JPH09186991A - Image transmission method and system, and image terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a transmission data amount. SOLUTION: An image receiver side 30 is provided with a noted point recognition sensor 40 recognizing a noted state of the user of the image receiver side 30 (presence of notice, noted point on a screen of a monitor 36, and distance d up to the monitor 36) and a noted information generating circuit 42 generating noted information relating to the noted state of the user according to a recognition result of the noted point recognition sensor 40. The generated noted information is transferred to an image transmitter side 10. A noted information processing circuit 16 of the image transmitter side 10 processes the noted information from the receiver side 30 to decide a coding condition of a coding circuit 18. The coding circuit 18 codes the inside of the noted area with high image quality and codes the outside with low image quality. When the user of the image receiver side 30 does not take notice of a received image, the image transmitter side 10 stops the image transmission. The noted information includes size information of the noted area.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image transmission method and system and an image terminal device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a real-time image communication system such as a video conference or a videophone, most of the data transmitted to each other is image data for photographing operators (or users, hereinafter the same) of each other. In general, image data has an enormous amount of data when compared with voice data or text data. Since it is difficult to send and receive such a large amount of data in real time as it is with an existing communication medium, normally, as shown in FIG. 12, compression coding is performed on the image transmitting side and decompression decoding on the image receiving side. Be converted. For the compression method, coding techniques such as discrete cosine transform, vector quantization and differential coding are used.
It is also standardized at various levels.

In image compression, generally, the higher the compression rate, the more difficult it is to restore the same image as the original image, and the image quality of the replay image deteriorates. However, in a real-time image communication system such as a TV phone, since image compression / expansion processing must be able to be executed in real time, the compression rate is more important than the image quality.

Further, in the conventional video conference or video telephone, the image transmission quality (the number of pixels in one screen, the image quality (compression rate))
And the number of frames per second) are mainly decided by the image transmitting side. Although a configuration has been proposed in which the image receiving side requests the image transmitting side in advance for a certain transmission quality or higher, the final decision has always been left to the image transmitting side.

[0005]

The conventional example has the following drawbacks. That is, in the conventional example, since the first consideration was to make the amount of transmission data less than or equal to a predetermined value, the compression rate tended to be high, and the quality of the reproduced image was not very good. Therefore, it is not suitable for the transmission of a fine image, and the image receiving side cannot obtain the required fineness.

It is known that the region where the human eye can focus and focus on is relatively narrow. That is, even in a videophone or the like, the area in which the operator on the image receiving side can pay attention is limited in the transmitted image. In the conventional example, the image to be transmitted is always an image of a predetermined size, and the image quality is uniform over the entire screen.
In other words, both the image portion not noticed by the operator on the image receiving side and the image portion noticed by the operator are compressed and transmitted under the same conditions, and have the same image quality. In other words, unimportant data squeezes the communication path, degrading the image quality of the portion that is originally desired.

On the other hand, in a videophone, since the other person is mainly displayed on the monitor screen, as shown in FIG. 13, the central portion of the transmitted image, that is, the portion including the face of the other person is displayed. An image transmission system has been proposed in which high definition is provided and the surroundings are relatively coarsely compression-coded. This allows
It is possible to reduce the amount of transmission data while improving the image quality of the important part or the main part.

However, even in such an image transmission system, the image transmitting side has the right to decide which range of the image to be transmitted is to be high-definition, and the image receiving side precisely determines in the transmitted image. Whenever there is a portion to be viewed, the image transmission side is requested to make the image quality high for that portion, and it is left to the acceptance of the image transmission side, which lacks immediacy. That is, the image receiving side had to wait a non-negligible time before it could receive a high quality image even when there was a portion of the image that the user wanted to see with high image quality or it moved on the screen. .

It is an object of the present invention to eliminate such an inconvenience and to provide an image transmission method and device, and an image terminal device, in which the transmission quality of an image to be transmitted can be changed directly from the image receiving side. To do.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an image transmission method and system, and an image terminal device, in which a partial image quality of an image to be transmitted can be directly changed from an image receiving side.

[0011]

According to the present invention, the image receiving side transmits to the image transmitting side notice information indicating the state of attention of the received image by the user of the image receiving side. The image transmitting side sets the image transmitting condition according to the attention information from the image receiving side, and transmits the image according to the image transmitting condition.

