KR100451957B1 - A Real-Time Remote Education System Using Intercommunication - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a real-time interactive distance education system in which a plurality of clients and an instructor exchange text, video, and audio data through a computer connected online or on the Internet, wherein the client includes at least voice and / or image data input means. Or the instructor's computer; A function for authenticating whether the client or instructor is an effective user, a function for managing and controlling various data between the client and the instructor, a network switching function for selectively interconnecting the client and the instructor or the client and the client, and communication between the instructor and each client A host server comprising a function of adjusting bandwidth; Under the control of the host server, image and audio data are separated from various data provided by the plurality of clients and the instructor, and the separated image and audio data are rearranged and synthesized, and the synthesized image and audio data are combined. A media streaming server for transmitting to a plurality of clients and instructors; And a database server including a database storing text, voice, and image data generated from the client and the lecturer, such as personal information of the client and the lecturer, contents of the client's question, contents of the lecturer's lecture, contents of the lecturer's answers, and the like. It is done.

Therefore, according to the present invention, even when a plurality of simultaneous connections are made due to the characteristics of real-time interactive distance education, an effective real-time interactive distance education can be achieved by reducing communication traffic and reducing load on the server.

Description

A Real-Time Remote Education System Using Intercommunication

The present invention relates to a real-time two-way remote education system using the Internet or online, more specifically, even if a plurality of clients are connected at the same time to exchange video and voice to reduce the load of communication traffic and server efficiently two-way distance learning in real time It relates to a real-time interactive distance education system that can be performed.

In the conventional distance education method, first, education broadcasting by radio waves or cables can be given. This is a way to educate on TV at a given time. Next, the distance learning method using video. This is how instructors and students in the two classrooms equipped with the video conferencing system conduct education while watching their faces and screens through videos with limited educational content. Finally, there is a distance learning method using a general network, which is an image and graphic on the fly using a dedicated video telephone system where data is shared by two users connected over a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN). It is a training method of sending and receiving data. In addition, the distance education method using the Internet, which can provide data such as moving images and voices anywhere in the world, and special fields such as language education, are provided by the instructor and the client by one-on-one telephone connection. There is a distance learning method.

First of all, the remote education method using the Internet will be described as follows. 1 is an online real-time interactive multimedia distance learning system and method. (Patent Publication No. 2000-72429)

The conventional online real-time interactive multimedia distance learning system includes a lecturer system (30) and a lecturer system (20) having a voice input / output device and an image input / output device, and the systems (20, 30) are lecture dedicated servers ( 10) are connected to each other. In addition, the intermediate control system 40 for controlling the learner system 30 and the instructor system 20 and the dedicated server 10 for the lecture, a multimedia server 80 for storing the lecture contents, and a questionnaire for the learner. Statistical database server 70 accumulating the contents of the teacher's answers, natural language retrieval system 50 for retrieving the questions of the learners from the contents stored in the statistical DB server, and a personal image server for processing image information input from the students 60 is provided.

In the voice input / output devices 21 and 31 configured in the instructor system 20 and the student system 30, a microphone or the like is used as an input device, a speaker or the like is used as the output device, and an image input / output device 22 or 32 is used. In this case, a CCD camera or the like is used as the input device, and a normal monitor is used as the output device.

The natural language retrieval system 50 retrieves the question content transmitted from the learner system 30 to the lecture-only server 10 from the statistical DB server 70 under the control of the intermediate control system 40 to perform the intermediate control system ( The contents of the answers to the questions so retrieved by the system delivered to the intermediate instructor of 40) are information collected by the statistical DB server 70 by listing each previous question and the answers.

The storage multimedia server 80 is a server for storing the contents of lectures made between the learner and the instructor in multimedia, and the information stored therein is transferred to the learner by the intermediate control system 40 and the learner does not go through a separate lecture listening process. You will be able to review the previous lesson.

In addition, the intermediate control system 40 is a system for controlling signals transmitted and received between the lecture dedicated server 10 and the lecturer system 20 and the learner system 30 as described above. 10) to determine whether or not to attend the lecture and inform attendees and instructors whether or not the lecture started or not, the lecture dedicated server (10) to give the system on / off command for the preparation of the lecture, Notify me by email of absences.

In addition, the intermediate control system 40 retrieves the questions of the learners and transmits the searched answers to the questioners, providing answers to some of the questions that have not been answered, and responding to questions that are difficult to answer. (20) improves learning efficiency by allowing all lecturers and questions and answers to be shared by all instructors as well as lecturers by sending answers to all the learners as well as the learners.

