference system is a video conference system. This video conference system connects a plurality of points with an image and a voice so that a conference can be held in an atmosphere in which everyone is gathered in one conference room.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional video conference system. It should be noted that FIG. 2 shows as a representative the configuration when a conference is held at two points P1 and P2.

The illustrated system is composed of information transmitting / receiving devices 10 and 20 provided for each of the points P1 and P2, and a communication line 30 connecting them. Each of the information transmitting / receiving devices 10 and 20 has a function of transmitting and receiving image information and audio information.

Incidentally, FIG. 2 shows a typical configuration for transmitting information from the point P1 to the point P2.
The configuration for transmitting information from 2 to the point P1 is also the same. In addition, FIG. 2 shows a typical configuration for transmitting voice information.

As shown in the information transmitting / receiving device 10 at the point P1, conventionally, a microphone 11 is provided for each of the conference attendees A, B, C and D, and the speaker is controlled by the microphone controller 12 from the outputs of these. The voice information SI of is selected.

The selected voice information SI is sent to the voice amplifier 1
3 is supplied to the information transmitting unit 14 and time-division multiplexed with the image information VI. This multiplex output is transmitted to the information transmitting / receiving apparatus 20 at the point P2 via the communication line 30.

The information transmitted to the information transmitting / receiving device 20 is
The information receiving unit 21 separates the image information VI and the audio information SI. Of these, the image information VI is supplied to a display (not shown) and is used for image display of the point P1.

On the other hand, the voice information SI is supplied to the speaker 23 via the voice amplifier 22. As a result, the speaker at the point P1 from the speaker 23, for example, the conference attendee B
Is transmitted to the conference participants W, X, Y, Z at the point P2. In this case, the speaker 23 determines who the speaker is.
The judgment is made based on the voice output from the user and the movement of the mouths of the conference attendees A, B, C, and D displayed on the display.

Although FIG. 2 shows a case where one speaker 23 is also used by the conference attendees A, B, C, D, a plurality of speakers 23 are also used by the conference attendees A, B, C, D. In some cases.

[0011]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION As described in detail above,
The conventional video conferencing system uses all conference attendees A,
B, C, and D are designed to share one or a plurality of speakers 23.

However, in such a structure, since the voice of the speaker is heard from a position different from that of the speaker displayed on the display, there is a problem that the presence is not high.

[0013] In addition, in the case where a person meeting for the first time has a meeting,
When the whole view is shown on the display, it's hard to know who is speaking, so it's a meeting with a light impression,
There was a problem that we could not communicate sufficiently.

Since this is the first meeting, the speaker cannot be specified by voice, but the entire view is projected, so that
This is because the image of the attendees is small and it is difficult to identify the speaker from the movement.

These problems are caused by the attendees A, B,
The voice information SI of C and D is transmitted through the dedicated voice channels, and the speakers are used by the conference attendees A, B, and
The problem can be solved by providing each of C and D.

However, with such a configuration, as the number of attendees in the conference increases, the number of voice channels also needs to increase, so that there is a problem that it is difficult to cope with the case where the number of attendees in the conference is large.

Therefore, the present invention provides a remote conference information transmitting apparatus and information receiving apparatus capable of realizing a remote conference that is full of presence and is sufficiently communicative using one voice channel. The purpose is to do.

[0018]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 is such that the remote conference information transmitting apparatus is provided with means for transmitting the identification information of the speaker to another point. It is a thing.

The invention according to claim 2 is provided with a means for displaying a plurality of conference attendees at other points on the information receiving device for remote conference, and for each conference attendee displayed by this means. Along with the display position, the means for amplifying the voice of the corresponding conference attendees and the voice information of the speaker sent from another point are dealt with the speaker based on the identification information. And a means for allocating the sound to the voice-enhancing means.

[0020]

In the above configuration, the remote conference information transmitting device transmits the voice information of the speaker and the identification information thereof. Then, in the information receiving device for remote conference, the voice information is supplied to the voice boosting means corresponding to the speaker based on the identification information.