The attention information includes a attention flag indicating whether or not attention is given to the received image by the user on the image receiving side, and information on the attention point. The image transmission side stops the image transmission or transmits the image with a predetermined low image quality when the attention is not paid according to the attention flag. The image transmission side, in accordance with the attention flag, if the attention is
An image is transmitted with a high image quality in a predetermined area including the point of interest and in a low image quality in other areas.

The attention information further includes information defining an attention area including the attention point. The image transmission side transmits an image including a point of interest and having a high image quality in a region of interest defined by the attention information and having a low image quality in the other regions, according to the flag of interest .

The attention information further includes information that defines the resolution of the attention area. The image transmitting side transmits the image of the attention area with an image quality according to the information defining the resolution of the attention area.

The attention information further defines the arrangement of the image data of the attention area and the image data other than the attention area at the time of transmission, and the image transmitting side accordingly responds to the image data of the attention area and the other image data. To transmit.

The attention information further includes distance information between the user on the image receiving side and the display surface of the received image. When the distance information is less than a predetermined value, the image transmitting side transmits an image with different image quality inside and outside the predetermined area including the point of interest. The image transmitting side also stops the image transmission or transmits the image with a predetermined low image quality when the distance information is equal to or larger than a predetermined value.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention applied to a videophone. For ease of understanding, the functional blocks of the image transmitting side 10 and the image receiving side 30 are shown separately with the information transmission as one direction.
In the normal case, the functional block shown as the image receiving side 30 is provided in order to enable bidirectional image communication.
It is clear that the functional blocks that are also provided on the image receiving side 30 are also provided on the image receiving side 30.

The image transmitting side 10 processes the video camera 12 for image input, the microphone 14 for voice input, and the information of interest (details will be described later) from the image receiving side 30 to obtain high image quality. The attention information processing circuit 16 that determines the attention area to be coded by, and the input image of the camera 12 are encoded with emphasis on image quality within the attention area set by the attention information processing circuit 16, and compressed outside the attention area. The coded data output from the coding circuit 18 is transmitted to the image receiving side 30 via the coding circuit 18 that codes the voice input by the microphone 14 according to a predetermined method and the communication line 22 while coding with the emphasis on the rate. In addition, the communication circuit 20 for receiving the attention information from the image receiving side 30 is provided.

The image receiving side 30 receives the coded data of the image / sound from the image transmitting side 10 via the communication line 22, and transmits the noticed information to the image transmitting side 10 and the communication circuit 32. A decoding circuit 34 for decoding the coded data of the image / sound output from the device, a display monitor 36 for displaying the image information decoded by the decoding circuit 34, and a sound decoded by the decoding circuit 34. And a speaker 38 that outputs the sound.

Although these configurations are common in the conventional example, in the present embodiment, the image receiving side 30 further determines whether the operator of the image receiving side 30 is paying attention to the screen of the monitor 36 and the monitor 36. Point on the screen of the monitor 36 (point of interest) when the operator focuses on the screen
And a focus point recognition sensor 40 for recognizing the distance d to the monitor 36, and a focus information generation circuit 42 for generating focus information regarding the operator's focus situation according to the recognition result of the focus point recognition sensor 40. It is equipped with. The attention information generated by the attention information generation circuit 42 is transferred to the image transmission side 10 via the communication circuit 32 and the communication line 22.

As means for recognizing the distance d to the monitor 36, for example, the structure shown in FIG. 14 may be used. That is, attention is paid to the operation of the mouse 110 in order to determine whether the operator is paying attention. For example, it is assumed that the position of the cursor 112 on the screen when the operator is clicking the mouse 110 is the point of interest of the operator. A distance sensor 114 that can measure the distance to an object is installed on the upper part of the monitor or the like, and a mark 116 that allows the distance sensor 114 to be distinguished from others is attached to the operator.
Be able to measure the distance to the operator. In this way, the distance d to the monitor 36 is measured.

When the operator is paying attention to the screen of the monitor 36, the focus point recognition sensor 40 detects the coordinates (x, y) of the focus point and determines the distance d to the monitor 36, as shown in FIG. To detect. The coordinates of the point of interest (x, y) are displayed on the monitor 3
The upper left of the screen of 6 is the origin, the horizontal right direction is the x axis, and the vertical downward direction is the y axis. In this embodiment, the monitor 3
The screen of No. 8 has 640 pixels × 480 lines.

