JPH0846937A - Video telephone set and its control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a video telephone set preventing a bothering or prank call. CONSTITUTION:A telephone set 1 and a sound encoding means 5 transmit/receive a sound, and a monitor 2, a camera 3 and a still picture encoding means 6 a still picture with a call opposite party through a communication line under the control of a system control part 8. Received still picture data is reduced by a display size change means 9 at the time of starting reception and is displayed on the monitor 2. When prescribed time passes, a reduction factor is reduced and the picture is enlarged. Then,the picture is displayed in just a picture size that it is finally received. The reduction factor can be reduced not by prescribed time but based on the indication of an operator from a key pad 4. At that time, the operator judges whether the call is to be continued or not by viewing the picture, and gives the indication based on the judgement. Thus, the operator can recognize the picture by a reduced screen. Thus, a bothering prank call can be recognized without being displeased.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video phone for transmitting and receiving still images or moving images, for example.
In particular, the present invention relates to a videophone that prevents a prank call.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional video telephone, as shown in FIG. 6, a telephone 101 including a telephone and a transmitter is provided.
A monitor 102 including a CRT or a liquid crystal display (LCD), a CCD camera 103 as a photographing means,
A keypad 104, which is an input operation means for performing various operations such as switching between a telephone number or voice call and image transmission, or switching between image transmission / reception, and a code for encoding and decoding voice information and still image or moving image information into a digital signal. Some of the conversion means 105, 106, a line interface 107 for digital lines, etc., and a system controller 108 for controlling the entire videophone. .

In the above structure, when the videophones are connected to each other by a line and communication is started, the telephones can make a two-way call. Further, when the line is, for example, an integrated services digital communication network (ISDN), it is possible to send and receive still images or moving images. The shoulder image of the person photographed by the CCD camera of one of the video telephones is encoded by the encoding means and transmitted to the other video telephone through the line interface through the line interface. The transmitted image information is received via the line interface, decoded by the encoding means and displayed on the monitor.

As described above, good communication by voice and image is realized. The case where the ISDN capable of bidirectional communication of voice and image information is used has been described above, but the video telephone using an analog public telephone network that handles only a still image and transmits and receives by switching to voice is also the above. According to the configuration.

[0005]

As is well known, various mischiefs or harassments are made in a public line capable of communicating with an unspecified number of parties. For example, in a telephone, a voice that makes the other person uncomfortable or a so-called silent telephone is given. Further, there is a harassment in facsimiles that a meaningless document is repeatedly transmitted to consume the recording sheet of the facsimile of the other party and the necessary reception is not performed. Similarly, in the videophone related to the present invention, there is a mischief of transmitting an image that makes the other party uncomfortable.

However, in the configuration of the above conventional example, the image information sent from the transmitting side is decoded by the receiving side and displayed as it is on the monitor. Therefore, in order to handle the mischievous call, it is necessary to confirm the other party by voice and then turn on the monitor. That is,
There is the annoyance of turning on the monitor during a call and turning off the monitor after the call ends, which significantly impairs the realization of good communication intended by the videophone.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide a videophone and a control method capable of preventing a prank call while maintaining a good call.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the video telephone and the control method thereof according to the present invention have the following configurations. That is, a voice is transmitted and received by the telephone and the voice encoding means, and a still image is transmitted and received by the monitor, the camera and the still image encoding means with the communication partner through the communication line under the control of the system controller. The received still image data is reduced by the display size changing means when the reception is started and is displayed on the monitor. After a predetermined time has elapsed, the reduction ratio is reduced to increase the size of the image, and the image is finally received. The image size is displayed.

The reduction rate can be reduced not based on a predetermined time but on the basis of an operator's instruction from the keypad. At this time, the operator looks at the image and determines whether to continue the call, and gives an instruction based on the determination.

Alternatively, instead of changing the display size,
The resolution of the image is reduced and displayed as a rough image,
The resolution is increased every time a predetermined time elapses, and finally the resolution is displayed as it is received.

Alternatively, when a call from the other party is answered, confirmation information prompting the user to input a secret code is transmitted, and if the other party responds and transmits the secret code, the secret code is received and confirmed, and the secret code is confirmed. If received, the received image is displayed,
When the secret code is not confirmed, the received image is displayed in an obscured manner. If it is displayed obfuscated,
The operator looks at the image and then decides whether or not to continue the call. If the operator gives an instruction to clarify the display in the case of continuing, the unclear image display is stopped and the clear image as received is displayed again. .

