JPH0787254A - Video conference equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To constitute a equipment so that a notice and the contents of an incoming call are outputted automatically to the nearest facsimile, even when an image addressed to a person himself is subjected to incoming automatically to the video conference equipment, and it does not occur that the incoming call remains unnoticed. CONSTITUTION:When a calling signal is received, a telephone number of the other party of transmission connected to an analog line network 20 is detected and received information is stored in a recorder 10. When all the information is received, automatic dialing is conducted to the other party of transmission by controlling an analog line control part 16, based on the detected telephone number. Subsequently, an image conversion processing for converting the received information stored in the recorder 10 into a facsimile signal is conducted, and in the case image data such as data and a picture, etc., used for a conference are transmitted in advance before conducting the conference by transmitting the facsimile signal to the other party of transmission, a notice is conducted by transmitting a facsimile received image being near a receiving side speaker and its additional information, and it can be applied to the data and a retrieval index of the conference conducted later.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video conferencing apparatus which enables a conference with a remote speaker by performing bidirectional communication of images and voices using a communication network. , A large number of people use one video conferencing device, and when each user is away from the video conferencing device, notify that there is an automatic incoming call, and also search the accumulated image data. The present invention relates to a video conference device to be conducted.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a publicly known document describing the prior art according to the present invention, there is a "communication device" in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-203063. The one disclosed in this publication integrates the functions of a videophone and a facsimile and has the functions of a conventional facsimile and a videophone. In the videophone mode, it has a function of printing an image displayed on an image receiving unit. In mode, you can send images taken with a TV camera, so you can set the distance to the subject arbitrarily, so you can also send images of three-dimensional objects such as faces and landscapes, and immediately print images when receiving. It is possible to display once on the image receiving unit without printing and print only the necessary image.

Further, the "facsimile device" of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-261077 discloses a facsimile transceiver having an automatic dialing function, and when receiving from a specific destination, an automatic dial is made to a telephone corresponding to the destination. By ringing and notifying the management information by a synthesized voice, it is convenient for the user of the facsimile transceiver. Further, when a facsimile signal is received, the "facsimile apparatus" of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-258546 discloses one of the received facsimile signals.
The extension number of the transmission destination is detected, and based on the detected extension number, automatic dialing is performed to the corresponding extension destination, and notification that the facsimile signal has been received is performed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing a hardware configuration of a conventional video conference apparatus having an automatic incoming call function. In the figure, 31 is a video conference apparatus, 32 is a control section, 33 is a storage section, and 34 is ISDN (Integrated Services Digigal Ne
twork) line control unit, 35 is a codec unit, 36 is D /
A conversion unit, 37 is a display unit, 38 is an A / D conversion unit, 39 is an input unit, 40 is a storage device, 41 is an operation unit, and 42 is ISD.
N line, 43 is an ISDN line network.

As shown in FIG. 4, the video conference unit 31 is controlled by a control unit 32 centered on a microprocessor. The control unit 32 executes the program read from the storage unit 33, and at the same time, the ISDN line control unit 34, the codec unit 35, the D / A conversion unit 36, A
By appropriately controlling the / D conversion unit 38, the recording device 40, and the operation unit 41, various operations necessary for the video conference device are performed. That is, in the case of receiving operation, the ISDN line 4
The various information sent from 2 is the ISDN line control unit 34.
Compressed information such as image information is sent to the codec section 35, and uncompressed information is sent to the control section 32 as it is. Then, each information is accumulated in the storage unit 33, passes through the D / A conversion unit 36, and is displayed as a video signal on the display unit 37.

On the other hand, in the case of the transmission operation, the video signal taken in from the input unit 39 is sent to the storage unit 33 after being converted into digital data through the A / D conversion unit 38. Also,
When information is accumulated in the recording device 40 similarly to the above, the information is directly sent from the recording device 40 to the storage unit 33. When the information stored in the storage unit 33 requires compression of image information or the like, it is sent to the codec unit 35 for compression processing, and then sent to the line control unit 34 to compress character information and the like. The information that is not required is sent to the line control unit 34 as it is. The various information is sent to the ISDN network 43 via the line controller 34 and the ISDN line 42.

