KR19990026722A - How to display the charge of a videophone - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a video telephone apparatus capable of performing a telephone call while directly looking at the other person's face. More specifically, the present invention relates to a video telephone apparatus that recognizes the telephone number of the other party to call and reads the rate per hour of the current call. The present invention relates to a charge display method of a video telephone apparatus capable of displaying a usage fee for a set time and also displaying a total call charge.

The fee display method of the video telephone apparatus according to the present invention includes a microcomputer 32 for controlling the entire stroke, a modem 10 for transmitting and receiving data, and an OSD for generating specific characters in accordance with control signals from the microcomputer 32. A video telephone apparatus comprising a generator 38 and a mixer 40 for mixing a video signal input through the modem 10 with a signal output from the OSD generator 38, wherein the telephone call on signal A first step of detecting whether the microcomputer 32 is input; A second step of determining a corresponding area by recognizing the phone number of the other party in the microcomputer 32 when the telephone is detected as being connected through the modem 10; A third step of reading, by the microcomputer 32, per hour call data for the recognized corresponding region; A fourth step of measuring a telephone call time in the microcomputer 32 using an internal timer; And a fifth step of calculating and displaying the fee for the measured telephone call time on the monitor 30 and displaying the total call charge using all data stored in the fifth step.

Description

How to display the charge of a videophone

The present invention relates to a video telephone apparatus capable of performing a telephone call while directly looking at the other person's face. More specifically, the present invention relates to a video telephone apparatus that recognizes the telephone number of the other party to call and reads the rate per hour of the current call. The present invention relates to a charge display method of a video telephone apparatus capable of displaying a usage fee for a set time and also displaying a total call charge.

Due to the remarkable technological developments in the wired and wireless communication fields, various kinds of telephone apparatuses have been used, and recently, video telephone apparatuses capable of talking directly while looking at the other party's face have been developed and sold. Such a video telephone apparatus is usually configured by sending a video of a caller to the other party using a camera and outputting a video signal transmitted from the other party to the own monitor.

Fig. 1 is a configuration example of a conventionally used video telephone apparatus, and the operation state will be briefly described with reference to this.

As shown, since the video and audio signals are simultaneously loaded on the data transmitted through the modem 10, the audio signal is separated from the audio separation unit 12 and amplified to a sufficient size among the signals transmitted through the modem 10. After the amplification in the unit 14, it is output through the speaker 28 or earphones (not shown). The modem 10 preferably uses a modem for ultra-high speed data communication that can simultaneously perform transmission and reception.

On the other hand, after the video signal is separated from the video separator 16, the compression unit 18 is decompressed. Compression is performed to reduce the time required for transmission by reducing the size of the image data, and the decompressed image data is input to the video processor 20. The video processor 20 processes and outputs image data in digital form, and the output signal is amplified by the amplifier 22 and then output through the monitor 30. At this time, only the video signal transmitted from the other party is output.

In addition, the caller's own voice signal is transmitted through the modem 10 after being input through the microphone 26, and the video of the caller is also transmitted through the modem 10 after being input by the camera input unit 24. Displayed on the other party's monitor screen.

In the video telephone apparatus having the above configuration, since a large amount of data including image data is transmitted / received, there is a problem that the communication speed is slowed down, the call time increases, and the telephone bill is charged accordingly. In particular, when using international calls, it is required to use the phone efficiently because of enormous telephone charges.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to recognize the phone number of the other party to call and to read the charge per hour of the call area of the current call to use the charge for the time used The present invention provides a method of displaying a fee of a video telephone apparatus which can display and also display a total call charge.

The charge display method of the video telephone apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object is in accordance with a microcomputer 32 for controlling the entire stroke, a modem 10 for transmitting and receiving data, and a control signal from the microcomputer 32. And an on-screen display (OSD) generator 38 for generating a specific character, and a mixer 40 for mixing the video signal input through the modem 10 with the signal output from the OSD generator 38. The first step of detecting whether the telephone call on signal is input in the microcomputer (32); A second step of determining a corresponding area by recognizing the phone number of the other party in the microcomputer 32 when the telephone is detected as being connected through the modem 10; A third step of reading, by the microcomputer 32, per hour call data for the recognized corresponding region; A fourth step of measuring a telephone call time in the microcomputer 32 using an internal timer; And a fifth step of calculating and displaying the fee for the measured telephone call time and displaying it on the monitor 30.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a video telephone apparatus in which the method of the present invention is implemented;

2 is a flowchart for explaining a charge display method of a video telephone apparatus according to the present invention;

3 is a flowchart for explaining the total amount charge display method of the video telephone apparatus of the present invention;

4 is a front view of a monitor in which charges are displayed by the method of the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

10: modem, 12: audio splitter,

14: amplification section, 16: video separation section,

18: compression unit, 20: video processor,

22: amplification section, 24: camera input section,

26: microphone, 28: speaker,

30: monitor, 32: microcomputer,

34: memory portion, 36: key input portion,

38: OSD generator, 40: mixer.

