JPH1198257A - Conference system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a conference system for allowing plural conference participants to participate in a same conference by using various transmission media. SOLUTION: In a conference system for operating conference among plural terminal equipment via a conference system center device and a communication network, a terminal equipment 2 connected through transmission media different from the others with a system center device 1 is provided among plural conference participating terminal equipment 2. This conference system center device 1 is provided with an information data base part 7 for registering the classification of the transmission media for connecting the terminal equipment 2 with the conference system center device 1. Then, at the time of conference, a conference system controlling part 4 converts transmission information to the plural transfer destination terminal equipment 2 at the same time, in matching with the classification of the transmission media registered in the information data base part 7, and simultaneously transmits it via a transmission media transmitting and receiving part 6 and a transmission media interface part 5 or the like to the terminal equipment 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a conference system in which a plurality of conference participants can participate in a conference system using various transmission media and can perform relay transmission using various transmission media.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a telephone conference system and a video conference system have been put into practical use, and a telephone network such as an ISDN or a telephone line is used even if conference participants do not gather at a predetermined place as in the past. By doing so, it became possible for the conference participants to hold a conference while being away from each other. In recent years, with the progress of electronic information technology, TV cameras,
Peripheral devices such as microphones and speakers, personal computers (hereinafter, referred to as PCs), and the like have been miniaturized, and it has become possible to participate in a conference system using a desktop PC or a portable PC. It has also become possible to construct a wide area network using various transmission media such as a telephone network and a computer network. However, the conventional teleconferencing system and video conferencing system are only realized by the telephone network, and a plurality of conference participants have a telephone network,
It is not possible to participate in the same conference using different transmission media such as a computer network and a CATV network.

[0003]

As described above, the conventional conference system has a problem that a plurality of conference participants cannot participate in the same conference using different transmission media. An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional technology and to provide a conference system in which a plurality of conference participants can participate in the same conference using various transmission media.

[0004]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a conference system for conducting a conference between a plurality of terminal devices via a conference system center device and a communication network. Among the terminal devices, there is a terminal device connected to the conference system center device by a transmission medium different from the others, and the type of the transmission media connecting each terminal device and the conference system center device is registered. A transmission media registration unit, and a conversion transmission unit that simultaneously converts transmission information to a plurality of destination terminal devices during a conference according to the type of transmission media registered in the transmission media registration unit, and simultaneously transmits the transmission information to the terminal device. Is provided in the center device. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the conference system center apparatus includes: relay information setting management means for setting and managing relay information for performing relay transmission; And relay transmission means for performing relay transmission to another conference system center apparatus according to the above. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the invention, the relay information includes type information of a transmission medium to a relay destination conference system center device as one of the relay information, The transmission information is converted in accordance with the type information and relayed to the conference system center device. Also, in the invention according to claim 4, in the invention according to claim 2 or 3, the relay information setting management means includes:
It has a function of setting and managing the cyclic relay information for performing the relay transmission by the cyclic relay path different from the normal relay path, and the relay transmission means, when the relay transmission by the normal relay path is impossible, or When it becomes impossible, cyclic transmission according to the cyclic relay information is performed.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, at the time of a conference, transmission information to a plurality of transfer destination terminal devices participating in the conference is a transmission medium which is a path of the transmission information. And simultaneously transmitted to the terminal device. According to the second aspect of the invention, at the time of a conference, transmission information to a plurality of transfer destination terminal devices participating in the conference is transmitted by relaying through another center device according to the set relay information. You. According to the third aspect of the invention, at the time of relay transmission, conversion of transmission information according to the type of transmission medium to the relay destination center device is performed. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when the relay transmission via the normal relay path is impossible, or when the transmission becomes impossible, the cyclic relay transmission via the cyclic relay path is performed.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a conference system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, a conference system according to this embodiment includes a conference system center device (hereinafter simply referred to as a center device) 1, a terminal device 2 of a conference participant connected to the center device 1 via various transmission media, 2,..., The system management terminal device 3 directly connected to the center device 1. The center apparatus 1 includes a conference system control unit 4 that manages and controls the entire conference system and converts transmission information according to transmission media, and the terminal devices 2, 2,... A transmission media interface unit 5 (5a, 5b, 5c, 5d,...) For performing communication control corresponding to each transmission medium, a transmission media transmission / reception unit 6 for performing transmission / reception via each transmission medium, The terminal device 2 of each conference participant,
2, an information database unit 7 for registering (storing) initialization information such as terminal numbers and transmission speeds; registering initialization information and the like in the information database unit 7 and managing the registered information; A transmission media management unit 8, an interconnecting transmission / reception unit 9 for transmitting transmission information received from one conference participant's terminal device 2 during a conference to another conference participant's terminal device 2, and adjusting the transmission timing of the transmission information. A synchronization information transmission control unit 10 and the like are provided. In addition, the conference system control unit 4, the transmission media transmission / reception unit 6, the transmission media management unit 8,
The interconnecting transmission / reception unit 9 and the synchronization information transmission control unit 10 are realized by sharing, for example, one or a plurality of CPUs and a ROM containing a program.

