JPS6354858A - Audible sound outputting device for electronic conference system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To insure the concurrency of audible sounds generated from different terminals and to improve an ambience by adding or rejecting an audible sound data for the audible sound data separated into the each terminal of partners, according to the time difference between the terminals calculated depending on time information. CONSTITUTION:An audible sound frame transmitted from the partner side is separated into an unit address SAD 481, the time information TIME 489 and the audible sound data 491, and the audible sound data 491 is separated by a multiplexer 455 into the each terminal of the partners depending on the unit address 481 which shows the terminal of the partner, and an addition controlling part 459 rejects or adds the audible sound data depending on the time difference between the separated audible sound data which is calculated from the time information. Therefore, in the case of the addition, if the plural terminals are under a communication, the bits of time information of the plural terminals are considered. Thus, the concurrency of the audible sounds inputted from the different terminals is insured and the ambience at the time of the reproduction of the audible sound is elevated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an audible sound output device for an electronic conference system.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, in an electronic conference system that communicates between remote points via a transmission path, audio data is packetized and transmitted.
This audio data is played back on the receiving side. Figure 6 shows the format of a voice frame used for such communication, and this voice frame has an address field (A>1
, a control field (C) 3, a time information field (T) 5, and a data field 7.

Address field 1 indicates the source and destination addresses. The control field 3 carries control information. The time information field 5 indicates the absolute time or the time difference from the previous packet transmission, since the time interval between packets when reproduced on the receiving side affects the reproduced sound quality. Data field 7 is loaded with data to be transmitted.

FIG. 7 shows a logical connection configuration of an electronic conference system that conducts remote conferences between different locations.

As shown in the figure, the conference system unit 9.11.1
3 are connected by one channel 15.17.

In such an electronic conference system, audio data is transmitted using the audio frames, but the receiving side monitors the time information field (T) 5, and if a packet arrives with a certain time difference or more, the data field 7 is A rejection is performed.

In this case, no audio is played back.

In the electronic conference system shown in FIG. The audio obtained by adding the audio that was played back by monitoring the time information field (T) 5 only during the time information field (T) 5 and the audio that was played back while monitoring the time information field (T) 5 only between the packets to be read quickly from the conference system unit 13. Output.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In this way, the conventional audible sound output device monitors the time information of the audible sound frame for each partner terminal, so when adding up the audible sounds emitted by different terminals, it is difficult to Due to the time lag, there is a risk that the simultaneity of the reproduced sound may be impaired, and there is a problem in that the sense of realism is lacking in audible sound reproduction.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and its purpose is to ensure the simultaneity of audible sounds emitted by different terminals, and to provide an electronic conference system with a high sense of realism when reproducing audible sounds. An object of the present invention is to provide an audible sound output device.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an audible audio system for an electronic conference system that conducts a remote conference with a plurality of partner terminals connected via a transmission line. An audible sound output device that outputs an audible sound includes a frame decomposition unit that decomposes an audible sound frame having at least a device address indicating a partner terminal, time information, and audible sound data; a multiplexer that separates the audible sound data for each terminal; and an addition control unit that adds or discards the audible sound data separated for each other party's incoming call according to the time difference between the terminals calculated according to the time information. is 82 digits.

(Function) The audible sound frame sent from the other party is decomposed into device address, time information, and audible sound data, and the audible sound data is separated by multiplexer for each other terminal based on the device address indicating the other terminal. The addition control unit rejects and adds the audible sound data according to the time difference between the separated audible sound data calculated from the time information.

Therefore, in this addition, if there are multiple terminals in communication, the time information of the multiple terminals is taken into account.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conference unit system of an electronic conference system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The control device 900 is connected to input devices for drawing, still image, moving image, and audio, and is also connected to output devices for -1 storage, recording output, and audio. Signals from these input devices and signals to output devices are subjected to processing such as selection and multiplexing according to several control information signals, and are then transmitted.

Input devices include a plurality of drawing input devices 100 for inputting handwritten characters and figures, a still image input device 200 for inputting documents before or during the meeting, and images of conference attendees and the background of the conference hall. Video input device 300 for inputting. A voice input device 400 for inputting voice is connected.

In addition, the output device is a plurality of flat display devices 150 for displaying input information of the own terminal and the transmitted drawing type and still image type.
and graphic display device (1) 160, graphic display device (1)
A hard copy device 260 that takes a copy of 160, a graphic display device (2>350) that displays the own terminal and the transmitted video input information, and an audio output device 450 that outputs the transmitted audio input information are connected. has been done.