As such, the distance learning system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-72429 has the following problems.

First, in the remote learning system using the Internet or online, many clients simultaneously connect, each client generates a large amount of moving picture and voice data all the time, and exchanges their moving picture and voice data through a communication line. Since traffic on the communication line causes serious problems, it is difficult to perform interactive training using moving images in real time. To solve this problem, expanding the network significantly is an expensive investment in infrastructure and is not a matter of choice.

Secondly, the processing of various moving picture data and voice data as it is, without the appropriate addition or subtraction as well as the traffic problem on the communication line, causes a significant load on the server processing the same. In order to solve this problem, it is possible to consider greatly expanding the capacity of the server, but in terms of efficient utilization of the system, the goal is to achieve the maximum effect with the minimum system, resulting in an increase in server purchase cost.

Third, unilateral training under the instructor's direction is to conduct a lecture. If the client's question is inquired, the database is searched and if it cannot be found by the search, it is transferred to the intermediate control system or processed. Because it is delivered and processed, the procedure is very difficult, not suitable for the purpose of real-time learning between the instructor and the client, and it is difficult for multiple clients to share information with each other. Of course, the question is stored in the database and can be searched at any time, but this is a system that limits the ease of sharing important information in terms of education because a search is performed only when a specific client wants or knows some information. will be.

An object of the present invention is to improve the above-described problems, real-time two-way remote can efficiently perform two-way remote education in real time by reducing the load of communication traffic and server even if a plurality of clients are connected at the same time to exchange video and voice Its purpose is to provide an education system.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a real-time interactive distance learning system that allows the instructor and a plurality of clients to share the learning information in real time.

1 is a view schematically showing the configuration of a conventional distance education system,

2 and 3 is a view showing the configuration of the distance learning system of the present invention, and

4 is a block diagram showing a data transmission method;

5 is a block diagram showing a processing flow of image and audio data;

6 is a block diagram showing a data processing step in a distance education system according to the present invention;

7 is a block diagram showing a data processing flow according to the present invention;

8 is a view showing an image data processing flow in FIG. 7;

9 is a diagram illustrating a voice data processing flow in FIG. 7;

10 illustrates a communication bandwidth adjusting method, and

11 is a view showing a browser screen in the distance education system according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: host server 101: instructor computer

102: Client Computer 110: Media Server

120: web server 130: DB server

140: DB backup server

Technical solution of the present invention for achieving the above object is at least a voice in a real-time interactive distance learning system in which a plurality of clients and instructors exchange text, video and audio data through a computer connected online or the Internet And / or a computer of a client or instructor comprising image data input means; A function for authenticating whether the client or instructor is an effective user, a function for managing and controlling various data between the client and the instructor, a network switching function for selectively interconnecting the client and the instructor or the client and the client, and communication between the instructor and each client A host server comprising a function of adjusting bandwidth; Under the control of the host server, image and audio data are separated from various data provided by the plurality of clients and the instructor, and the separated image and audio data are rearranged and synthesized, and the synthesized image and audio data are combined. A media streaming server for transmitting to a plurality of clients and instructors; And a database server including a database storing text, voice, and image data generated from the client and the lecturer, such as personal information of the client and the lecturer, contents of the client's question, contents of the lecturer's lecture, contents of the lecturer's answers, and the like. It is done.

In addition, the image data of the client may be replaced with character image data selected by the client from among a plurality of characters which are prepared in advance and stored in the database.

Preferably, it further comprises a mail server for transmitting or receiving e-mail between the instructor and the client or the client and the client.

The host server selectively selects an instructor and a specific client or only video and / or audio data related to a specific client and a client from the media server, and transmits the selected instructor or client to the instructor and the client. It is also possible for the client and the client to send and receive video and voice data directly through the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) method.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 and 3 is a view showing the configuration of the distance learning system according to the present invention, the instructor computer 101 and a plurality of client computers 102 are connected to the host server 100, the host server 100 is The media server 110 and the web server 120 are connected, and the media server 110 and the web server 120 are connected to each other. In addition, the web server 120 is connected to the DB server 130 and the mail server 140, DB server 130 is provided with a DB backup server.