FIG. 2 shows an operation flow of the first embodiment. The operation of the first embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, initialization information relating to the terminal devices 2, 2,... Of each conference participant who can connect to the center device 1 and receive the conference service is registered in advance. For this purpose, the conference system control unit 4 of the center device 1 immediately writes power to the center device 1 to write desired contents in a corresponding portion of the screen if registration or update of initialization information is desired. The requested message is transmitted to the system management terminal device 3 together with the screen information. System management terminal device 3
Receives the message from the conference system control unit 4 and displays the contents on the display 3a. In addition,
The initialization information includes the type of transmission medium, transmission speed /
Transfer speed, terminal number / address, etc. The operator of the system management terminal device 3 performs writing according to the above message when the initialization information has not been registered yet, or when an update such as addition / modification is desired to be performed (S
1 and yes). Then, the written contents are transferred to the transmission media management unit 8 via the conference system control unit 4, and are registered (stored) in the information database unit 7, which is a transmission media registration unit, by the transmission media management unit 8 (S).
2). FIG. 3 shows the data structure of the initialization information relating to the terminal devices 2, 2,... Registered in the information database unit 7. The information database unit 7 stores a user name, a terminal number, a type of transmission media (ISDN, LAN, PSTN, etc.) for each terminal device 2, 2,.
And the transmission speed are registered as initialization information. In the information database unit 7, operation / operation parameters related to each transmission medium are registered in advance as initialization information. After the registration / update of the initialization information, or when the registration / update is unnecessary (No in S1), the transmission media management unit 8 reads the registered initialization information from the information database unit 7, and the transmission media transmission / reception unit 6 Pass to. In this way, the management table shown in FIG. 3 and various parameters corresponding to each transmission medium are set (stored) in the area allocated to the transmission medium transmitting / receiving unit 6 in the RAM (not shown). (S3). .. Are notified in advance by e-mail or the like to the terminal devices 2, 2,... Of the conference participants related to each conference, and when the start time of the conference approaches, the conference participants are notified. A conference participation instruction message is sent from the terminal devices 2, 2,... To the center device 1. That is, after initializing each transmission media interface unit 5 (S3),
The transmission media transmission / reception unit 6 enters a state of waiting for information received via each transmission media interface unit 5 (S4).
(S4) When the information is received (yes in S4), it is determined whether the received information is a conference participation instruction message (S5). If the message is a conference participation instruction message (yes in S5), the transmission media transmitting / receiving unit 6 acquires the conference name and the participant names from the message, and passes them to the interconnecting transmitting / receiving unit 9 (S6). In the conference participation instruction message, the name of the conference, the names of all participants, the date and time of the conference, etc. are set in the case of the conference manager. Is set.

[0008] The interconnecting transmission / reception section 9 creates a conference group information table as shown in FIG. 4 for each conference name based on the acquired conference name and participant names. That is, the same user name as the participant name is searched from the management table shown in FIG. 3, and the transmission media interface number, transmission speed / transfer speed, and terminal number corresponding to the user name are written in the conference group information table (S7). ). The conference group information table shown in FIG. 4 is an example in which two conferences are held in parallel. Each time the interconnection transmitting / receiving unit 9 writes the information of the terminal device of the conference participant in the conference group information table, the names of all the participants obtained from the conference participation instruction message of the conference manager and the participation written in the conference group information table The names of the participants (user names) are compared, and it is determined whether or not all the prospective participants have been registered in the conference group (S8). And if not all are registered (S
8 is no), and the process returns to step S4.