Further, storage device 600 records and reads out this input/output information. The transmission device 700 is connected to two other remote conference unit systems.

The above input/output information is provided by signals from devices such as the operation input device 850, the status detection device 80'○ that detects whether conference attendees are sitting or leaving their seats, and the speaker identification device 510 that determines the speaker from the voice of the conversational person. destination is controlled.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control device 900.

Data from each input device and data to each output device are transmitted via an internal data bus 901.

That is, drawing data from the drawing input devices 100a, b, . Here, aSb...
and an alphabet are added to indicate that multiple devices with the same function are connected (the same applies below).
.

Still image data from the still image input device 200 is sent to the data bus 901 via the input interface section 922 and the data buffer 923.

Video data from the video input device 300 is sent to the data bus 901 via an input interface section 932 and a data buffer 933.

Audio data from the audio input device 400 is sent to the data bus 901 via an input interface section 942 and a data buffer 943.

These input data are prefixed with a frame identifier (FID) indicating which input device the data frame is from.

For data output, first the still image data is transferred to the data bus 90.
1 to the hard copy device 260 via the output interface section 926.

Similarly, still images and drawing data are transmitted from the data bus 9O1 to the flat display device 1 via the output interface section 916.
50a, b..., and is also sent to the graphic display device (1) 160 via the output interface section 917,
The video data is sent to the graphic display device (2) 350 via the output interface section 936, and the audio data is sent to the audio output device 450 via the output interface section 946.

Still images are sent from the rough graphic display device (1) 160 to the data bus 901 via the input/output interface section 917.
You can also send drawing data.

Also, accumulated data from the accumulation device 600 is sent to the data bus 901 via the file interface 961.
Conversely, when storing data, the data is sent from the data bus 901 to the storage device 600 via the file interface 961.

Switching of the transmission destination of these data, selection of data, and multiplexing are performed by the frame controllers 1 to 990.

When sending the data group collected by the frame controller 990 to the line, the transmission interface 972
It is sent to the transmission device 7o○ via. A data group sent from the line via the transmission device 700 is sent to the frame controller 990 via the transmission interface 972.

Here data buffer 913.923.933.943
is used to store data when transmission to the data bus is temporarily interrupted due to switching of data transmission destination or data selection, or when transmission line capacity is transiently exceeded due to multiplexing. It is.

A conference support section 991 controls the frame controller 990. The conference support unit 991 includes a speaker identification device 510, a state detection device 800, and an operation input device 850.
Instructs the frame controller 990 to select data, send destination, etc. by signals from etc.

Next, the main operations of the control device 900 will be explained.

The conference support unit 991 sends a transmission data transfer prohibition signal (
Based on the audio encoding rule signal (VR Kano), the input audio is compressed and encoded based on the audio encoding rule signal (VR Kano), and as shown in FIG. Identifier (TID) 485,
Audio encoding rules (VRUL) 487, time information (Ding I
RE) 489 is added to the audio data 491 and assembled into an audio data frame format. The audio data frame passes through the input interface unit 942, buffer 943, and data bus 901, and is accumulated in a packet sending buffer (not shown) in the transmission interface unit 972.
It is then sent out on the line. The above line has two B channel lines with a transmission capacity of 64 Kbps for transmitting voice data and a C channel line with a transmission capacity of 16 Kbps for transmitting control data. is 280C = 144Kbps.

Next, a case will be described in which a voice frame sent from the other party is input.

The audio frame sent from the other party is sent to the transmission device 700.
The transmission interface unit 700 checks whether there is a line error, and if there is no line error, the output interface unit 946 and the audio output unit 450
sent to. When a line error is detected, it notifies the other party that an error has occurred and requests retransmission.

Next, the audio output device 450 will be explained.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an audio output device 450, and as shown in the figure, this audio output device 450
includes an interface section 451 for interfacing with the control device 900, a frame decomposition section 453, a multiplexer 455, a plurality of decoding sections 457a, 457b, . . .
, an addition control section 459, an adder 461, a digital-to-analog converter ([)/to converter) 463, and a speaker 465.