In this case, the respective voice boosting means are provided for each conference attendee displayed on the image display means and are arranged along the display position thereof. Therefore, the speaker's voice is heard near the display position. As a result, it is possible to realize a highly realistic meeting, and it is possible to sufficiently communicate with each other even when the people meeting for the first time are having a meeting while projecting the entire view.

[0022]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. It should be noted that FIG. 1 representatively shows a case where the present invention is applied to a video conference system which realizes a conference between two points P1 and P2.

The system shown in the figure, like the system shown in FIG. 2, has information transmitting / receiving devices 40, 40 provided at points P1, P2.
50 and a communication line 60 connecting them. 1 shows the configuration for transmitting information from the point P1 to the point P2, the configuration for transmitting information from the point P2 to the point P1 is exactly the same. Therefore, the description of the configuration in this case is omitted.

In the information transmitting / receiving device 40 at the point P1,
Reference numeral 41 is a microphone for capturing the voice of the conference attendee at the point P1. The microphone 41 is provided for each conference attendee. Now, assuming that the conference attendees are A, B, C, and D, four microphones 41 are provided.

Reference numeral 42 is a microphone control unit for selecting the voice capture output of the speaker from the voice capture outputs of the four microphones 41. For example, when the conference attendee B is speaking, the microphone control unit 42 captures the voice of the conference attendee B.
(B) Select the voice capture output.

As a method of this selection, there are a method of automatically selecting by monitoring the output power of the four microphones 41, and a method of manually selecting by the speaker, chairperson or operator.

The above functions are the same as the functions of the conventional microphone controller 12. On the other hand, the microphone control unit 42 of this embodiment further includes the identification information of the speaker, in other words, the identification information of the microphone 41 (hereinafter, referred to as “microphone selection information”) MI for which the user has selected the voice capture output. Has the function of outputting.

Reference numeral 43 is a voice amplifier which amplifies the selected output of the microphone controller 42. Reference numeral 44 is an audio delay unit that delays the amplified output of the audio amplification unit 43. The function of the audio delay unit 44 will be described later in detail.

Reference numeral 45 designates conference attendees A, B, and P at the point P1.
It is a video camera for photographing C, D and the like. 46
Is the image information VI output from the video camera 45.
The image transmission processing unit performs a predetermined transmission process such as compression.

Reference numeral 47 denotes audio information SI output from the audio delay unit 44, microphone selection information MI output from the microphone control unit 42, and an image transmission processing unit 46.
This is an information transmission unit that time-division-multiplexes the image information VI output from the information transmission device and transmits it to the information transmission / reception device 50 at the point P2 via the communication line 60.

In the information transmitting / receiving device 50 at the point P2,
Reference numeral 51 is a display for displaying images of the conference attendees A, B, C, D and the like at the point P1. A speaker 52 is provided for each of the conference attendees A, B, C, D at the point P1 and amplifies the voice of the corresponding conference attendees A, B, C, D. The speakers 52 are arranged along the display positions of the conference attendees A, B, C, and D displayed on the display 51.

Reference numeral 53 is an information receiving unit for receiving information sent via the communication line 60 and separating the received information into image information VI, voice information SI, and microphone selection information MI.

Reference numeral 54 denotes an image reception processing unit for performing a predetermined reception process such as decompression on the image information VI separated by the information reception unit 53. Reference numeral 55 is a voice amplifier that amplifies the voice information SI separated by the information receiver 53. 56 is
The speaker control unit distributes the voice information SI amplified by the voice amplification unit 55 to the speaker 52 corresponding to the speaker based on the microphone selection information MI separated by the information reception unit 53.

The operation of the above structure will be described.

It is assumed that the conference attendee B at the point P1 speaks. In this case, the microphone control unit 42 selects the voice information SI of the conference attendee B output from the microphone 41 (B). Along with this, information indicating that the speaker is the conference attendee B, that is, the microphone 4 is transmitted from the microphone control unit 42.
Microphone selection information MI indicating that the output of 1 (B) is selected is output.

The voice information SI output from the microphone controller 42 is amplified by the voice amplifier 43 and then delayed by the voice delay unit 44 for a predetermined time. This delayed output is supplied to the information transmitter 47. The microphone selection information MI output from the microphone controller 42 is directly supplied to the information transmitter 47.

