WO2004077829A1

WO2004077829A1 - Video conference system for mobile communication

Info

Publication number: WO2004077829A1
Application number: PCT/SE2004/000257
Authority: WO
Inventors: Greger Berg
Original assignee: Fidrix Ab
Priority date: 2003-02-27
Filing date: 2004-02-25
Publication date: 2004-09-10

Abstract

The method is for video telephony communication. A communication unit 11 is provided that is capable of exchanging audiovisual information with a mobile video telephone or video content source 16 via a mobile telephone system 13. A television 12 being in communication with the unit 11 that receives the audiovisual information that the unit 11 receives via the mobile system air interface 14. The unit 11 converts the audiovisual information to a media format of an interface 15. The unit 11 transmits the audiovisual information via the interface 15 to the television 12 that displays the audiovisual information from the remote party or content source 16 in real time.

Description

VIDEO CONFERENCE SYSTEM FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATION Technical Field

The present invention relates to a video conference system using a specialized mobile telephone unit. One side of the unit is connected to a mobile telephone system and the other side is connected to display means, e.g. a standard television, a projection device or a display for a computer or TV tuner. The video conference system also has a remote- control unit and optionally an extra microphone and camera device.

Background of Invention

With the event of the introduction of the third generation (3G) mobile telephone systems, even private people have access to inexpensive video-telephony. However, the use of such video telephony is often limited by the small size of the mobile telephones. What is more, it is difficult for more than one person to look at the small screen, particularly when the screen is not perfectly angled for all the viewers. It is also difficult to hear the sound on both sides of the communication, since the mobile telephone microphone and telephone speaker sound level is adapted to the telephone being near the mouth and ear of the user. There is thus a need for a more satisfying and effective way of conducting video conferences that provides better images and sound while remaining inexpensive. Also, the operators of the mobile systems sometimes have the exclusive rights to certain video content such as sports/entertainment events, live cameras etc. and the only way of watching this content is by using the telephone. As indicated above, it may be inconvenient especially for more than one user to watch the video call or video content on the limited telephone screen. There is a need to solve the above-outlined problems. In EP 1 059 809 A2 is described an adaptor device for attaching an external device, such as a mobile telephone, to a television device. The adaptor device comprises short range radio communicating means for receiving information from the external device, means for converting the received information to an information signal in a format suitable for a television device, and an output for supplying the converted information signal to an input of the television device.

In EP 1 180 903 Al is described a system having a plurality of display devices provided for transmitting an image from a first display device (such as a mobile telephone) having certain display capabilities to a second display device (such as a television) having different display capabilities.

A disadvantage both with the system described in EP 1 059 809 A2 and the system described in EP 1 180 903 Al is that these systems are constituted for transmission of audio and/or video in one direction from e.g. a mobile telephone to e.g. a television, and is thus not suitable for use as a video conferencing system.

Summary of Invention

The system of the present invention provides a solution to the above-outlined problems. The present invention makes it possible to watch the video conference or content on the larger screen of a display means, such as a television, a projection device or a display for a computer or TV tuner with enhanced sound quality also. The invention makes it possible for many people to participate simultaneously in, for example, a video call from a friend or relative in an interesting location that the whole family may enjoy participating in.

An important feature of the system is to minimize the cost of the system while providing a good picture, sound and a real conference feeling for all the participants. More particularly, the novel method of the present invention is to provide a specialized mobile telephone unit that at one side is connected to the public mobile telephone system and the other side is connected to display means, such as a standard television. The specialized mobile telephone unit receives, and can also transmit, video calls or other audiovisual information via the mobile telephone air interface. The display means displays the video information on its screen and sends the audio information to its speaker system. The system contains a remote control device for the specialized mobile telephone unit and may also have external microphone and camera devices to further enhance the video and audio sent to the remote sender/caller.

Brief Description of Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic illustration of the video conference system of the present invention; and

Fig. 2 is a schematic illustration of the video conference system of the present invention, using a standard mobile telephone and telephone to television adaptor as components instead of the specialized mobile telephone unit in Fig. 1.

Detailed Description

With reference to Figs. 1-2, the video conference system 10 of the present invention is based on a communication unit/specialized mobile telephone unit or 3GTV-unit 11. As best shown in Fig. 1, the unit 11 has one side in communication with a mobile telephone system/cellular system 13 over the mobile system radio/air-interface 14 and the other in communication with a television 12 over a standard audiovisual television interface 15 so that audiovisual information may be displayed on the television 12 for improved sound and visual clarity.

