JPH0846942A - Video conference education system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically turn a camera to a designated participant by designating one of the participants in a video conference education system. CONSTITUTION:In a slave station 2.1, the identification numbers of the respective participants are stored in a memory 16, and information on the seat positions of the respective participants and the turning angle of the camera 7B are stored in a control part 12. Information on the respective memories 16 are transmitted to a main station 1. The main station 1 displays a list on a monitor 11b. One of the displayed participants is designated by an input part 11c and he is allowed to speak. The slave station which is allowed to speak turn-controls the television camera 7B based on information on the seat position of the participant and automatically defects the camera.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video conference education system, and more particularly to a video conference education system for giving a lecture between a master station and a plurality of slave stations.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional video conference education system of this type will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, a master station 1 and a plurality of slave stations 2.1 to 2 · n (n is an integer of 2 or more)
Are mutually connected by communication lines 3 and 4,
A video conference education system for giving a lecture between the master station 1 and a plurality of slave stations 2.1-2.n is configured.

The television camera 7A and the microphone 9A of the main station 1
The video and audio of the instructor input from the device are multiplexed by the transmission device unit 5 and transmitted to the plurality of slave stations 2.1 to 2 · n via the line switching unit 6 and the communication line 3, and the transmission of each slave station. Separated by device unit 5B, monitor 8B and speaker 10B
Is output to

In the main station 1, the lecturer controls the control unit 11 (see FIG. 6).
By selecting and pressing one of the "slave station" buttons (see (A)), it is possible to make the selected slave station 2 call-enabled. The operator of the television camera 7B of the slave station, which is allowed to talk, controls the swivel base 14 by the camera control unit 15 to perform an operation so that the television camera 7B faces the student who is speaking.

The video and audio of the speaker are multiplexed by the transmission device 5B of the slave station and transmitted to the transmission device portion 5A of the main station 1 by the line switching unit 6A of the main station 1 via the communication line 3 and communication. It is transmitted to the transmission device section 5B of another slave station via the line 3, separated, and output to the monitor 8B and the speaker 10B.

In the slave station, when the student presses the "speak request" button of the statement request section 13 (see FIG. 6B) installed one for each seat, the statement request is notified to the control section 12. . The control unit 12 turns on the "requesting" lamps of all the speech requesting units 13 in the same station to notify all the students of the same station that there is a speech request, and at the same time, through the communication line 4, the main station 1 The request for speech is transmitted to the control unit 11.

When a speech request is received from the slave station, the control unit 11
Informs the instructor that there is a request for speech by turning on the "speak request" lamp of the slave station that has requested speech. When the lecturer presses the “subordinate station” button of the subordinate station that has requested the remark of the control unit 11, the “call enabled” lamp of the subordinate station's remark request unit 13 lights up and informs the students that the remark is permitted.

[0008]

In the video conference education system, in the conventional system, when a lecturer requests a speech, the instructor can discriminate the station that has requested the speech. It was not possible to determine if there was a request for comment from. Therefore, when trying to shoot the video of the speaker with a TV camera, find the student who speaks from the trainees of the slave stations that are allowed to speak,
Each slave station had to wait for the operator to move the TV camera in the direction of the speaker.

In addition, when a plurality of students request to speak at the same time from the same slave station, there is a problem that it is not known which student is permitted to speak. Further, there is a drawback that when one student makes a speech request, the other students of the slave station cannot make a speech request.

An object of the present invention is to display a list of students who are requested to speak, to instruct permission to speak from the list, and automatically turn the television camera toward the students who are permitted to speak. It is to provide an educational system.

[0011]