On the other hand, the image information VI of the conference attendees A, B, C, D, etc. taken by the video camera 45 is supplied to the information transmitting section 47 after being subjected to processing such as compression by the image transmitting processing section 46. To be done. Three pieces of information S supplied to the information processing section 47
I, MI, and VI are time-division multiplexed, and then the communication line 60
Is transmitted to the point P2 via.

The information transmitted to the point P2 is received by the information receiving section 53, and then the image information VI and the voice information SI are received.
And microphone selection information MI. Of these, the image information VI is supplied to the image reception processing unit 54,
After undergoing processing such as decompression, it is supplied to the display 51. As a result, on the screen of the display 51, for example, the images of the four conference attendees A, B, C, D at the point P1 are displayed in the order of their seats.

On the other hand, the voice information SI is amplified by the voice amplifier 55 and then supplied to the speaker controller 56. Further, the microphone selection information MI is directly supplied to the speaker control unit 56. The speaker control unit 55 supplies the audio information SI to the speaker 52 (B) corresponding to the microphone 41 (B) based on the microphone selection information MI. As a result, the speaker B's voice is amplified from the speaker 52 (B) near the display position of the speaker B displayed on the display 53.

The above is the overall operation of the embodiment. Next, the function of the audio delay unit 44 will be described. The voice delay unit 44 is provided to prevent the crest of the voice output from the speaker 52 from being cut off.

That is, in FIG. 1, from point P1 to point P
2 to transmit the microphone selection information MI to the speaker controller 56 and switch the connection state of the speaker controller 56 based on the MI to supply the audio information SI sent from the point P1 to the point P2 to the corresponding speaker 52. Has become.

In such a configuration, the speaker controller 56
If the voice information SI is supplied to the speaker control unit 56 before the switching of the
The wave front of the output of 2 is cut. Therefore, when the audio information SI is supplied to the speaker control unit 56, it is necessary to supply it after the switching of the speaker control unit 56 is completed.

In order to meet this demand, in this embodiment, a voice delay section 44 is provided at the point P1 and the voice delay section 44 delays the voice information SI, thereby completely switching the speaker control section 56. After the end, the voice information SI is supplied to the speaker control unit 56.

The transmission of the voice information SI at the point P1 may be started before the switching of the speaker control unit 56 is completed or after the switching is completed, as long as the above requirements are satisfied. Good.

Now, assuming that the transmission of the voice information SI is started at the same time when the switching of the microphone control section 42 is completed, the delay time T (ms) of the voice delay section 44 is
It is the sum of the transmission time T1 (ms) of the microphone selection information MI from the point P1 to P2 and the switching time T2 (ms) of the speaker control unit 56.

Further, in this case, the transmission speed of the microphone selection information MI is as follows, where the number of bits of this information is m.
m × (1000 / T1) bps. This transmission rate is expressed as follows using a concrete example.

Now, the delay time T is a value such that the unnaturalness due to the time difference between the image and the sound is not noticeable, for example, 5 m.
s, and the switching time T2 is set to 1 ms. In addition, it is assumed that the number of bits of the microphone selection information MI is set to 4 bits that can set up to 16 microphones 41. in this case,
The transmission rate is 4 × {1000 / (5-1)} bp
s, that is, 1 kbps.

When the image information VI output from the video camera 45 is compressed, a delay occurs in this image information VI. In this case, in the video conference system, the audio information SI is usually delayed in order to match the times of the image information VI and the audio information SI.

The delay time in this case is set to about 100 ms. Therefore, in the video conference system having the audio delay unit for such time adjustment, the audio delay unit 44 for preventing the crest break can be shared by the audio delay unit for this time adjustment.

In this case, the transmission rate of the microphone selection information MI may be about 50 bps since it is sufficient to transmit 4 bits in (100-1) ms. Therefore, in this case, the load on the information transmitting unit 47 and the information receiving unit 53 due to the transmission of the microphone selection information MI can be reduced, and the configuration is provided between the information transmitting unit 47 and the information receiving unit 53. It may be possible to share an existing data link.