The image transmitting side 10 initially transmits one image obtained by compressing the entire screen at a predetermined high compression rate. After that, when there is a transmission operation by the operator of the image transmitting side 10 and when the point of interest of the operator of the image receiving side 30 changes, the input image by the camera 10 at that time is transmitted. In the latter case, one image compressed under the compression condition according to the new state of interest is transmitted. When there is no change in the point of interest, the image transmitting side 10
Notify the 0 operator of the wait. Since the decoder 34 or the monitor 36 on the image receiving side 30 is equipped with the frame memory, the same image is continuously displayed on the monitor 36 until the next one image is transmitted.

FIG. 3 shows an operation flowchart of this embodiment. As described above, the image transmitting side 10 transmits only one screen of a still image of rough image quality when the image communication is started or when the operator of the image transmitting side 10 performs a transmission operation. As shown in FIG.
A rough image is displayed as shown in FIG. It should be noted that although voice can be transmitted in this embodiment as well, it is not directly related to the present invention, and therefore detailed description thereof will be omitted.

After the communication is started, the point-of-interest recognition sensor 40 on the image receiving side 30 starts to recognize the portion of the image receiving side 30 that the operator is paying attention to (S1). When the operator is away from the screen of the monitor 36 by a predetermined distance or more, it can be inferred that the operator is not looking at the screen of the monitor 36 at all. Therefore, it is not necessary to transmit the image data, and the image receiving side 30 notifies the image transmitting side to stop the subsequent image transmission (S10). As a result, the coarse image is displayed still on the monitor 36 of the image receiving side 30.

The point-of-interest recognition sensor 40 is connected to the image receiving side 30.
When it is detected that the operator pays attention to the image displayed on the monitor 36, the attention point (x, y) and the distance d are recognized, and the attention information generation circuit 42 determines, based on the recognition result.
The attention information to be transmitted to the image transmitting side 10 is generated (S
2). The generated attention information is transmitted to the image transmission side 10 (S3).

The attention information generated by the attention information generating circuit 42 is, as shown in FIG. 5, a flag (YES / NO) indicating the presence or absence of attention, the distance d between the operator and the monitor 36, and the coordinates (x) of the attention point. , Y), coordinates of the point of interest (x, y)
It is composed of the size (W, H) of the region of interest, which is set centering around, the transmission format of image data, and the resolution (or image quality) of the region of interest.

When the distance d between the operator and the screen of the monitor 36 is a predetermined value or more, it can be considered that the operator is actually looking at the entire received image displayed on the monitor 36. Therefore, in such a case, the attention information generation circuit 42 can omit generation of a part of the data having the structure shown in FIG.

During the videophone call, the image receiving side 30 also sends the image / sound data to the image transmitting side 10. Therefore, even if the attention information is sent together with these, or the image / sound data is separated. You can send it either way.

When the image transmitting side 10 receives the attention information from the image receiving side 30, the attention information processing circuit 16 encodes the attention area from the received attention information and the other images to be transmitted next, as will be described later in detail. Calculate the information required for (S
4). The encoding circuit 18 generates a header necessary for decoding on the image receiving side (S5), encodes the image from the camera 12 and the voice from the microphone 14 (S6), and outputs the image / voice generated in S6. The header generated in S5 is added to the coded data and transmitted to the image receiving side 30 (S8). The structure of the header is shown in FIG. Details of each element of the header will be described later. The decoder 34 of the image receiving side 30 decodes the image / audio coded data according to the header received together, and applies the restored image signal to the monitor 36 and the restored audio signal to the speaker 38.

The processes of S2 to S9 are executed each time the operator's attention state on the image receiving side 30 changes.

The method (S4) of calculating the region of interest by the attention information processing circuit 16 will be described. In this embodiment, coding is performed so that the inside of the region of interest has a higher configuration than the outside. For example, when the operator of the image receiving side 30 does not have a portion of particular attention in the received image, the entire image is roughened as shown in FIG. But the operator
When paying attention to any one of the points, as shown in FIG. 4B, the image transmitting side 10 sets an attention area of a certain size including the attention point so that the inside of the attention area becomes high definition. Then, the input image of the camera 12 is compression-encoded and transmitted to the image receiving side 30. In FIG. 4, a finely expressed image is shown by a solid line, and a roughly expressed image is shown by a dotted line. When the point of interest changes (for example, from FIG. 4B to FIG. 4C), the inside of the region of interest for the new point of interest is represented with high precision.

FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart of the information processing circuit 16 of interest, which is a more detailed representation of S4 and S5 of FIG. All of this processing is executed by the image transmission side 10. As described above, the image receiving side 30 transmits the information on the point of interest of the operator of the image receiving side 30, that is, the information of interest to the image transmitting side 10 in the structure shown in FIG. It is assumed that this attention information has the content as shown in FIG. That is, attention flag: YES d = 10 attention point coordinates (x, y) = (100, 135) size of attention area (W, H) = (160, 120) transmission format: separate resolution of attention area: 4 times To do.

First, the attention information processing circuit 16 first confirms the presence or absence of the attention by the attention flag of the attention information from the image receiving side 30. When the operator of the image receiving side 30 is paying attention to the received image, the attention flag is YES, and when not paying attention, it is NO. When the attention flag is NO (S2
1) Since the operator of the image receiving side 30 is not paying attention to the received image, the image transmitting side 10 suspends the transmission of the image and enters the standby state (S27). However, the image transmission side 1
In order to inform the image receiving side 30 of the contents understood by 0,
Transmission condition information having substantially the same content as the focused information sent from the image receiving side 30 is created (S26). Since the image transmission is in a standby state, the image transmission side 10 transmits this transmission condition information to the image reception side 30 in an appropriate format and timing. Details of this transmission condition information will be described later.

If the focus flag is YES, that is, if the operator of the image receiving side 30 is paying attention to the received image (S21), it is determined whether the distance d between the operator and the display screen is shorter than a predetermined threshold value D. Confirm (S22). The threshold value D is set to a distance value such that the operator looks at the entire screen, for example. When d <D, it can be considered that the operator focuses on a part of the screen and when d ≧ D, the operator focuses on the entire screen. Therefore, when d ≧ D (S22), the entire image of the image to be transmitted is encoded with coarse resolution without setting the attention area. Also at this time, the image receiving side 30 is the image transmitting side 10
The transmission condition information having substantially the same content as the content of the attention information sent to the server is created (S26).

When d <D (S22), as follows,
Coordinate values (X0, Y0) and (X1, Y) that define the region of interest.
Determine 1). That is, the coordinate value (x, y) of the point of interest from the information of interest from the image receiving side 30 and the size (W, H) of the area of interest are input (S23, S24). In FIG. 8, (x, y) = (100,135) (W, H) = (160,120).

From these, the coordinates of the region of interest (X0, Y
0) and (X1, Y1) are determined by the following equation (S2
5). That is, X0 = x−W / 2 Y0 = y−H / 2 X1 = x + W / 2 Y1 = y + H / 2. When (X0, Y0) or (X1, Y1) has a numerical value such that it is located outside the screen, it is obvious that the screen is limited to the limit value. That is, 0 ≦ X0 ≦
640, 0 ≦ Y0 ≦ 480, 0 ≦ X1 ≦ 640, 0 ≦ Y
1 ≦ 480. In the numerical example shown in FIG. 8, (X0, Y0) = (20,75) (X1, Y1) = (180,195).

The transmission condition information is also created when the coordinates of the region of interest are calculated (S26). The structure of the attention information is diverted to the transmission condition information, and the structure is shown in FIG.
FIG. 10 shows an example of the contents of the transmission condition information for the attention information having the contents shown in FIG. The distance d to the operator is meaningless and is not used. Instead of the coordinates of the point of interest, the upper left coordinate (X0, Y0) of the area of interest is stored as the origin. Diagonal coordinate values (X0, Y0) or (X1, Y
When 1) is limited by the limit value of the screen, the size value of the attention area may be different from the value designated by the attention information from the image receiving side 30.

The transmission condition information created in S26 is transmitted from the image transmitting side 10 to the image receiving side 30 as the original when the image is not transmitted and as a part of the header when the image is transmitted as shown in FIG. To be done. In addition to the information of interest, the image header describes information normally required such as the number of colors of the image, the presence or absence of compression, and the palette used by the image. This header is actually the image receiving side 30
The image receiving side 30 uses this header to restore the image data.