The mobile telephone system 13 and the radio air interface 14 may be of any suitable standard such as 3G (UMTS) or any other current or future type that can handle, transmit and receive video information and sound information from another mobile telephone or content source 16 over any suitable bearer service such as 3G-324M (video call) or any other current or future bearer type .

The unit 11 converts the audiovisual information from the format on the air interface 14 to a format, media and interface 15 suitable for a standard television 12. The interface to the television 12 can be SCART, S-video, Digital Video (DVI) , RGB, and the media can be cable, Bluetooth or any other suitable media. The unit 11 may have a standard (UMTS)

Subscriber Identification Module/ (U) SIM-card that, among other things, includes an identity of the unit 11 so that it can be contacted by a remote caller, and so that its owner can be charged for services such as video calls and receipt of video information. The unit 11 may also be used to call up a telephone number to trigger a video call or the receipt of video information such as a sport event.

An advantage of the present invention as compared to the above described prior art is the improved ease of use due to the fact that in the system according to the present invention shown in fig. 1, only one display device, instead of a plurality of display devices, is needed. Another advantage as compared to the prior art is that the system according to the present invention still is available for incoming video conference calls when there is no mobile telephone in the vicinity. The unit 11 is, preferably, also connected to a remote control-unit 18 placed in a convenient position for use by the conference participants for the purpose of answering and making calls, selecting and accessing content, configuring the functions of the unit 11 and any other purpose. The control- unit 18 is connected over a wire or wireless communications link such as Bluetooth 17 to the unit 11. The control-unit 18 may also be connected to a microphone 20 via a cable or other interface 19, and the control-unit 18 may transmit the audio signals via the communications link 17 to the unit 11. The microphone 20 may, alternatively, be connected directly to the unit 11 via the communications link 17. The microphone 20 is of a type that can provide a high quality sound also from several conference participants spread out at some distance from microphone 20. Preferably, the microphone is of a type that is insensitive to the sound coming out of the television 12 so that it does not pick up the sound from the remote caller 16 and so that it does not generate an echo.

The video conference system 10 may also be equipped with a video camera 22 that is connected to the unit 11 with a cable or any other suitable media 23 and may stand on the television 12 or on the unit 11 that in turn stands on the television 12 or anywhere else. The use of the camera 22 may be controlled from the control unit 18 so that direction and zooming features of the camera 22 may be remotely controlled in order to deliver a more satisfying video to the distant or remote party 16 by zooming capturing more participants or by delivering more close-up pictures of the participants who are in communication with the distant or remote party 16. The camera 22 may use the same control devices 21 and communications links 17 and 23 as already exist between the control-unit 18, the unit 11 and the camera 22. When an incoming call arrives over the air interface 14, it is important to be able to quickly display the audiovisual information on the television 12 particularly if a long distance video call has been received or a soccer goal was just scored. The present invention therefore includes an autostart function for the entire video conferencing system 10 including the television 12. An incoming call over the mobile air interface 14 activates the unit 11, and in turn activates the control-unit 18, the microphone 20, and the camera 22 via the communication links 17, 19 and 23. A standard television can however normally be activated only by manually pressing buttons on the television itself or on its remote control device, which is normally an infrared device. The control unit 18 may therefore also contain an activation function sending a start signal to the television 12 over a wireless link 24 to turn the television on which is normally performed with an infrared link. The system 10 is now rapidly ready to answer the incoming call as soon as the user is ready to give that command on the control-unit.

Another case is when a user already has established a video call in any standard mobile telephone anywhere in the vicinity of the video conference system 10 in Fig. 1. The user may then decide to watch the video caller or content on the larger screen of the television with enhanced sound quality also to make it possible for more people to participate simultaneously. The user may then go into the room of the conference system 10, place the ongoing video call on hold in the mobile telephone system 13, call the unit 11 from the standard mobile phone, also automatically activating the unit 11, the remote control 18, the microphone 20 and the camera 22 as described earlier. The user may then answer the incoming call to the unit 11 from the remote control unit 18, and then transfer the held call, or join the three parties in the mobile telephone system 13, so that the unit 11 connects to the ongoing telephone call directly.

The control unit 18 may also function as a mobile telephone stand that detects the presence of any standard mobile telephone in the stand and sends an infrared activation signal 24 to turn on the television 12, and a Bluetooth signal to unit 11 to answer the incoming call. The whole video conferencing system 10 is thus activated by transferring an ongoing call in any standard mobile telephone to the unit 11, and then placing the phone in the stand 18.

In the case shown in Fig. 2, the system 10 is now using a standard mobile telephone 26 and a telephone to television adaptor 25 as components instead of a specialized mobile telephone unit 11.

