JPH08163525A - Terminal equipment and video conference system provided with the terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To relieve the processing load of a terminal equipment for making communication of an image written on a common board and to enable participants of a video conference to raise their attention to the conference. CONSTITUTION: An image written on a common board (not shown) on a monitor 101 is stored in an image storage section 106 and when an image intended by the user is finished, an operation section 11 is used to click a transmission command button (not shown) on the monitor 101 to command the end of image write and a communication control section 110 sends the image stored in the image storage section 106 depending on the command to other terminal equipment. Thus, a useless image written in a trial and error stage is not sent to other terminal equipment to avoid useless processing load onto the terminal equipment and other terminal equipment and inconvenience, for conference participants who use other terminal equipments, of loosing concentration because of the change in the content of the common board till a confirmed image is received is avoided.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a terminal device, and more particularly to a shared board tool for communicating images written on a shared board used for collaborative work with other terminal devices. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a terminal device of a video conference system, there is one shown in FIG. 5, for example. As shown in the figure, the terminal device includes a television camera 10 for photographing conference participants, a monitor 11 for displaying conference participants and materials used for the conference, materials such as drawings and manuscripts on the document stand 13. 1
4, a television camera 12 for photographing 4, an image controller 15 for encoding and decoding an image signal, a microphone 16, a speaker 17,
A voice control unit 18 that encodes and decodes the voice signals of the microphone 16 and the speaker 17, a communication control unit 19 that transmits and receives voice signals and image signals, an operation unit 20 that operates the system, and controls the entire system. The system control unit 21 is configured to operate.

A plurality of terminal devices having such a configuration are connected to each other via a communication line such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or a public telephone network (not shown), and a video conference can be conducted by transmitting and receiving images and voice. It is made possible.

Then, as a display example of the monitor 11 at the time of executing the video conference, one shown in FIG. 6 can be considered. As shown in the figure, the screen 30 of the monitor 11 is
A participant display window 31 for displaying the conference participants, a conference material display window 32 for presenting the conference materials to all the conference participants, a shared board window 33 for collaborative work in which all the conference participants write figures, sentences, etc. It is composed of a personal work window 34 for allowing each of the conference participants to carry out a personal work.

[0005]

However, in the terminal device of the conventional video conference system as described above, an image such as a figure or a sentence written on the shared board window 33 is changed from the writer's trial and error stage to another. It was designed to constantly send and receive to and from the terminal device.

Therefore, the shared board window 3 shown in FIG.
As shown in 3, if the writer makes corrections or rewritings before completing the image that the writer finally wants to show to other conference participants, the data sent and received by the time the image is completed becomes useless. In addition, there is a problem in that the processing load is unnecessary for the terminal device.

Further, there is a problem in that conference participants other than the writer may be troubled by corrections and rewriting performed until the image is completed, and may not be able to concentrate on the conference.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and eliminates unnecessary image transmission / reception at the writer's trial and error stage, thereby reducing the processing load on the terminal device. It also aims to enable conference participants to focus on the conference.

[0009]

According to the terminal device of the present invention, an image written on a shared board for collaborative work with another terminal device connected via communication means is transferred between the terminal device and the other terminal device. A terminal device of a video conferencing system configured to enable communication by means of an image storage unit for storing images written on the shared board, and an instruction to end writing of images on the shared board. Means and a transmitting means for transmitting the image stored in the image storing means to the other terminal device when a writing end instruction is given from the instructing means. The video conference system according to the present invention includes the terminal device configured as described above.

[0010]

Since the present invention comprises the above technical means, the image to be written in the shared board is not written until the image to be written in the shared board is finally decided and the instruction of the image writing is instructed by the instructing means. The image stored in the terminal will be transmitted to another terminal device.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a video conference terminal which is an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a television camera (not shown) for photographing a conference participant, 101 a monitor for displaying conference participants and materials used in the conference, and 102 a material such as a drawing or a manuscript on a document stand 103. A television camera that shoots 104, 105 an image control unit that encodes and decodes image signals, 106 an image storage unit that stores images of conference participants and materials, 107 a microphone, 108 a speaker, 109
Is a voice control unit that encodes and decodes the voice signals of the microphone 107 and the speaker 108.

Reference numeral 110 denotes a communication control unit for transmitting and receiving a voice signal and an image signal, which receives a notification that an image such as a figure or a sentence written on a shared board 309 described later is finally determined. At that time, the image stored in the image storage unit 106 is configured to be transmitted to another terminal device. Reference numeral 111 is an operation unit for operating the system, and 112 is a system control unit for controlling the entire system.

The operation unit 111 is composed of a mouse, a keyboard and the like. For example, when a mouse click operation is performed on a transmission instruction button 308 in a shared board window 300, which will be described later, a figure or text on the shared board 309 is displayed. It is possible to notify the system control unit 112 that the writing of images such as the above has been completed.