The instructor computer 101 and the client computer are personal computers equipped with image and audio data input means such as a CCD camera and a microphone. The instructor computer 101 and the client computer are connected to the host server 100 through an Internet service provider (ISP). It is possible to do

The communication between the host server 100 and the instructor computer 101 or the client computer 102 is performed by TCP / IP or UDP (User Datagram Protocol) as disclosed in FIG. 4. In order to transmit / receive a large amount of moving image or voice data, a UDP method in which a client and a client or a lecturer and a client are directly connected and exchanging data is preferable in terms of server load and communication traffic reduction.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a processing flow of image and audio data, the method including obtaining source data obtained by a device such as a camera or a microphone (200), and a delivery step of transmitting and distributing source data through communication ( 201), separating the received source data into BIFS, picture, voice, animation, text, etc. (202), synthesizing the separated data (203), presenting the synthesized data (204). .

FIG. 6 shows a flow of processing the image and audio data processing steps disclosed in FIG. 5 in an education system according to the present invention, wherein the client's computer 102 is an image and audio data obtained through a webcam (CCD camera), generally The moving picture including the face of the client and the question and voice data are inputted through the USB port, compressed by the MPEG-4 encoder, and transmitted to the host computer 100. The host computer 100 mixes the transmitted voice data, performs network switching between the client and the instructor or the client and the client, and adjusts the communication bandwidth of the client and the instructor.

The image and audio data received by the host server 100 is transferred to the media server 110 (not shown in FIG. 6), and the media server 110 is divided into audio and image data, and each image is separated. And rearrange and synthesize the audio data, and transmit the synthesized image and audio data to a plurality of clients and instructors. The separation of the video and audio data means that the video and audio data coming through the instructor or the client are separated in the compressed state, by client, instructor, image, and voice, respectively, and the rearranged synthesis of the separated data is transmitted. For the sake of efficiency, it means that only necessary image or audio data are separated by transmission destination. In this manner, the large-capacity image and audio data are collectively transmitted by only the necessary image data and audio data by the host server 100 and the media server 110.

All processing of the above-described media server 110 is made and managed by the data mixing engine included in the host server 100. In addition, the adjustment of the communication bandwidth in the host server 100 is that even if multiple clients and instructors are connected at the same time, since each of them uses different communication amounts, the communication bandwidth used by them is flexibly adjusted as necessary. Conventionally, compared to applying the same bandwidth to clients in a batch, there is an advantage that can reduce the communication traffic much.

The image data and audio data of the client processed as described above are transmitted to the instructor's computer, and the transmitted data are decompressed through the MPEG-4 decoder and reproduced by the graphic device or the sound processing device. Here, the voice data is not always transmitted, but selectively transmitted only when the instructor and the client need to communicate with each other, and if all the voice data is delivered, any noise irrelevant to the lectures occurring around the clients or the instructor is eliminated. Will be delivered. The selection of such data is managed and controlled according to the mixing engine of the host server 100. Of course, the data management and control of the host server 100 can be controlled by the instructor or the client through his computer.

In contrast, video and audio data obtained through a web cam (CCD camera) installed on the instructor's computer 101, and video and audio lecture data including a video content indicating a lecture content are generally inputted through a USB port. -4 compresses by encoder and transmits to host computer 100. The host computer 100 mixes the transmitted image and audio data and transmits them to clients through network switching. At this time, the video and audio data of the instructor is separated, rearranged and synthesized through the media server 110 and transmitted to the clients. In general, since the instructor's video and audio data need to be transmitted to almost all clients, the addition or subtraction of the data is not significant.

As described above, the instructor's image data and audio data are transmitted to the client's computer, and the transmitted data are decompressed through the MPEG-4 decoder and reproduced by the graphic device or the sound processing device.

FIG. 7 illustrates a processing flow of voice and image data, in which data related to an instructor or a client are separated into image data and audio data (300: DEMUX), and the separated image data are switched (310), and the audio data It is mixed (320). The switched image data and the mixed voice data are synthesized (330), and thus the bandwidth is adjusted for each client (340), and then output.

FIG. 8 illustrates a switching process of the image data in FIG. 7. When the image stream data is input, if there is image data among the clients, the controller passes to switching (311), and authenticates client image data to be processed among the passed image signals. 311, only the authenticated client image data is streamed (314).

9 stores (321) the mixed voice stream data of the voice data as a continuous set of real-time voices, authenticates the voice data of the client or instructor to be synthesized (322), synthesizes the authenticated voice data (323), Stream the synthesized voice data.