[0009] Similarly, a conference participation instruction message is received from each conference participant, and each time it is written in the conference group information table (S7), all participants write in the conference group information table. (Yes in S8) or when the conference holding time has passed a predetermined time, the interconnecting transmission / reception unit 9 passes the created conference group information to the conference system control unit 4. As a result, the conference system control unit 4 activates the application program (S9), and passes a conference enable instruction or a non-participant notification instruction to the interconnection transmission / reception unit 9. Then, the interconnection transmission / reception unit 9 passes the conference group information and the conference enable instruction or the non-participant notification instruction to the transmission media transmission / reception unit 6, and
The transmission media transmission / reception unit 6 transmits a conference enable instruction or a non-participant notification instruction to each of the conference participation terminal devices 2 at the respective transmission rates according to the conference group information via the corresponding transmission media interface unit 5 (S1).
0). Thereafter, the process returns to step S4, and the transmission media transmitting / receiving section 6 is again in a reception waiting state (S4 → S4). In such a state, one of the conference participants uses the conference participation terminal device 2 to transmit image information and audio information in a transmission method unique to each transmission medium. Then, the image information and the audio information are received by the transmission media interface unit 5 connected to the terminal device 2 (yes in S4), and are passed to the transmission media transmission / reception unit 6. When the transmission media transmitting / receiving unit 6 determines that the received information is transmission information composed of image information and audio information (n in S5)
o, yes in S11), the image information and the audio information are received (S12), and passed to the interconnecting transmission / reception unit 9. Then, the interconnecting transmission / reception unit 9 determines whether all the participants are the same transmission media based on the conference group information (S1).
3) If the transmission media are not the same (n in S13)
o), image information and audio information are passed to the conference system control unit 4.

The conference system control unit 4 converts the passed image information and audio information in accordance with the transmission medium on the destination side (S14). For example, when the coding method (compression method) is different, the image information and the sound information that have been coded and transmitted are decoded, and are coded again according to the coding method on the destination side. A plurality of destination side encoding methods are different from each other,
In addition, if any of them is different from the coding method on the transmission side, conversion for each destination side is performed in parallel. That is,
The conference system control unit 4 includes a plurality of types of encoding means (for example, an encoding circuit) and decoding means (for example, a decoding circuit) so as to be able to cope with all encoding schemes used in each transmission medium. -ing Note that, when the image information and the audio information are passed, if the conversion for the previously passed is not completed,
After the completion of the conversion, the conversion processing for the next passed is started. The converted image information and audio information are passed to the synchronization information transmission control unit 10, passed through the interconnection transmission / reception unit 9, further passed to the transmission media transmission / reception unit 6, and passed through the corresponding transmission media interface unit 5 to the destination terminal. Device 2,
Are transmitted to 2,... (S15). However, when the previous image information or audio information is being transmitted to the destination terminal device 2, the synchronization information transmission control unit 10 waits for the next transmission until the transmission is completed. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S13 that all the participants are the same transmission medium (yes in S13), the received transmission information (image information or audio information) is transmitted without being converted (S1).
5). When the transmission and reception of one piece of transmission information is completed, step S
4 and waits for reception from any of the transmission media interfaces 5, and the above operation is repeated as long as image information and audio information are received. Then, if a message that is neither a conference participation instruction message (No in S5) nor image information or audio information is received (No in S11), the process exits this operation flow.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a conference system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the conference system of this embodiment includes a relay control unit 11 in the center device 1 in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment. Further, the center device 1 is connected to another center device 1 via the transmission media interface unit 5. The center device 1 shown in FIG.
The configuration is the same as With such a configuration, in the conference system according to the second embodiment, the terminal devices 2, 2,... Of some of the conference participants are different from the center device 1 that manages the conference. When it is near 1,
A center device 1 for managing the conference and the terminal device 2,
By transmitting and receiving the transmission information between 2,... Via the other center device, it is possible to speed up the communication and reduce the communication cost.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to the operation flow shown in FIG. 6, operations in steps S21 to S26 are the same as those in step S1 of the first embodiment except that step S23 is added.
This is the same operation as S5. In step S23, the relay information is registered in the information database unit 7. For example, in the example of FIG. 7, the center device 1a is a center device for managing the conference, and the terminal devices 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 2
e, 2f and 2g are registered as terminal devices of the conference participants, the terminal devices 2d and 2e are connected to the center device 1a via the center device 1b, and the terminal devices 2f and 2g are connected to the center device 1b and the center device 1c. The relay information is registered in the information database unit 7 from the system management terminal device 3 so as to be connected to the center device 1a through the relay. In the case of the above example, information as shown in FIG. 8 is input from the system management terminal device 3 to the center device 1a as relay information. In FIG. 8, T3 to T7 are terminal numbers (addresses) of the terminal devices 2d, 2e, 2f, and 2g,
a, b, and c are terminal numbers (addresses) of the center devices 1a, 1b, and 1c, and the terminal devices 2a and 2b and the terminal device 2
Communication between d and 2e is performed via the center devices 1a and 1b, and communication between the terminal devices 2a and 2b and the terminal devices 2f and 2g is performed via the center devices 1a, 1b and 1c. doing. The relay information is a terminal device other than the system management terminal device 3 of the center device 1a that manages the conference, for example, other center devices 1b,
Input can also be made from the system management terminal device 3 connected to the terminal 1c or the terminal devices 2d, 2e, 2f, 2g of the conference participants.