Hereinafter, a method of displaying a fee of a video telephone apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The method of the present invention provides a method for efficiently using a videophone by calculating and displaying a fee for using a videophone, comprising: a memory unit for storing a telephone bill for a usage time, an OSD generator for generating a specific character, This can be achieved by using a mixer for synthesizing the video signal.

The method of the present invention as described above comprises the following steps: a first step of detecting in the microcomputer 32 whether a telephone call temperature signal is input; A second step of determining a corresponding area by recognizing the phone number of the other party in the microcomputer 32 when the telephone is detected as being connected through the modem 10; A third step of reading, by the microcomputer 32, per hour call data for the recognized corresponding region; A fourth step of measuring a telephone call time in the microcomputer 32 using an internal timer; And a fifth step of calculating and displaying the charges for the measured telephone call time and displaying them on the monitor 30, and also accumulating each charge and storing the total charges or individual charges for each telephone number. It can be calculated.

First, the usage fee display method will be described using the flowchart of FIG. 2, and additional functions will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

When a caller inputs a phone number for a video call and a call execution command is input, the microcomputer 32 controls the modem 10 to make a call using a dial tone. At the same time, the microcomputer 32 recognizes the telephone number and recognizes the area where the current telephone call is desired.

The area recognition is, for example, if the phone number is (02) 555-xxxx, since the best area code is (02), the microcomputer 32 connects the area corresponding to (02) to the microcomputer 32 ( Read at 34). The memory unit 34 stores data about a country according to an international phone number and a corresponding area according to a country area code in advance. Since the contents stored in the memory unit 34 do not need to be changed frequently, it is preferable to use ROM (Read Only Memory).

After confirming the corresponding region from the memory unit 34, the microcomputer 32 starts measuring the talk time using an internal timer when a signal received from the other party is input. During the call, the timer is continuously measured. After the call is terminated, the microcomputer 32 measures the total usage time and calculates the usage fee for the talk time. The usage fee is calculated by referring to the charge per call time loaded from the memory unit 34, and when the calculation is completed, the microcomputer 32 allows the caller to recognize the charge calculated through the monitor 30 screen. Output

The output of the charge is performed as follows. When the calculation of the usage fee is completed in the microcomputer 32, the control unit transmits a control signal for outputting a specific character, that is, a character for displaying the calculated fee, to the OSD generator 38. When the control command is input, the OSD generating unit 38 outputs the corresponding character.

The output characters are input to the mixer 40 used to mix the image data. In fact, mixing of the image in the mixer 40 with the OSD text is not generated and is output to the video processor 20 and finally displayed on the screen of the monitor 30.

4 shows an example of the usage fee displayed as described above. As shown, when the telephone number just called is (02) 555-xxxx, a telephone telephone number is output, and a conversion rate of 500 won is displayed for the time used while talking with the telephone number.

The mixer 40 in the present invention can be used, for example, to display usage charges while making a telephone call. That is, since the microcomputer 32 measures the current call progress time using an internal timer, the microcomputer 32 can immediately detect the time elapsed and display the usage fee in real time. In this case, the user can easily terminate the call while watching the phone bill increase.

After displaying the usage fee on the screen of the monitor 30 as described above, the microcomputer 32 stores the output fee data in the memory device. This may be stored in a memory device (for example, a memory device such as EPROM) separate from the memory unit 34. The storage of the usage fee may store all telephone numbers and telephone fees for the call.

In this state, all the call charges are stored, and the user can output the accumulated call charges at one time. Referring to the flowchart of FIG. 3, when the telephone charge accumulation key is input through the key input unit 36 by the user, the microcomputer 32 loads all the telephone call rate data stored in the memory unit 34, and The calculation algorithm adds up the fees. The sum of usage charges may be displayed on the screen of the monitor 30. This display state is essentially the same as that shown in FIG.

Or if the user wants to see the cumulative usage fee for each phone number, the microcomputer 32 may classify the fee data for each phone number and output the sum of the usage fees for each phone number. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that these functions can all be performed programmatically.

According to the present invention as described above can recognize the phone number of the other party to call and read the rate per hour of the current call area to display the usage charge for the time used, and also display the total call charges, etc. There is an advantage that can be.

Although the invention has been described in detail only with respect to the described embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and variations can be made within the spirit and scope of the invention, and such variations or modifications will belong to the appended claims. .

Claims (2)

The microcomputer 32 for controlling the entire stroke, the modem 10 for transmitting and receiving data, the OSD generator 38 for generating specific characters in accordance with the control signal from the microcomputer 32, and the modem 10. In the video telephone apparatus having a mixer 40 for mixing the video signal input through the OSD with the signal output from the OSD generator 38, A first step of detecting, by the microcomputer 32, whether a telephone call temperature signal is input; A second step of determining a corresponding area by recognizing the phone number of the other party in the microcomputer 32 when the telephone is detected as being connected through the modem 10; A third step of reading, by the microcomputer 32, per hour call data for the recognized corresponding region; A fourth step of measuring a telephone call time in the microcomputer 32 using an internal timer; And a fifth step of calculating, displaying and storing the charge for the measured telephone call time on the monitor (30). The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of calculating the total amount of use using the charge for the telephone call time stored in the fifth step.