FIG. 2 shows a case where a video conference is held by three parties, a first participant A, a second participant B and a third participant C, using a plurality of the terminal devices shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows a system structure. In FIG. 2, the internal blocks of the terminal devices used by the participants A, B, and C are distinguished by adding the letters A, B, and C to the reference numerals of the blocks shown in FIG. Further, 200 is a communication line that connects three terminal devices to each other.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the user interface of the shared board tool in the video conference terminal according to this embodiment. In FIG. 3, the shared board window 300 described above is one window displayed on the monitor 101 of FIG. 1 and has a shared board 309.
The shared board window 300 is used as an information input screen for collaborative work in which all conference participants write images such as figures and sentences on the shared board 309.

Further, 301 is a button for designating a line on the shared board 309, 302 is a button for designating a circle or ellipse on the shared board 309, and 303 is a pattern for writing a square on the shared board 309. Button, 3
Reference numeral 04 is a button for designating writing of characters on the shared board 309.

305 is a pop-up menu for setting various options such as font and size of characters on the shared board 309, type and color of lines, and thickness, and 306 is for editing work on the shared board 309. A pop-up menu 307 is a pop-up menu for saving an image on the shared board 309 in a file and loading an image saved in the file on the shared board 309. The transmission instruction button 308 described above is a button for instructing to transmit the image written on the shared board 309 to another terminal device.

Here, the operation of the terminal device configured as shown in FIG. 1 will be briefly described. The image signals of the conference participants photographed by the television camera 100 of FIG.
The image signal of the material 104 photographed by 2 is encoded by the image control unit 105. The audio signal input from the microphone 107 is encoded by the audio control unit 109.
The image signal and the audio signal thus encoded are transmitted to another terminal device via the communication control unit 110.

The operation unit 111 is used to monitor the monitor 101.
Shared board 3 in the shared board window 300 above
Images such as figures and characters written in 09 are displayed in the image control unit 1.
It is stored in the image storage unit 106 via 05. The image signal stored in the image storage unit 106 is read out when the transmission instruction button 308 is pressed, and is transmitted to another terminal device via the communication control unit 110.

On the other hand, the image signal and the audio signal sent from another terminal device are received by the communication control unit 110. Of these received signals, the image signal is decoded by the image control unit 105 and then given to the monitor 101 for display. Further, the audio signal is decoded by the audio control unit 109 and output to the speaker 108.

Next, the operation when a video conference is held among the participants A, B and C shown in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 4, first, for example, when the first participant A activates the shared board tool in step S100, the system controller 11 operates in step S101.
The image storage unit 106A is reset by 2A.

Next, in step S102, the first participant A uses the operation unit 111A to share the shared board window 30.
When an operation is performed on 0 and an image such as a figure or a sentence is written on the shared board 309, the written content is accumulated in the image accumulation unit 106A. Then, when the writing of the image is completed, the first participant A presses the transmission instruction button 308 in the shared board window 300 using the operation unit 111A in step S103, whereby the system control unit 1
12A is notified that the writing to the shared board 309 is completed.

In the next step S104, the system controller 112A, which has been notified of the end of writing, is written in the shared board 309 by the first participant A and the image storage unit 1
The images stored in 06A are transmitted to the terminal devices used by the other participants B and C via the communication control unit 110A. After the image is transmitted, the image storage unit 106A is reset in step S105. Finally, in step S106, it is determined whether or not there is an instruction to terminate the system, and if there is no instruction, the process returns to step S102. In this way, the processes of steps S102 to S105 are repeated until the use of the shared board tool is completed.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the image written on the shared board 309 is not transmitted to another terminal device until the transmission instruction button 308 is pressed by the user, so the image intended by the writer is obtained. It is possible to prevent useless images from being transmitted to other terminal devices until completion. Therefore, unnecessary processing load is not applied to the terminal device on the transmitting side and the terminal device on the receiving side, and the inconvenience that the conference participants other than the writer cannot concentrate on the conference can be eliminated.

[0026]

As described above, the terminal device of the present invention stores the image stored in the shared board, the image storage means, the instruction means for instructing the end of the writing of the image in the shared board, and the instruction. When a writing end instruction is given from the means, a transmitting means for transmitting the image accumulated in the image accumulating means to another terminal device is provided, and when the image to be written on the shared board is finally determined. Since the decided image is transmitted to another terminal device for the first time, it is necessary not to transmit an unnecessary image to the other terminal device at the trial and error stage until the image intended by the user is completed. Therefore, the processing load on the terminal device and other terminal devices can be reduced. Furthermore, since the contents of the shared board do not change for other terminal devices until the confirmed image is transmitted, the conference participants who use the other terminal devices can concentrate on the conference during that time.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a video conference system using the terminal device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a user interface of a shared board tool in the terminal device of this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation when a video conference is held using a shared board tool.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional terminal device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen of a monitor in a conventional terminal device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 monitor 106 image storage unit 110 communication control unit 111 operation unit 112 system control unit 300 shared board window 308 transmission instruction button 309 shared board

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A terminal configured so that an image written on a shared board for collaborative work with another terminal device connected via a communication means can be communicated with the other terminal device. An image storage means for storing the image written on the shared board; an instruction means for instructing to end the writing of the image on the shared board; and an instruction to end the writing from the instructing means. To
A terminal device, comprising: a transmission device for transmitting the image stored in the image storage device to the other terminal device. 2. A video conference system comprising the terminal device according to claim 1.