In this way, the relay information as shown in FIG. 8 is given to the conference system control unit 4 of the center device 1a, and further, the transmission media management unit (relay information setting management means) of each center device 1 8 and are registered in the information database units 7 of the respective center devices 1. When the conference is held at the relay destination center device 1 other than the directly connected center device 1 to the terminal device 2 of the conference participant, the conference participation instruction message also includes the name of the conference holding center device, and in step S27, In some cases, this conference holding center device name is also acquired. Thereby, it is determined whether the center device 1 is a relay destination center device or a conference holding center device (S28),
If it is the conference holding center device (yes in S28), steps S29 to S32 (the same operation as S7 to S10 in FIG. 2) are executed. However, in step S32, a relay conference possible notification is issued to the center device 1 that relays to the terminal device 2 that performs communication via the relay destination center device 1.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S28 that the center device is the relay destination center device (S28)
Yes), the interconnecting transmission / reception unit 9 creates relay meeting group information (see FIG. 4) (S33). For example, in the example of FIG. 7, the maximum number of participants in the center device 1c is two. It should be noted that the conference holding center device name is also set in the relay conference group information. Subsequently, the interconnecting transmission / reception unit 9 determines whether all the participants have been registered in the relay conference group information (S34). The participant names and the holding times for the relay center devices associated with the conference names are determined based on the conference participation instruction issued by the conference manager.
, And is determined based on this. When all the members have been registered, or when the holding time has passed a predetermined time, the conference system control unit 4 activates the relay conference application program (S35), and passes the relay conference group information to the relay control unit 11. As a result, the relay control unit 11 acquires the relay information as shown in FIG. 8 from the information database unit 7 (S36), and based on this, transmits the other information via the transmission medium transmitting / receiving unit 6 and the corresponding transmission medium interface unit 5 to another terminal. The relay conference group information is transmitted to the center device 1 of the above (S37). In the example of FIG. 7, the center device 1c transmits to the center device 1b.