According to the present invention, there is provided a video conference education system for giving a lecture between a master station and a plurality of slave stations, wherein each of the slave stations captures an image of a student. Means, means for inputting identification information of each of the students, seat position information storage means for storing seat position information of each of the students in advance, and the seat position information storage means for each student direction based on the seat position information. A turning control means for turning control of the image pickup means and a means for generating a speech request for each student are provided, and in the main station, an information display means, a list of the slave stations, and identification information of students of each slave station. A means for collectively displaying the list on the display means and a means for generating a speaking permission by designating one of the students batch-displayed on the display means are provided, and the identification information of the lecture-permitted students is provided. Based on the turning control Videoconferencing education system which stage is characterized by being configured to pivot controlling the imaging means is obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a video conference education system for giving a lecture between a master station and a plurality of slave stations, wherein each of the slave stations has an image pickup means for picking up a student. Means for inputting identification information of each student,
Seat position information storage means for storing the seat position information of each student in advance, turning control means for turning control of the image pickup means for each student direction based on this seat position information, and each of the student A means for generating a statement request is provided, and in the main station, information display means, means for collectively displaying on the display means the identification information of the students who have requested the statement from each of the slave stations, and the display means. A means for designating one of the students who are collectively displayed to generate a speech permission is provided, and the turning control means controls the turning of the image pickup means based on the identification information of the student who is allowed to speak. A video conference education system characterized by the above is obtained.

[0013]

In each subordinate station, the identification information about the student and the seat position information are stored, and the identification information of the student of each subordinate station is displayed as a list on the main station display section, and the instructor is one of them. Asks for permission to speak. In response to this instruction, the slave station reads the seat position information of the instructed student from the storage unit and controls the camera to turn.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a system block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and the same portions as those in FIG. 5 are designated by the same reference numerals. The master station 1 and the plurality of slave stations 2.1 to 2 · n are interconnected by communication lines 3 and 4, and transmission device sections 5A and 5A are provided.
B is for bidirectional transmission by multiplexing images and voices between the master station 1 and each slave station, and the line switching units 6A and 6B are for controlling switching of the communication line 3.

The main station 1 has a television camera 7A and a monitor 8
A control unit 11 is provided in addition to A, the microphone 9A, and the speaker 10A. The main control unit 11 has a control unit 11a, a monitor 11b, and an input unit 11c.

Each slave station has a television camera 7B and a monitor 8
B, a microphone 9B, a speaker 10B, a utterance request unit 13, and a control unit 12 are provided, and the control unit 12 controls the television camera 7B so that the swivel base 14 is swung and automatically rotatable. Further, each utterance requesting unit 13 is provided with a storage medium 16 such as a memory card in which information such as name and affiliation which is identification information for identifying each student is stored in advance.

One utterance requesting unit 13 is installed for each seat of each slave station, and is assigned an identification number. Before using the system, for each seat in the classroom of each subordinate station, the swivel base 14 on which the TV camera 7 is mounted is rotated so that the student sitting in that seat is photographed, and the rotated angle is stated by the speech request unit 13 It is stored in the control unit 12 in association with the identification number.

FIG. 2 shows a swivel base 14 stored in the control unit 12.
It is an example of the rotation angle of. The rotation angle of the swivel base 14 when photographing the student sitting at the seat position P1 is 0 degree, and P
The identification number of the statement requesting unit 13 of 1 and 0 degree are stored in the control unit 12 as a pair. Next, the swivel base 14 is rotated to an angle at which the student sitting in the seat position P2 can be photographed, and the angle (A
(1 time) is stored in the control unit 12 in combination with the identification number of the P2 utterance requesting unit 13 and A1 time. Similarly, the rotation angles of the swivel base 14 are stored in the control unit 12 from the seat positions P3 to P6.

At the start of the lecture, the student attaches the storage medium 16 owned by each individual to the utterance requesting unit 13 so that the utterance requesting unit 13 stores the information such as the student's name and affiliation stored in the storage medium 16. Read out. The utterance requesting unit 13 stores the read information inside and at the same time transmits it to the main control unit 11 of the main station 1 via the control unit 12 and the communication line 4. The information saved in the statement requesting unit 13 is saved while the storage medium 16 is attached to the statement requesting unit 13, and is erased when it is removed.

FIG. 3 shows the utterance request unit 1 when the storage medium 16 is attached.
3 is shown.

The main controller 11 stores the transmitted information of the student in the controller 11a. A list of each slave station participating in the lecture is displayed on the monitor unit 11b, and the lecturer inputs it to the input unit 1.
By selecting any slave station from 1c, the monitor unit 1
A list of student information transmitted from the slave station selected on 1b is displayed. By selecting one student from the student list, the instructor can designate any student to speak.

FIG. 4A shows a screen example of a list of slave stations, and FIG. 4B shows a screen example of a student list display.

When the student requests a speech during the lecture, the speech requesting section 13 sends the identification number, the speech request and the student information to the control section 12 together. The control unit 12 transmits the identification number, the utterance request, and the student information to the main control unit 11 installed in the main station 1 via the communication line 4.