A plurality of decoding units 457a, 457b, . . . are provided depending on the partner terminal, and each decoding unit 457a, 457b, .
- have the same configuration, including a digital signal processor 467, selector 469.32, ADPC)l firmware 471 and 16KAPC-AB firmware 47.
3 and 8K) a firmware ROM 477 containing IPC firmware 475. This 32KADPC)
1 firmware 471.16 KAPC-AB firmware 473.8 KNPC firmware 475 each stores a decoding program. The interface section 451 provides an interface with the control device 900. The frame decomposition unit 453 decomposes audio frames.

Figure 4 shows the format of an audio frame, and this audio frame has a frame identifier (FI[)>48
1, device address (SAD) 483, speaker identifier (T
ID>485, audio encoding rule (VRUL) 487
, time information (TI) IE) 489. t:i and audio data 491.

Frame identifier 481 indicates that this frame is an audio frame. The device address 483 indicates from which partner terminal this frame was sent. The speaker identifier 485 indicates which of the multiple conference attendees at one partner terminal made the statement. Time information 489
indicates absolute time or the time difference from the previous packet transmission.

FIG. 5 shows the format of a management frame, which consists of a frame identifier (FID) 493 indicating that this frame is a management frame, a device address (SAD) 495, and management data 497.

In FIG. 1, a frame decomposition unit 453 decomposes the aforementioned audio frames and management frames. The time information 489 decomposed by the frame decomposition unit 453 is
Each decoding section 457a, 457b and addition control section 459
The encoding rule 487 is input to each decoding unit 457a.
, 457b, the device address 483 is input as a control signal to the multiplexer 455, and the audio data 491 is input to the multiplexer 455.

The multiplexer 455 separates the audio data 491 for each partner terminal based on the device address 483, and the audio data 491 separated for each partner terminal is input to the decoding units 457a, 457b, . . . corresponding to that terminal. In the decoding units 457a, 457b..., the frame decomposition unit 453
A selector 469 selects a decoding method based on the encoding rule sent from.

That is, the selector 469 selects one of the decoding programs according to ADPC)1, the decoding programs according to 16KAPC-AB, and the decoding programs according to 8K) IPc, and operates with the selected decoding program. The audio data is decoded by digital signal processor 467. At this time, the compressed audio data is discarded based on the time information TIHE. The audio data decoded for each partner terminal is input to an adder 461.

The addition control 459 determines whether or not the adder 461 performs zero calculation of the audio data sent from each partner terminal based on the time information TII-IE. That is, the addition control unit 459 receives time information TIHE from one terminal.
In addition, it is determined whether or not to perform addition based on the time information 11TI) IE sent from all communicating terminals.

Therefore, the reproduced audio output from the adder 461 takes into account the time difference between each partner terminal.

The output of this adder 461 is converted into an analog signal by a digital-to-analog converter 463, and then sent to a speaker 465.
is output from.

Therefore, in this embodiment, since the audio is played back taking into account the time difference between the respective partner terminals, the synchronization of speech between the speakers is ensured, and a sense of realism can be enhanced when playing the audio.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the input data from different terminals can be processed using different terminals. ! It ensures the simultaneity of sound and increases the sense of presence when playing sound.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an audio output device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conference system unit according to the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a control device 90.
0, FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 are format diagrams of audio frames and management frames, FIG. 6 is a T-mat diagram of a conventional audio frame, and FIG. 7 is a logical diagram of an electronic conference system. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing connections. 453... Frame disassembly section 455...
...Multiplexer 459...
Addition control unit 461...Adder agent Patent attorney Nori Chika Ken Canshu Sanno - Figure 1 Date: Flemmei 8/1) sAD: 薯1at Lmata (Kyusho flea issue) ) TID: Transmission episode 1) r'1) VRUL: Announcement special issue I and rules TIME: Jimon Furzu Figure 4 Figure 5 A: Finish dress fee) しμ' C Coco Citro-2 Refile V T; [Ginben Izu Yoiko Suspect Fur] Shido Figure 6 Figure 7

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] An audible sound output device for outputting audible sound of an electronic conference system that conducts a remote conference with a plurality of partner terminals connected via a transmission path, which includes: a device address indicating the partner terminal, time information, and the like; a frame decomposition unit that decomposes an audible sound frame having at least audible sound data; a multiplexer that separates the audible sound data for each partner terminal based on the device address; What is claimed is: 1. An audible sound output device for an electronic conference system, comprising: an addition control section that adds or discards the audible sound data according to a time difference between terminals calculated according to time information.