If the information received in the reception standby state is the relay conference group information (yes in S38), the transmission media interface unit 6 passes it to the relay control unit 11. Then, the relay control unit 11 determines whether the own center device is the conference holding center device based on the relay conference group information (S39). If it is the conference holding center device (yes in S39), the interconnecting transmission / reception unit 9 adds the relay conference group information to the conference group information (S40), and proceeds to step S30. Also,
If it is determined in step S39 that the device is not the conference holding center device (No in S39), the process proceeds to step S35. If the information received in the reception standby state is the relay conference possible notification (yes in S42), the transmission media transmitting / receiving unit 6 passes the relay conference possible notification to the relay control unit (relay transmission means) 11. The relay control unit 11 transmits a conference enable instruction to the conference participation terminal device 2 via the interconnecting transmission / reception unit 9 based on the relay conference group information (S4).
3). As described above, the relay conference is enabled and the conference is started. Then, when the image information and the voice information during the meeting are received (yes in S44, S45), for the transmission to the terminal device 2 that does not need to be relayed (no in S46), steps S47 to S49 (S13 in the first embodiment). ~ S
15), and for the transmission to the terminal device 2 with the relay, the conference system control unit 4 converts the image and the audio signal according to the relay transmission medium based on the relay information (S50), and Is transmitted to the center device 1 (S51). The relay destination center device 1 determines whether or not to perform further relaying based on the relay information. If the relay is further relaying, the transmission information is converted if necessary, and is transmitted to another relay destination center device 1. . If there is no need for further relaying, the same operation as in steps S47 to S49 is executed.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of a main part of a conference system according to a third embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, in addition to the configuration of the second embodiment, a conference system according to this embodiment further includes a cyclic relay management unit 12 for registering and managing other cyclic relay routes and a normal relay route. And a relay monitoring switching control unit 13 for monitoring whether or not the network is available or unavailable and switching from a normal relay path to a cyclic relay path according to the situation. FIG. 10 shows an operation flow of the main part of this embodiment. The operation of the third embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. In FIG. 10, the operation of the portion having the same step number as that of FIG. 6 is the same as that of FIG. 6, and therefore, only the different portion will be described here. First, in step S23a, here, FIG.
Not only the shortest relay route that is normally performed as shown in (1), but also one or a plurality of cyclic relay routes used when the route is unavailable or cannot be used in the middle. Steps S61 to S64 are the same as those in FIG.
As described in the example shown in FIG. 1, for example, this is related to a relay route when notifying relay conference group information of the center device 1c to the conference holding center device 1a. In the second embodiment, the relay device always relays the center device 1b. Although the notification is made, in this embodiment, a cyclic relay route that does not relay the center device 1b is also registered, and notification that relays the route is also enabled. That is, first, a route for relaying, for example, the normally used center device 1b is extracted from the information database unit 7 (S61), and a relay connection with the center device 1b is attempted (S62). If the relay connection is not possible (No in S63), the cyclic relay information in the relay information is extracted (S64), and the operation from step S62 is repeated. If the connection is possible in the first relay connection or the subsequent cyclic relay connection attempt (yes in S63), step S37 is performed.
Proceed to. In the case where transmission information such as image information and audio information is relay-transmitted, cyclic relay is performed as described above if the first relay connection is not possible (S71 to S75). The same applies to the relay transmission when the notice of the conference is notified (S32). Further, when transmission of image and audio information and the like becomes impossible, relay transmission on a predetermined route becomes impossible from the middle, and subsequent transmission can be performed by cyclic relay transmission.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention,
According to the first aspect of the present invention, at the time of a conference, transmission information to a plurality of transfer destination terminal devices participating in the conference is simultaneously converted according to each type of transmission media which is a path of the transmission information, Since it is transmitted to the terminal device simultaneously, a plurality of conference participants can participate in the same conference using various transmission media. According to the second aspect of the invention, at the time of a conference, transmission information to a plurality of transfer destination terminal devices participating in the conference is transmitted by relaying through another center device according to the set relay information. Therefore, when the plurality of transfer destination terminal devices are far from the center device holding the conference and the terminal devices are close to each other, the transmission time is reduced and the communication cost is reduced. Can be. According to the third aspect of the present invention, at the time of relay transmission, conversion of transmission information according to the type of the transmission medium to the relay destination center device is performed, so that the transmission medium to the relay destination center device is different from other transmission media. It may be different. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when the relay transmission via the normal relay path is impossible, or when the relay transmission becomes impossible, the cyclic relay transmission via the cyclic relay path is performed. Depending on the situation,
It is possible to prevent problems such as the relay route being cut off during the conference and the conference being unable to continue.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a conference system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of the conference system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a data configuration diagram of a main part of the conference system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is another data configuration diagram of a main part of the conference system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a conference system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an operation flow chart of the conference system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a conference system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a data configuration diagram of a main part of a conference system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of a main part of a conference system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an operation flowchart of a main part of the conference system according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 center device, 2 terminal devices for conference participants, 3 terminal devices for system management, 4 conference system control unit (conversion transmission means), 5 transmission media interface unit, 6
Transmission media transmission / reception unit, 7 information database unit (transmission media registration unit), 8 transmission media management unit (relay information setting management unit), 9 interconnection transmission / reception unit, 11 relay control unit (relay transmission unit), 12 cyclic relay management unit , 13
Relay monitoring switching control unit.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A conference system for conducting a conference between a plurality of terminal devices via a conference system center device and a communication network, wherein the plurality of terminal devices are connected to the conference system center device by a transmission medium different from the others. The conference system center device, the transmission system registration unit for registering the type of transmission media connecting each terminal device and the conference system center device, a plurality of transfer at the time of the conference A conference system comprising: a conversion transmission unit for simultaneously converting transmission information to a destination terminal device according to the type of transmission media registered in the transmission media registration unit and transmitting the converted information to the terminal device simultaneously. 2. The conference system center device, wherein: a relay information setting management means for setting and managing relay information for performing relay transmission; and a relay for performing relay transmission to another conference system center device according to the relay information during a conference. The conference system according to claim 1, further comprising a transmission unit. 3. The relay system includes, as one of the relay information, type information of a transmission medium to a relay destination conference system center apparatus, wherein the relay transmission unit converts the transmission information according to the type information at the time of the conference, and 3. The conference system according to claim 2, wherein relay transmission is performed to a center device. 4. The relay information setting management means has a function of setting and managing cyclic relay information for performing a relay transmission through a cyclic relay path different from a normal relay path. 4. The conferencing system according to claim 2, wherein when the relay transmission by the relay route is impossible, or when the relay transmission becomes impossible, the cyclic relay transmission according to the cyclic relay information is performed.