The operation unit 41 is composed of ten keys, function keys and other various mode display lamps. In addition, various information accumulated in the storage unit 33 can be accumulated at any time by operating the operation unit 41, and in that case, the information in the storage unit 33 passes through the control unit 32 and the recording device 40.
Sent to and recorded.

[0008]

As described above, it is desirable that the conventional video conferencing apparatus is installed for each selection like the telephone or the facsimile machine which has been popular until today. Since the frequency of use is not so high and the price is high at the beginning, it is expected that one video conference device is used by a large number of people.
In that case, each terminal will be installed in a place that is easy for everyone to use, and the larger the number of people who use each terminal, the further the terminal will be installed. Therefore, when the image data such as a material or a picture used in the conference is transmitted in advance before the conference, the receiving speaker may not be notified that the image has been received.

Further, in such a video conference apparatus used by a large number of people, when storing images, the images are stored in the order in which they are received by the recording device.
With the above-described configuration, in order to quickly search for a target image, data for one screen or compressed data is sequentially read from all data to be searched from the information recording device in which the image data is accumulated. Since more images are stored, the more time the search is performed and the more time is required, the more images are stored. This is a problem that repeating such a search while the line is still connected, such as during a conference, leads to a waste of communication costs, which may possibly hinder a smooth conference process. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and even if a self-addressed image is automatically received by the video conference apparatus, the notification and contents of the incoming call are automatically output to the nearest facsimile. It is an object of the present invention to provide a video conferencing device that eliminates the inconvenience of receiving an incoming call.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, (1) a television which enables a conference with a remote talker by performing bidirectional communication of image and voice through a communication network. In the conferencing apparatus, an automatic call receiving means for automatically receiving information when an incoming call signal is received, an analog line control unit for connecting to a facsimile machine connected to an analog line network, and the automatic call receiving means. A telephone number detecting means for detecting a telephone number of a transmission destination connected to the analog line network in the received incoming call signal, and the analog line based on the telephone number detected by the telephone number detecting means. An automatic dial transmission means for controlling the control unit to automatically dial the transmission destination; a recording device capable of accumulating information received by the automatic reception means; An image conversion processing unit for converting the information stored in the storage unit into a facsimile signal, and an automatic facsimile transmission unit for automatically transmitting the facsimile signal to a transmission destination by using an automatic dial transmission unit, and further (2) The image to be transmitted to the destination facsimile machine includes a sender name, a sender telephone number, a reception date and time,
It is characterized in that it is provided with means for adding information such as the total number of received sheets, search information, and (3) means for reducing the image obtained by the image conversion processing unit.

[0012]

The video conference apparatus of the present invention has the analog line control section and the automatic facsimile transmission means, and thus operates as follows. That is, when the incoming call signal is received, the telephone number of the transmission destination connected to the analog line network is detected, and the received information is stored in the recording device. When all the information is received, the analog line control unit is controlled based on the detected telephone number to automatically dial the destination. Then, by performing image conversion processing for converting the received information accumulated in the recording device into a facsimile signal and transmitting the facsimile signal to the other party of the transmission, an image of materials, pictures, etc. used in the conference in advance before the conference is held. In the case of transmitting data, it is possible to notify by transmitting the facsimile received image closer to the receiving side speaker and its additional information, and it can be applied to the material of the conference to be held later and the index for retrieval.

[0013]

1 is a block diagram for explaining an embodiment of a video conference apparatus according to the present invention, in which 1 is a video conference apparatus, 2 is a control section, 3 is a storage section, and 4 is an ISDN line. Control section, 5 codec section, 6 D / A conversion section, 7 display section, 8 A / D conversion section, 9 input section, 10 storage device,
11 is an image conversion processing unit, 12 is an operation unit, and 13 is ISDN.
Line, 14 is compression / expansion unit for facsimile, 15 is modem unit, 16 is analog line control unit, 17 is extension line, 18 is private branch exchange, 19-1 to 19-n are facsimile machines, 2
0 is analog line network, 21 is analog line, 22 is IS
It is a DN line network.