The main control unit 11 collects the utterance request transmitted from each slave station, and displays on the monitor unit 11b of the main control unit 11 that the utterance request has been issued. When the lecturer selects a request for speech from the input unit 11c, the monitor unit 11 of the main control unit 11
In b, the name of the station requested to speak and the slave station, affiliation, and name of the student who requested the speech are displayed. When a plurality of students request to speak, they are displayed in a list (see FIG. 4 (C)).
The lecturer selects an arbitrary speech request from the input unit 11c, so that the selected student can speak. When the speech is permitted, the student selected from the speech request list is deleted.

When the lecturer designates a student to speak or permits a speech request, the main control unit 11 controls the line switching unit 6A to switch the line, and at the same time, the slave station in which the trainee is permitted to speak. The control unit 12 transmits the speech permission notification and the identification number of the student who is permitted to speak through the communication line 4.

The control unit 12 of the slave station which has received the notice of permission to speak.
Rotates the swivel base 14 to the angle corresponding to the identification number transmitted from the main control unit 11 and directs the television camera 7B toward the student who speaks, and shoots the video of the speaker.

The video and audio of the speaker are multiplexed by the transmission device unit 5B of the slave station and transmitted to the transmission device unit 5A of the main station 1 by the line switching unit 6A of the main station 1 via the communication line 3.
Further, it is transmitted to the transmission device section 5B of another slave station via the communication line 3 and output to the separated monitor 8B and speaker 10B.

[0029]

According to the present invention, the instructor can easily determine which student has made a request for comment by looking at the list of request for comment displayed on the screen.
Even if a plurality of requests for remarks are made from the same station, the names of the students who are permitted to speak can be known, and thus there is an effect of not being confused.

When the speaking is permitted, the television camera of the slave station automatically takes a picture of the speaker. Therefore, it is not necessary to search the lecturer for the speaker and change the direction of the television camera. There is also an effect that it is not necessary to keep the person waiting in each slave station.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a relationship between a turning angle of a television camera and a seat position of a student.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a statement request unit in FIG.

FIG. 4A shows a display example of a slave station list on the monitor of the main control unit, and FIG. 4B shows a display example of a student list,
(C) is a diagram showing a display example of a statement request list.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional video conference education system.

6A is a diagram showing an example of a control unit in FIG. 5, and FIG. 6B is a diagram showing an example of a statement requesting unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 master station 2.1 to 2n slave station 3,4 communication line 5A, 5B transmission device section 6A, 6B line switching section 7A, 7B TV camera 8A, 8B, 11b monitor 9A, 9B microphone 10A, 10B speaker 11 main control Part 11a, 12 Control part 11c Input part 13 Statement request part 16 Storage medium

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A video conference education system for giving a lecture between a master station and a plurality of slave stations, wherein in each of the slave stations, an imaging means for capturing a student and identification information of each student. Input means, seat position information storage means for pre-storing the seat position information of each of the students, and turning control means for turning control of the imaging means for each student direction based on the seat position information. , A means for generating a speech request for each of the trainees, and a means for collectively displaying on the display means an information display means and a list of the slave stations and the identification information of the trainees of each slave station. When,
And a means for generating a permission to speak by designating one of the students who are collectively displayed on the display means, and the rotation control means controls the rotation of the imaging means based on the identification information of the student who is permitted to speak. A video conference education system characterized by being configured. 2. A video conference education system for giving a lecture between a master station and a plurality of slave stations, wherein in each of the slave stations, image pickup means for photographing a student and identification information of each student. Input means, seat position information storage means for pre-storing the seat position information of each of the students, and turning control means for turning control of the imaging means for each student direction based on the seat position information. A means for generating a speech request for each of the students, an information display means in the master station, and a means for collectively displaying the identification information of the students who have requested the speech from the slave stations on the display means When,
And a means for generating a permission to speak by designating one of the students who are collectively displayed on the display means, and the rotation control means controls the rotation of the imaging means based on the identification information of the student who is permitted to speak. A video conference education system characterized by being configured. 3. The video conference education system according to claim 1, wherein the means for inputting the identification information is a removable storage medium in which identification information such as a student's name and affiliation is stored in advance. .