In this case, the incoming video call over the mobile air interface 14 is received by a standard mobile telephone 26 that, at first, may be located anywhere inside or outside the room where the video conference system 10 is located. The unit 11, shown in Fig. 1, is now in Fig. 2 replaced by a telephone to TV adaptor 25 in the same location. One difference is that the adaptor 25 receives the audiovisual information over the interface 27 that may be Bluetooth or any other suitable interface that a standard mobile telephone 26 may have. The adaptor 25 converts the audiovisual input on interface 27 to a format suitable for the television 12 that is the same as for the unit 11 shown in Fig. 1.

When the user has an already established video call in progress in the standard mobile telephone 26, the user may then decide to go into the room of the conference system 10, and place the telephone 26 in a stand, which is part of the control unit 18. The stand/control unit 18 now detects the presence of a mobile phone in the stand and sends an infra red activation signal 24 to turn on the television 12 at the same time as the adaptor unit 25 detects the presence of the

"paired" Bluetooth communication 27 from the telephone 26 and activates all other conference system 10 units as described earlier with reference to Fig. 1. In this way, there is no need to turn on the television and switch the channel to A/V with the televisions remote control while holding the telephone 26 in the hand and talking to the caller 16. This increases the ease of use and saves valuable time in the already ongoing video call. For outgoing calls, the user may first put the telephone 26 into the stand/control-unit 18 and activate the whole video conference system 10, and then set up the call from the telephone 26, or more conveniently first set up the call from the telephone 26, and only if or when the circumstances are right place the telephone 26 in the stand/control-unit 18 to activate the video conferencing system 10.

With the phone 26 in the stand 18 there is a possibility to further decrease system costs when the telephone 26 is positioned in an upright angled position in the stand 18, since it is possible to use a pre-existing camera of the telephone 26 and its video coding device and also a preexisting microphone and AMR voice coding device. The user or users may sit in a couch in front of the telephone 26 and the angle is such that the user or users are captured by the camera in the telephone and the user or users are close enough for the microphone to pick up the voice when the user or users speak. It is also possible to make the stand 16 tiltable up/down and turnable sideways to capture additional users. It is also possible for the one of the users to pick up the telephone 26 from the holder 18 without interrupting the call and direct the camera and the microphone in the phone 26 in any desirable direction during the video conference. There is still, in this case, a possibility to use an extra microphone 20 and camera 22 as shown in Fig. 1. One difference from Fig. 1 is that the audiovisual information from the microphone 20 and the camera 22 are combined in the adaptor 25 and communicated over interface 27 to the telephone 26, and in turn over the air interface 14 from the telephone 26 to the mobile system 13.

The communication unit and method according to the present invention may be implemented as hardware, software, or a combination thereof. A computer program product implementing the method, or at least a part thereof, comprises a computer program run on a general purpose or specially adapted computer or processor. The computer program product make the computer or processor perform the method. The program may be stored in whole or part on one or more suitable data storage means, such as a hard disk, ROM, PROM or flash memory.

In the detailed description a television has been used as display means. It is to be understood, however, that a projection device, such as a video projector, or a display for a computer or TV tuner may equally well be used. In such a case, any suitable interface of the selected display means may be used, as long as the communication unit or adaptor is arranged to convert data in accordance therewith and to transmit the converted data via a suitable media.

In another embodiment, the communication unit is arranged to constitute an integral part of a television, a TV tuner, a projection device or a display for a computer or TV tuner. In this case, the interface 15 is an internal interface of the display device.

In another embodiment, the computer program product may be integrated into a mobile telephone. In this embodiment, the telephone must be provided with suitable means to transmit converted signals to the television and also include means to communicate with the camera. In this case the units 25 and 26, and optionally also the remote control 18 and the microphone 20 in figure 2 are combined.

While the present invention has been described in accordance with preferred compositions and embodiments, it is to be understood that certain substitutions and alterations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the following claims .

Claims

We claim:

1. A method of video telephony communication, comprising: providing a communication unit (11), capable of exchanging audiovisual information with a second communication unit, via a mobile telephone system (13); the unit (11) exchanging the audiovisual information over the radio air interface (14) of the mobile system (13); the unit (11) converting the audiovisual information (14) to a media format of interface (15) ; the unit (11) transmitting the audiovisual information via the interface (15) to display means (12) ; and the display means (12) displaying the audiovisual information .

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the display means is a television, a projection device or a display for a computer or TV tuner.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the second communication unit is a mobile video telephone or video content source (16) .

4. The method according to any of the claims 1-3, wherein the display means (12) displays the audiovisual information in real time .