[0012]

With the above structure, the received image is displayed in advance in the first display mode which is a mode that does not offend emotions, and after confirming that the image is not mischief, the second display mode which is a normal mode is displayed. You can deal with the above mischief by displaying with.

Further, the image received at the start of the call is displayed in the first display mode, and after a predetermined time has passed, the mode switching means for automatically displaying the image in the second display mode is provided. It is possible to realize an easy-to-use TV phone that does not require the operation of.

Further, by adopting a configuration in which the first display mode is a display mode in which an image is displayed in a reduced size, it is possible to realize a video telephone capable of surely determining whether it is a mischief without damaging emotions.

Further, by confirming the communication partner with a secret code and switching the display state based on the confirmation result, it is possible to realize a video telephone which is more convenient and enables good communication.

[0016]

【Example】

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 shows a schematic structure of a video telephone according to an embodiment of the present invention. The video telephone according to the present embodiment has a telephone set 1 such as a handset and a transmitter, a monitor 2 including an LCD, a CCD camera 3 as a photographing means, a telephone number or voice call and image transmission switching, or image transmission / reception switching. Keypad 4 which is an input operation means for performing various operations such as, audio encoding means 5 for encoding and decoding voice information (signal) into a digital signal, and still image information to a digital signal. Still image encoding means 6, and a line interface 7 for ISDN,
It comprises a display size changing means 9 for changing the display size of the received image information and a system control section 8 for controlling the entire videophone.

In the above structure, the videophones are connected to each other by I
When the SDN is connected and communication is started, the telephone enables bidirectional communication and still image transmission / reception.

FIG. 2 shows in detail the structure relating to the reception and display of a still image. The image information transmitted through the line is decoded by the demodulation / decoding means 6a via the line interface 7 and stored in the RAM 8b. The stored image information is stored in the image processor 9a.
Thus, reduction processing is performed so as to correspond to a display size of approximately 1/4 in both the vertical and horizontal directions. The reduction processing is realized by thinning out image information, for example. The reduced image information is sent to the LCD controller 2a and stored in the display memory 2c. The stored image information is LC
It is displayed on the LCD 2b by the D controller 2a.

The operation of the above-described structure will be described with reference to FIG.
It will be described based on the flowchart of FIG. This flowchart is a procedure executed by the system control unit 7 in FIG. 1 or the CPU 8a in FIG. 3 when a call is received.

First, in step S1, call information is received from a communication partner. After that, in step S2, the operator is notified by a ringing sound or the like that a call has been received. In step S3, it is determined whether the operator picked up the receiver. When the receiver is picked up, the call is started in step S4. When the handset is not picked up, the calling of step S2 is continued.

When the operator answers the call, step S
The image information sent in 5 is subjected to reduction processing and LC
It is reduced and displayed on D26 (first display mode). The reduction processing is performed by the image processing process 9a as described above,
The reduced display is performed by the LCD controller 2a and the display memory 2c. The reduced image information is gradually enlarged after a predetermined time, for example, several seconds. The image information to be enlarged and displayed is generated by thinning out the received image information stored in the RAM 8b by the image processor 9a. The generated image information is temporarily stored in the display memory 2c, and the LCD controller 2
It is displayed on the LCD 2b by a. The thinning rate lower than the thinning rate in the case of the reduced display is the thinning rate in the case of enlarged display. In addition, the thinning rate is gradually changed in order to gradually enlarge the display. The image information in the display memory 2c is rewritten at any time according to the enlargement ratio.

Next, in step S6, it is determined whether or not the image enlargement cancel switch is pressed after the received image is reduced and displayed. The image enlargement cancel switch is provided on the keypad 4. The reduction ratio of the reduced display is about 1/16 in area ratio as described above, and the content of the received image can be confirmed without harming the emotion (FIG. 4). Further, when it is difficult to confirm the reduced display, the content of the image can be confirmed without damaging the feeling in the process of gradually enlarging the display. If the content of the image is confirmed and it is not mischievous or harassment, the image is gradually enlarged and displayed without turning on the image enlargement cancel switch, and in step S7, the LCD 2 in the normal size is displayed.
b is displayed (second display mode).

As a result of checking the contents of the image, if it is determined that the image is mischievous or harassment, the operator turns on the image enlargement cancel switch, and in step S8, the display state of the image is reduced or is gradually enlarged. The image is displayed in the display size when the image enlargement cancel switch was turned on. Then, in step S9, when the call ends, it is confirmed whether or not the handset has been returned to a predetermined installation location, and a warning sound or the like is generated as necessary (not shown).