Similar to the conventional example, it is centrally controlled by a control unit 2 centered on a microprocessor. In addition to the conventional example, the control unit 2 appropriately controls the image conversion processing unit 11, the facsimile compression / expansion unit 14, the modem unit 15, and the analog line control unit 16 so that the video conference apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is provided. Performs various operations. The analog line control unit 16 is provided with an automatic dialing function, and as described later, the control unit 2 appropriately controls the analog line control unit 16 to send a dial signal to the extension line 17. Has been done. The extension 17 is connected via a private branch exchange 18 to the facsimile machines 19-1, 19-2, ..., 19-n of each department in the office.

Next, the operation of the video conference apparatus of this embodiment will be described. Now, it is assumed that a video conference apparatus similar to the video conference apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 3 is also installed at the digital line signal source connected via the ISDN line 13. In such a state, in order to perform image transmission from the transmission source video conference apparatus, first, an image is captured from the image input unit 9 into the storage unit 3 via the A / D conversion unit 8 or the recording device 11 is used. A read operation is performed to store the previously captured image stored in the storage unit 3 in the storage unit 3. Next, using the ten-key pad that constitutes the operation unit 12, the outside line telephone number of the video conference apparatus 1 that is the destination,
The extension numbers of the facsimile device 19-1 of the destination department in the business office are sequentially input, and a start command is given to the device.

Then, a dialing process is performed to establish a line connection with the video conference apparatus 1 of the other party corresponding to the transmission destination, and then the facsimile apparatus 1 of the department of the transmission destination.
The extension number information 9-n and the image information obtained from the storage unit 3 are sequentially sent to the video conference apparatus 1 of the other party via the ISDN line 13.

On the other hand, the video conference apparatus 1 operates as follows. That is, in the video conference apparatus 1 on the receiving side, after performing the automatic line connection processing, the line control unit 4 receives the information of the calling side terminal and the extension number information of the destination facsimile machine sent from the ISDN line circuit 13. It is fetched via a route and stored in a predetermined area of the storage unit 3.
Also, the date and time at that time are stored together. Then ISD
The image information sent from the N line 13 is decoded by the codec section 5 in the same manner as in the conventional apparatus, and the decoded image information is once taken into the storage section 3 and sequentially recorded by the recording apparatus 1.
Accumulates to 0.

In this way, while the image information is repeatedly received and recorded in the recording device, the final surface of the image information is received.
When the recording is completed, the total number of received images is recorded together, and the automatic line release processing is performed. Next, the control unit 2 reads out the extension number information of the destination facsimile machine from the recording unit 3 and supplies it to the analog line control unit 16. Then, in the analog line control unit 16, an automatic dialing process is performed based on the provided extension number information, and a dial signal is sent to the extension line 17. As a result, the private branch exchange 18 operates and the line connection is established to one of the corresponding facsimile machines 19-1, 19-2, ..., 19-n.

Here, the analog line control unit 16 receives the reception condition information of the facsimile apparatus on the other side in the negotiation with the facsimile apparatus. The reception condition information refers to, for example, communication information, the size of paper to be printed, monochrome or color, and whether gradation printing is possible. Next, the previously received images are read from the recording device 10 in order from the first received image, and the storage unit 3
Is written in the image data area. The written image is converted by the image conversion processing unit 11. At this time, the image conversion processing unit 11 reads the above-mentioned reception condition information, generates image data suitable for the receiving side facsimile apparatus, and stores it in the facsimile image area of the storage unit 3.

As a concrete example of image conversion, (1) the image is enlarged or reduced to a size suitable for the size of the paper to be printed, and (2) in the case of a color compatible facsimile apparatus,
Convert to a color code for facsimile and perform color correction,
(3) In the case of monochrome, only the brightness component of the image data is extracted and converted into a monochrome gradation image by dot pattern operation.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 2, (1)
Information of the video conference device that is the image transmission side terminal (caller name, caller's telephone number, etc.), (2) date and time of reception, (3)
Information such as the total number of received sheets and (4) search number is added. The search number in (4) above is search information added when an image is stored in the recording device.
It is desirable to be able to search with the numeric keypad that constitutes.