The transmission format and the resolution of the region of interest in the structure of the information of interest (FIG. 5) and the structure of the transmission condition information (FIG. 9) will be described. The transmission format here means an arrangement of image data at the time of communication. For example,
As shown in FIG. 11, there are two types of methods, “mixed” and “separate”. “Mixed” means that, as shown in FIG. 11A, fine image data of a region of interest and coarse image data of other portions are mixed and transmitted. "Separate" is to transmit a coarse image portion and a fine image portion in a separated form, as shown in FIG.
Other formats can be adopted, and the image receiving side 30 determines which format to use, and the image transmitting side 1
Request 0.

The resolution of the region of interest is expressed by a magnification with respect to the normal resolution. In the example shown in FIG. 8, the number is four times, which usually means that the region of interest is encoded with a resolution four times the image quality of the image to be transmitted. The larger this value is, the longer it takes to encode and decode per screen and the amount of transmission data increases. Therefore, it may be necessary to reduce the frame rate.

Under the condition that the processing on the image transmitting side 10 becomes unreasonable (for example, when the resolution of the region of interest is too high), the image transmitting side 10 can independently reduce the resolution of the region of interest. It is possible. In this case, the contents of the attention information and the transmission condition information do not match. Even if the size of the region of interest is too large, the size of the region of interest may be similarly reduced.

The attention information processing circuit 16 generates the transmission condition information and the image header by the above-mentioned processing, and supplies the information of the attention area and its resolution to the encoding circuit 18. The encoding circuit 18 uses the information processing circuit 16 of interest.
The input image from the camera 12 is encoded at a designated high resolution within the region of interest and at a low resolution outside the region of interest according to the information on the region of interest and its resolution. Encoding circuit 1
8 also encodes the audio signal from the microphone 14 by a predetermined method. The encoded image / sound data is sent to the communication circuit 20.
Then, the communication circuit 20 adds the header including the image header from the circuit 16 and transmits the image / voice code data to the image receiving side 30.

On the image receiving side 30, the decoding circuit 34
The coded data of the image is decoded by referring to the image header and applied to the monitor 36. As a result, on the monitor 36 of the image receiving side 30, an image in which the vicinity of the point of interest focused by the operator of the image receiving side 30 is high definition is displayed.
The decoding circuit 34 also decodes voice code data and applies it to the speaker 38.

In the above embodiment, when the operator on the image receiving side does not pay attention to the received image and when the point of interest does not change, the image transmission from the image transmitting side is stopped. The image may be continuously transmitted at the above high compression rate.

When the request from the image receiving side exceeds the processing capability of the image transmitting side, the image transmitting side limits the transmission condition to the range of the processing capability of the image transmitting side regardless of the request from the image receiving side. It is clear that it is good. As described above, such a change is transmitted from the image transmitting side to the image receiving side as the transmission condition information.

[0048]

As can be easily understood from the above description, according to the present invention, the image receiving side identifies the state of attention of the user with respect to the received image and transmits it to the image transmitting side for image reception. The side transmits the focused area as a fine image and the other areas as a rough image according to the transmitted information about the focused state. As a result, it is possible to effectively reduce the transmission data amount as a whole while maintaining the area of interest of the user with high definition.

Further, since the transmission data amount is adaptively adjusted according to the attention situation of the user on the image receiving side, the transmission medium can be effectively used. That is, when the user on the image receiving side is not paying attention to the received image, the transmission of the image is stopped, or the image is transmitted with a low image quality as a whole so that the transmission medium can be used for other purposes. To do.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of points of interest of an operator on the image receiving side.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a characteristic operation of this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a relationship between a region of interest and image quality.

FIG. 5 is a data structure of attention information.

FIG. 6 is a structure of an image header.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for calculating a region of interest in the attention information processing circuit 16.

FIG. 8 is an example of contents of a focused information structure.

FIG. 9 is a structure of transmission condition information.

FIG. 10 is an example of contents of transmission condition information.

FIG. 11 is an example of a transmission format of image data (mixed with separate).

FIG. 12 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional example.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example in which an image is transmitted with two types of resolutions.