In the above procedure, if the result of checking the contents of the image indicates that the image is mischievous or harassment, the call may be ended by returning the handset to a predetermined place without turning on the image enlargement switch cancel.

The display size of the reduced display is not limited to the above, and any size may be used. Also,
The display size may be adjusted to a desired size by operating the keypad 4.

Further, in the above embodiment, the display size is gradually enlarged after the reduced display, but the normal size may be displayed after a predetermined time has passed (FIG. 4).

Further, in the above embodiment, the display time of the reduced display is about several seconds, but the display time is not limited to this, and any display time may be used. The display time may be adjusted to a desired time by operating the keypad 4.

Further, although the image enlargement cancel switch is provided in this embodiment, the image enlargement cancel switch is not provided, and after the reduced display is displayed for a predetermined time, the display is automatically switched to the normal size display. May be In this case, it is possible to judge whether it is a mischief while the reduced display is being performed, and if it is mischievous, return the handset to a predetermined place to end the call.

As described above, in this embodiment, the display size changing means is provided so that mischief or harassment can be dealt with without damaging feelings and without impairing usability. .

Although the type of image is not described in this embodiment, any still image having binary or gradation may be used. Also, R (red), G (green, B
It goes without saying that color image information having three (primary) color signals (blue) may be used.

Furthermore, although a still image is referred to in the present embodiment, a moving image also conforms to this embodiment. In this case, the same effect as that of the present embodiment can be obtained by reducing the image by the affine conversion or the like by the image processing processor 9a and displaying the image by using the configuration including the frame memory.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where the ISDN capable of bidirectional communication with voice and image information is used is described, but an analog public telephone which handles only a still image and transmits and receives by switching to voice. It goes without saying that the present invention is also effective for a videophone using a network. In this case, when the image is received by the above switching, the reduced display is performed as in the above embodiment.

[Second Embodiment] FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of the second embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of this embodiment is the same as that of the above embodiment except that it has means for changing the sharpness of an image instead of the display size changing means of the above embodiment, and therefore the description thereof will be omitted. The operation of the present embodiment will be described.

First, in step S11, call information is received from the communication partner. After that, in step S12, the operator is notified by a ringing sound or the like that a call has been received. In step S13, it is determined whether the operator picked up the handset. When the handset is picked up, the password is confirmed in step S14.
If the receiver is not picked up, the calling of step S12 is continued. The password confirmation in step S14 is for determining the other party of the call, and after picking up the handset, the message "Please enter the password" is automatically transmitted to the other party by voice or the like. At the same time, by transmitting the input contents when the password is not known, some input information can be obtained from the other party.

If the password confirmation result is OK, that is, if the other party is known, the process proceeds to step S15 to start the call, and the image received in step S16 is displayed on the LCD 2b in the normal display size (second display). mode). If the password confirmation result is NG, that is, if the input information from the other party is a wrong password, or if the password is not known, the call is started in step S17. The password confirmation is realized by the system control unit 8.

After that, the image information sent in step S18 is subjected to blurring processing by the image processing processor 9a and displayed on the LCD 2b (first display mode).
The blurring process is realized by reducing the difference between the specific gradation and the gradation information of the individual image information at a predetermined ratio for the image information having the gradation. The displayed image information that is blurred is gradually and clearly displayed after a lapse of a predetermined time. The image information that is displayed clearly is generated by changing the ratio of the received image information stored in the RAM 8b by the image processor 9a to reduce the difference in gradation. The generated image information is once stored in the display memory 2c and displayed on the LCD 2b by the LCD controller 2a.

Next, in step S19, it is determined whether the image blurring cancel switch is pressed after the received image is blurred. The image blur cancel switch is provided on the keypad 4.
Since it is blurry, you can check the content of the received image without harming your feelings. Further, when it is difficult to confirm the blurring display, the contents of the image can be confirmed without disturbing the feeling in the process of gradually and clearly displaying. If the content of the image is confirmed and it is not mischievous or harassment, the image is gradually and clearly displayed without turning on the image blur canceling switch, and then in step S20, the image is displayed on the LCD 2b in the normal state. As a result of checking the contents of the image, if it is determined that the image is mischievous or harassment, the operator turns on the image blurring cancel switch, and in step S21, the display state of the image remains blurry or gradually clear The image is displayed as sharp as when the blur cancel switch was turned on. Then, in step S22, when the call ends, it is confirmed whether or not the handset has been returned to a predetermined installation place, and a warning sound or the like is generated as necessary (not shown).