The facsimile image data thus generated is sent to the facsimile compression / expansion unit 14 for compression processing, and then sent to the modem unit 15 for modulation processing to perform analog line processing. It is sent to the control unit 16. Then, the image is sent to the facsimile machine of the other party through the extension 17 and the private branch exchange 18. In the facsimile image generating section, when the image is enlarged or reduced to a size suitable for the size of the paper to be printed, as shown in FIG. 3, the image is further reduced and stored in the facsimile image area of the storage unit 3. And store it in the
By sequentially reading the image data stored in the recording device 10, repeating the image conversion process, and repeating the process until the image data fits on the entire printing paper, a plurality of images can be printed on the printing paper.

In the above description, the image data stored in the recording device 10 has been handled as uncompressed image data. However, in all data exchange between the recording unit 3 and the recording device 10, By once compressing / expanding via the codec unit 5, it becomes possible to store the compressed image data in the recording device 10, and in effect, the effective use of the recording device becomes possible.

In the present embodiment, the analog line controller 16 is connected to the private branch exchange 18 via the extension line 17. However, the extension line number information of the destination facsimile machine is changed to the extension line number information. Analog line control unit 16
After that, by directly connecting to the analog line network 20 and transmitting the received image to a facsimile device (not shown) installed outside the facility, it is possible to notify the video conference device of the present invention that there is a reception. . further,
In the present embodiment, the description has been given assuming that the data to be automatically received is image data, but the data stored in the recording device is not limited to only still images, and in the case of moving images, only title images are By printing, for example, it is possible to convey the content of the moving image to the recipient as a still image.

As described above, the video conference apparatus having the automatic call receiving function is provided with the analog line control section and the automatic facsimile transmitting means, so that the image data such as the materials and pictures to be used for the conference can be stored before the conference. In the case of sending, it realizes a video conferencing device that has a function to notify the facsimile image of the other party by transmitting the received image and its additional information, and utilize it as a material for a conference to be held later and an index for search can do.

[0026]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, in a large-scale office having a large number of facsimile machines, in which only one or a few video conference apparatuses are installed, Even if the self-addressed image is automatically received by the video conferencing device, the notification and content of the nearest facsimile call are automatically output, and the user does not get distracted with the incoming call. Further, the printed image of the facsimile device enables a wide range of effective use such as conference materials and an index when searching for a desired image. In particular, in the search for the target image, it is expected that the efficiency will be significantly improved as compared with the search on the screen.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram for explaining an embodiment of a video conference apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a print output to a facsimile machine of a transmission destination according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing another example of printing output to the facsimile apparatus of the transmission destination in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a conventional video conference apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Video conferencing device, 2 ... Control part, 3 ... Storage part, 4 ... I
SDN line control unit, 5 ... codec unit, 6 ... D / A conversion unit, 7 ... display unit, 8 ... A / D conversion unit, 9 ... input unit, 10
... recording device, 11 ... image conversion processing unit, 12 ... operation unit, 1
3 ... ISDN line, 14 ... Facsimile compression / expansion unit, 15 ... Modem unit, 16 ... Analog line control unit, 17
... extension, 18 ... private branch exchange, 19-1 to 19-n ... facsimile device, 20 ... analog line network, 21 ... analog line, 22 ... ISDN line network.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A video conferencing apparatus that enables a conference with a remote speaker by performing bidirectional communication of images and voices via a communication network, and automatically receives information when an incoming call signal is received. And an analog line control unit for connecting a facsimile device connected to the analog line network, and an automatic line receiving unit connected to the analog line network among the received incoming call signals. Telephone number detection means for detecting the telephone number of the transmission destination,
Automatic dial transmission means for controlling the analog line control unit to perform automatic dial transmission to the transmission destination based on the telephone number detected by the telephone number detection means,
In the automatic call receiving means, a recording device capable of accumulating the received information, an image conversion processing unit for converting the information accumulated in the recording device into a facsimile signal, and a destination of the facsimile signal using the automatic dial transmitting means. A video conference apparatus comprising: 2. The image to be transmitted to the facsimile apparatus of the transmission destination is provided with means for adding information such as a sender name, a source telephone number, a reception date and time, a total number of received sheets, and search information. The video conference apparatus according to claim 1. 3. The video conference apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for reducing an image obtained by the image conversion processing unit.