5. The method according to any of the claims 1-4, wherein the method further comprises providing a camera (22) for capturing images of the users.

6. The method according to any of the claims 1-5, wherein the method further comprises providing a microphone (20) to capturing voices from the users.

7. The method according to any of the claims 1-6, wherein the method further comprise the steps of:

- converting captured voice data and/or image data by the communication unit to a format of the mobile telecommunication system interface (14), and

- transmitting the converted voice data and/or image data via the mobile communication system to the second communication unit (16) .

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein the method further comprises providing a control unit (18) for controlling the unit (11) .

9. The method according to claim 8 wherein the method further comprises the control unit (18) controlling the unit (11) via a wireless communication link (17) .

10. The method according to claim 9 wherein the method further comprises the control unit (18) with its control device (21) communicating with a remote camera (22) and a remote microphone (20) .

11. The method according to claim 10 wherein the method further comprises the unit (11) receiving the telephone signal (14) from a remote telephone (16) and automatically starting the control unit (18), a microphone (20) and a camera (22) via communication links (17, 19, 23).

12. The method according to claim 11 wherein the method further comprises the control unit (18) having a stand for a mobile telephone that senses that a mobile telephone is being placed in it.

13. The method according to claim 12 wherein the method further comprises the control unit (18) turning on the television (12) and answering an incoming call to the unit (11) when a telephone is sensed in the stand.

14. The method according to claim 13 wherein the method further comprises the control unit (18) transferring a start- up signal to the television (12) via a wireless link (24), and transferring an answering signal to the unit (11) via a wireless link (17) .

15. The method according to claim 14 wherein the method further comprises the control unit (18) changing a direction and zooming features of the camera (22) .

16. The methods according to any of the claims 5-15, where the unit (11) is substituted by a commercially available mobile telephone to television adaptor (25) , plus also a standard mobile telephone (26) .

17. The method according to claim 16 wherein the method further comprises that the adaptor (25) exchanges the audiovisual information with the standard mobile telephone (26) via a wireless link (27) .

18. The method according to claim 17 where the method further comprises the adaptor (25) receiving the wireless signal (27) from the standard mobile telephone (26) and automatically starting the control unit (18), a microphone (20) and a camera (22) via communication links (17, 19, 23) .

19. Communication unit for a video telephony communication system, comprising:

- means for exchanging audiovisual information with a second communication unit via a radio interface (14) of a mobile telephone system (13);

- means for converting the audiovisual information (14) to a media format of an interface (15) ; and

- means for transmitting the audiovisual information via the interface (15) to display means (12);

20. Communication unit according to claim 19, wherein the display means is a television, a projection device or a display for a computer or TV tuner.

21. Communication unit according to claim 19 or 20, wherein the second communication unit is a mobile video telephone or video content source (16),

22. Communication unit according to any of the claims 19-21, wherein the communication unit further comprises means for receiving data representing images captured by a camera (22) and/or means for receiving data representing voice captured by a microphone (20) .

23. Communication unit according to claims 22, wherein the communication unit further comprise

- means for converting captured voice data and/or image data to a format of the mobile telecommunication system interface (14) , and - means for transmitting the converted voice data and/or image data via the mobile communication system to the second communication unit (16).

24. Communication unit according to any of the claims 19-23, wherein the communication unit (11) comprises means for being controlled by a control unit (18) .

25. Communication unit according to any of the claims 19-24, wherein the communication unit comprises means for being controlled by the control unit (18) via a wireless communication link (17).

26. Communication unit according to any of the claims 19-25, wherein the communication unit further comprises means for automatically starting a control unit (18), a microphone (20) and a camera (22) via communication links (17, 19, 23).

27. Communication unit according to any of the claims 19-26, wherein the communication unit comprises means for receiving a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) .

28. Communication unit according to any of the claims 18-27, wherein the communication unit is arranged to constitute an integral part of a television, a TV tuner, a projection device or a display for a computer or TV tuner.

29. System for video telephony communication, comprising:

- a communication unit (11), comprising means for exchanging audiovisual information with a second communication unit, such as a mobile video telephone or video content source (16), via a radio interface (14) of a mobile telephone system (13), means for converting the audiovisual information to a media format of an interface (15), and means for transmitting the converted audiovisual information onto the interface (15); and - display means (12), comprising means for receiving converted audiovisual information transmitted by the unit (11) via the interface (15), and means for displaying the audiovisual information.

30. Computer program product for making a computer or processor performing the method according to any of the claims 1-18.

31. A computer readable medium containing a computer program product according to claim 30.