According to this embodiment described in detail above, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) First, the speaker 52 is provided for each of the conference attendees A, B, C, and D, and the speakers 52 are arranged along these display positions. It can be output from the speaker 52 provided in the vicinity.

As a result, it is possible to realize a teleconferencing that is full of realism, and at the
Even when a conference is held while displaying the entire view, it is possible to realize a video conference that has a strong impression and allows sufficient communication.

(2) Also, since the distribution of the voice information SI is controlled based on the speaker identification information (microphone selection information MI), the voice channels are assigned to the conference attendees (A, B, C, The voice information SI of the speaker can be supplied to the corresponding speaker 52 without being provided for each D). As a result, even if the number of attendees in the conference is large, it is possible to easily deal with the problem.

(3) Further, the audio delay unit 44 is provided, and by delaying the audio information SI by the audio delay unit 44, the speaker control unit 56 is completely switched, and then the speaker control unit 56 is completed. Since the voice information SI is supplied to the speaker, it is possible to prevent the wave front from being cut off from the speaker output.

(4) Since the method of delaying the voice information SI is adopted as a method of preventing the wave front cutting of the speaker output, the video conference system delaying the voice information SI in order to adjust the time of the image and the voice. In the above, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to provide the audio delay section 44 exclusively for preventing the crest cutting.

(5) Also, microphone selection information MI
Since it is not necessary to increase the transmission speed of the so much, the information transmitting unit 47 and the information receiving unit 48 are not overloaded,
The microphone selection information MI can be transmitted.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.

(1) First, in the above embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the video conference system has been described. However, the present invention can be applied to a multimedia teleconferencing system other than the videoconferencing system.

For example, the video conference system transmits moving image information as image information VI. However, the present invention can also be applied to a remote conference system in which still image information is transmitted as the image information VI. In this case, for example, a still image of the attendees of the conference may be transmitted prior to the conference, and the still image may be displayed throughout the conference.

(2) The present invention can be applied not only to the multimedia teleconferencing system but also to a teleconferencing system that transmits only voice information SI, a so-called voice conference system. In this case, the display of meeting attendees can be performed using a panel, for example. Such a system is effective when the conference attendees are fixed at all times.

(3) Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the voice delay unit 44 for preventing the crest break is provided in the information transmitting apparatus has been described. However, the present invention is such that it is provided in the information receiving apparatus. Good.

(4) In addition to this, the present invention can of course be variously modified without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0065]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention,
Using one voice channel, it is very immersive and
It is possible to provide a remote conference information transmitting device and an information receiving device capable of realizing a sufficiently-communicative remote conference.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a conventional configuration.

[Explanation of symbols]

40, 50 ... Information transmitting / receiving device, 60 ... Communication line, 41 ...
Microphone 42 ... Microphone control unit 43,
55 ... Audio amplification unit, 44 ... Audio delay unit, 45 ... Video camera, 46 ... Image transmission processing unit, 47 ... Information transmission unit, 51
... display, 52 ... speaker, 53 ... information receiving section,
54 ... Image information receiving unit, 56 ... Speaker control unit.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A teleconferencing information transmitting apparatus for constructing a teleconferencing system, comprising: a plurality of voice capturing means provided for each conference attendee at its own point and capturing the voice of the corresponding conference attendee. Voice selection means for selecting the voice capture output of the speaker from the voice capture outputs of the plurality of voice capture means, and information transmission for transmitting the selection output of the voice selection means and the identification information of the speaker to another point. An information transmitting apparatus for remote conference, comprising: 2. A teleconferencing information receiving apparatus for constructing a teleconferencing system, comprising: a conference attendee display means for displaying a plurality of conference attendees at another point; A plurality of voice-speaking means provided for each conference attendee and arranged along the display position to raise the voice of the corresponding conference attendee, and voice information of the speaker sent from the other point. And an information receiving means for receiving the identification information, and the voice information received by the information receiving means is distributed to the voice loudspeaking means corresponding to the speaker among the plurality of voice loudspeaking means based on the identification information. An information receiving apparatus for remote conference, comprising: an audio distribution unit.