FIG. 10 illustrates a method of adjusting a communication bandwidth for a client or an instructor according to the synthesis data of the switched image data and the mixed voice data in FIGS. 8 and 9. Define the input composite data (341), specify the storage area, and encode each data again to adjust the bandwidth for each storage area (VOP 0, VOP 1 ...), and then combine them again (342) to transmit a single transmission path. To send.

On the contrary, the synthesized data synthesized above is divided and decoded into original individual signals by decoding the multiplexed signal transmitted through one channel (VOP 0, VOP 1 ...), and then synthesized again to adjust the bandwidth.

11 is a view showing a browser screen used in the distance learning system of the present invention as described above, each function will be described as follows.

① is an interface that provides images of instructors or teachers in real-time video, and provides an open course to clients using Windows Media. If teachers are a group lecture for clients, the existing webcom is used. The screen is provided in about 30 frames, so that the screen produces a natural motion unlike a conventional Internet video chat, and provides a clear picture without interruption. If there is an open course for members, it shows the entire open course instead of the instructor screen, and if you use the UDP method, you can provide faster and clearer voice. In addition, the instructor or teacher can pass on lectures and other educational content while watching them.

② shows the list of questions and answers. It is a method of updating in real time. The notice or notification is delivered to students in real time, and students can check whether they have read it or not. In particular, in the case of a question, it is possible for the instructor to view the list and approve the student's screen. In addition, a mouse is placed on the article so that the user can quickly answer and ask a question for a list of articles applied in real time.

③ is an additional function. From the left, the first icon is a function to post questions and answers, the second icon is a function to check whether messages are received in real time, the third icon is a whiteboard function, and the fourth icon is a real time. This function is to check whether the mail is received.

④ is a part that provides a client screen, and provides a faster and clearer voice (16kbps stereo) using UDP method. The client screen is determined as the corresponding client by the approval and management of the client's client screen. The client name is displayed as a radio button at the beginning, and the duplicate selection of the radio button is possible when using the mail service and the message service except the screen management mode. . If the client does not have a webcam and a headset, it is replaced with a normal image or with a specific character of the client's choice.

⑤ is the part to select the approval of voice function.

⑥ is a message and mail transmission form provided to clients, and a message box can register a message and mail contents, and select whether to send a mail or a message by using a radio button. In addition, the file attachment form is used for sending assignments or learning materials when sending by e-mail.

Therefore, according to the present invention as described above, it is possible to interactive training in which a large number of clients can directly participate in real time, and even if a large number of clients and instructors are connected at the same time to exchange a large amount of moving image and voice data, the server load or communication traffic This allows for more efficient distance education with minimal equipment.

Although the present invention has been described in detail only with respect to the described embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations are possible within the technical scope of the present invention, and such modifications and modifications are within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (5)

In a real-time interactive distance learning system in which multiple clients and instructors exchange text, video and audio data through a computer connected online or internet, A computer of a client or instructor comprising at least audio and / or image data input means; A function for authenticating whether the client or instructor is an effective user, a function for managing and controlling various data between the client and the instructor, a network switching function for selectively interconnecting the client and the instructor or the client and the client, and from the instructor and one or more clients A host server including a function of adjusting a communication bandwidth for transmission of outputted image and audio data; Under the control of the host server, image and audio data are separated from various data provided by the plurality of clients and the instructor, and the separated image and audio data are rearranged and synthesized, and the synthesized image and audio data are combined. A media streaming server for transmitting to a plurality of clients and instructors; And It includes a database server including a database for storing text, voice, and image data generated from the client and the lecturer, such as the client and the instructor's personal information, the client's questions, the lecturer's lectures, the lecturer's answers, etc., The host server receives the image data of one or more clients, selects image data to be processed by lecture approval, and processes only the approved image data, and among the voice data of one or more clients and the instructor, only the voice data approved by the instructor Performs network switching function to stream synthesized data by combining The host server performs a real-time bidirectional bandwidth adjustment function of serially transmitting video and audio data transmitted from an instructor and one or more clients by a built-in multiplexer and transmitting in parallel to the media streaming server by a demultiplexer. Distance education system. The method of claim 1, And image data of the client is character image data selected by the client from among a plurality of characters previously prepared and stored in the database. The method of claim 1, Real-time interactive distance learning system further comprises a mail server for transmitting or receiving e-mail between the instructor and the client or the client and the client. delete delete