As described above, in this embodiment also, the image sharpness changing means is provided, and the password confirmation is performed by the other party of the call, so that the feeling of mischief or harassment can be prevented. And, it can be handled without compromising ease of use.

In the present embodiment as well, as in the first embodiment, the sharpness of the blurred display is not limited. Further, the sharpness may be adjusted to a desired sharpness by operating the keypad 4.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the blurring display is followed by the gradually clearer display, but it is also possible to adopt a constitution in which the display is carried out with a normal sharpness after a predetermined time has passed.

Further, the display time of the blur display is not limited. The display time may be adjusted to a desired time by operating the keypad 4.

Further, in the present embodiment, the image blurring cancel switch is provided. However, the image blurring cancel switch is not provided, and after the blurry display is displayed for a predetermined time, it is automatically switched to the normal display. May be In this case, it is possible to determine whether or not it is a mischief while displaying the blur, and if it is determined to be a mischief, return the handset to a predetermined place to end the call.

Also in this embodiment, the type of image may be either black and white or color as long as the image has gradation. Further, it may be either a still image or a moving image.

It goes without saying that the communication line may be either ISDN or analog public telephone network.

The display is not limited to blurry display, and any display form such as mosaic display can be used as long as the content of the image can be confirmed without disturbing the emotion.

Further, the identification of the other party is not limited to the one in the password of this embodiment, and any judging means such as judging whether or not the other party has come in the past by voice recognition may be used. .

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0048]

As described above, the video telephone and the control method according to the present invention can cope with mischief by displaying the image in a normal form after confirming that the image is not mischief, and can make a call. It does not interfere.

Also, the image received at the start of the call is displayed in the first display mode for confirmation, and after a predetermined time elapses,
By adopting a configuration having a mode switching means for automatically displaying in the normal second display mode, it is possible to realize an easy-to-use videophone without the need to operate a switch or the like.

Further, by adopting a configuration in which the first display mode is a display mode in which an image is displayed in a reduced size, it is possible to realize a videophone capable of surely determining whether it is a mischief without damaging emotions.

[0051]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram relating to image reception and display according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of reduced display and enlarged display according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Telephone 2 Monitor 3 Camera 4 Keypad 5 Voice Encoding Means 6 Still Image Encoding Means 7 Line Interface 8 System Control Section 9 Display Changing Means

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Jun Tanaka 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Hajime Sato 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Incorporated (72) Inventor Katsuyuki Kobayashi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A video telephone having a means for transmitting and receiving an image and a sound via a telephone line, the receiving means receiving the image, and the image processing means for applying a predetermined process to the image received by the receiving means. Display control means for controlling switching between a first display mode for displaying an image processed by the image processing means and a second display mode for directly displaying the image received by the receiving means, and the display control. A display unit that displays an image based on the control by the unit. 2. The display control means displays the image in the first display mode at the start of reception, and displays the image in the second display mode after a predetermined time has elapsed. Video phone. 3. The video telephone according to claim 1, wherein the image processing means reduces an image at a predetermined rate. 4. The video telephone according to claim 1, wherein the image processing means reduces the resolution of the image to a predetermined value. 5. The video telephone according to claim 1, wherein the control means has a switching means for switching from the first display mode to the second display mode. 6. The video telephone according to claim 3, wherein the display control means reduces the reduction rate of the image by the image processing means every time a predetermined time elapses. 7. A control method for controlling a videophone for transmitting and receiving an image and a sound via a telephone line, the receiving step of receiving the image, and the image to which a predetermined process is applied to the image received by the receiving step. A processing step, a display control step for controlling switching between a first display mode for displaying an image processed by the image processing step and a second display mode for directly displaying the image received by the receiving step; And a display step of displaying an image based on the control by the display control step. 8. A videophone having a means for transmitting and receiving images and voices via a telephone line, wherein when a call is answered, a transmitting means for transmitting confirmation information for prompting a secret code input, and a received secret code. Confirmation means for confirming, display control means for displaying the received image when the secret code is confirmed, and obscuring the received image when the secret code is not confirmed; A video telephone, comprising: an instruction unit for instructing to clarify an image displayed with clarity. 9. A method of controlling a videophone for transmitting and receiving images and voices via a telephone line, comprising: a transmitting step of transmitting confirmation information for prompting a password input when a call is answered; and a received password. A confirmation step to confirm, a received image is displayed when the secret code is confirmed, and a display control step in which the received image is obscured and displayed when the secret code is not confirmed. A method of controlling a video telephone, comprising: an instructing step of instructing to clarify an image displayed with clarity.