FIG. 14 is an example of means for recognizing a distance d to the monitor.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10: Image transmitting side 12: Video camera 14: Microphone 16: Information processing circuit of interest 18: Encoding circuit 20: Communication circuit 22: Communication line 30: Image receiving side 32: Communication circuit 34: Decoding circuit 36: Display Monitor 38: Speaker 40: Focus point recognition sensor 42: Focus information generation circuit 110: Mouse 112: Mouse cursor 114: Distance sensor 116: Mark

Claims (42)

[Claims] 1. The image receiving side transmits to the image transmitting side attention information indicating the attention state of the received image by the user of the image receiving side, and the image transmitting side follows the attention information from the image receiving side. An image transmission method characterized by setting image transmission conditions and transmitting an image according to the image transmission conditions. 2. The image transmission method according to claim 1, wherein the attention information includes a attention flag indicating whether or not attention is given to the received image by the user on the image receiving side, and information on the attention point. 3. The image transmission method according to claim 2, wherein the image transmission side stops the image transmission according to the attention flag, when the attention is not paid. 4. The image transmitting method according to claim 2, wherein the image transmitting side transmits an image with a predetermined low image quality when the image is not being noticed in accordance with the notice flag. 5. The image transmitting side transmits an image with a high image quality in a predetermined area including the point of interest and a low image quality in the other area when attention is paid according to the attention flag. The image transmission method according to any one of 2 to 4. 6. The image transmission method according to claim 2, wherein the attention information further includes information defining an attention area including the attention point. 7. The image transmitting side, in accordance with the attention flag, when the attention is focused, includes the attention point, and the attention area defined by the attention information has a high image quality, The image transmitting method according to claim 6, wherein the image is transmitted in a low image quality in the area. 8. The image transmission method according to claim 6, wherein the attention information further includes information defining a resolution of the attention area. 9. The image transmission method according to claim 8, wherein the image transmitting side transmits the image of the attention area with an image quality according to information defining the resolution of the attention area. 10. The attention information further defines the arrangement of the image data of the attention area and the image data other than the attention area at the time of transmission, and the image transmission side accordingly responds to the image of the attention area. The image transmission method according to claim 6, wherein data and image data other than the data are transmitted. 11. The image transmission method according to claim 1, wherein the attention information further includes distance information between a user on the image receiving side and a display surface of the received image. 12. The image transmitting method according to claim 11, wherein when the distance information is less than a predetermined value, the image transmitting side transmits an image with different image quality inside and outside a predetermined area including the point of interest. 13. The image transmitting side stops the image transmission when the distance information is equal to or more than a predetermined value.
2. The image transmission method described in 2. 14. The image transmitting method according to claim 11, wherein the image transmitting side transmits an image with a predetermined low image quality when the distance information is a predetermined value or more. 15. The image receiving side focuses attention recognizing means for recognizing a state of attention on the received image by a user on the image receiving side, and focusing on generating attention information indicating the state of interest based on a recognition result of the focused recognizing means. The information generating means, the attention information transmitting means for outputting the attention information generated by the attention information generating means to the communication path so as to transmit the attention information to the image transmitting side, and the encoded image data transmitted from the image transmitting side, It comprises a decoding means for decoding according to the image header of the coded image data, and an image display means for displaying the output of the decoding means as an image. Attention information receiving means for receiving attention information, attention information processing means for processing the received attention information and setting image transmission conditions including image coding conditions, and the attention information processing means According to the image coding conditions obtained from the above, by coding means for coding the input image by the image input means, and by adding the image header including the image transmission conditions to the image data coded by the coding means. An image transmission system comprising: an output unit for outputting to the communication path. 16. The image transmission system according to claim 15, wherein the attention information includes a attention flag indicating whether or not attention is given to the received image by the user on the image receiving side, and information on the attention point. 17. The image transmission side further comprises transmission stop means for stopping image transmission when the attention flag does not indicate attention of a received image by a user of the image reception side. Image transmission system. 18. The encoding means on the image transmitting side comprises:
The image transmission system according to claim 16, wherein the image is encoded with a predetermined low image quality when the attention flag does not indicate the attention of the received image by the user on the image receiving side. 19. The encoding means on the image transmitting side comprises:
The image is encoded in a predetermined area including the point of interest with high image quality and in other areas with low image quality when the attention flag indicates attention of the received image by the user on the image receiving side. The image transmission system according to any one of 1. 20. The attention information further includes information defining an attention area including the attention point.
8. The image transmission system according to any one of items 8. 21. The encoding means on the image transmitting side includes the point of interest when the attention flag indicates attention on the received image by the user on the image receiving side, and is defined by the attention information. 21. The image transmission system according to claim 20, wherein an image is encoded in the focused region with high image quality and in the other region with low image quality. 22. The image transmission system according to claim 20, wherein the attention information further includes information defining a resolution of the attention area. 23. The encoding means on the image transmitting side comprises:
With the image quality according to the information that defines the resolution of the region of interest,
The image transmission system according to claim 22, wherein the image of the region of interest is encoded. 24. The attention information further defines the arrangement of the image data of the attention area and the image data other than the attention area at the time of transmission, and the image transmitting side accordingly responds to the image of the attention area. The image transmission system according to any one of claims 20 to 23, which transmits data and other image data. 25. The image transmission system according to claim 15, wherein the attention information further includes distance information between a user on the image receiving side and a display surface of the received image. 26. The encoding means on the image transmitting side comprises:
3. When the distance information is less than a predetermined value, the image is encoded with different image quality inside and outside a predetermined area including the point of interest.
The image transmission system according to item 5. 27. The image transmission system according to claim 25 or 26, wherein the image transmission side further comprises transmission stop means for stopping image transmission when the distance information is equal to or greater than a predetermined value. 28. The encoding means on the image transmitting side comprises:
27. The image transmission system according to claim 25 or 26, wherein when the distance information is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the entire input image by the image input means is encoded with a predetermined low image quality. 29. A focus recognition means for recognizing a focus situation of a user's received image, a focus information generation means for generating focus information indicating the focus situation based on a recognition result of the focus recognition means, and the focus information generation means. The information of interest generated by the information transmission means for outputting to the image transmission side to the communication path, the decoding means for decoding the encoded image data from the communication path, and the output of the decoding means Image display means for displaying, image input means, attention information receiving means for receiving attention information from the image receiving side, and attention information for processing the received attention information and setting image transmission conditions including image encoding conditions Encoding means for encoding the input image by the image input means according to the image encoding conditions obtained by the processing means and the focused information processing means, and encoding by the encoding means An image terminal device, comprising: an output unit that adds the image header including the image transmission conditions to the generated image data and outputs the image header to the communication path. 30. The image terminal device according to claim 29, wherein the attention information includes a attention flag indicating whether or not there is attention on a received image by a user on the image receiving side, and information on the attention point. 31. The image terminal device according to claim 30, further comprising transmission stop means for stopping image transmission when the attention flag from the image receiving side does not indicate attention to the received image. 32. The encoding means, when the attention flag from the image receiving side does not indicate attention to the received image,
The image terminal device according to claim 30, wherein the image is encoded with a predetermined low image quality. 33. The encoding means, when the attention flag from the image receiving side indicates attention to the received image, a predetermined area including the attention point is of high image quality, and the other area is of low image quality. The image terminal device according to any one of claims 30 to 32, wherein 34. The size of the predetermined area is defined by the attention information from the image receiving side.
The image terminal device according to any one of 1. 35. The encoding means includes a point of interest when the user on the image receiving side focuses on the received image,
Moreover, the area of interest defined by the above-mentioned information of interest has high image quality,
The image terminal device according to claim 34, wherein the image is encoded in the other areas with low image quality. 36. The image terminal device according to claim 34, wherein the attention information further includes information defining a resolution of the attention area. 37. The image terminal device according to claim 36, wherein the encoding means encodes the image of the attention area with an image quality according to information defining the resolution of the attention area. 38. The attention information further defines the arrangement of the image data of the attention area and the image data other than the attention area at the time of transmission, and the image transmission side accordingly responds to the image of the attention area. The image terminal device according to any one of claims 34 to 37, which transmits data and image data other than the data. 39. The image terminal device according to claim 29, wherein the attention information further includes distance information between a user on the image receiving side and a display surface of the received image. 40. The image terminal device according to claim 39, wherein the encoding means encodes an image with different image quality inside and outside a predetermined area including the point of interest when the distance information is less than a predetermined value. 41. The image terminal device according to claim 39 or 40, further comprising transmission stop means for stopping image transmission when the distance information from the image receiving side is equal to or greater than a predetermined value. 42. The encoding means encodes the entire input image by the image input means with a predetermined low image quality when the distance information from the image receiving side is a predetermined value or more. The described image terminal device.