Image distribution system, and image distribution method and program therefor

• US 20020023133A1
• Filed: 06/20/2001
• Published: 02/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kato, Masami, Tadokoro, Yoshihisa, Miyasaki, Takashi, Sakakibara, Ken
• Granted Patent: US 7,111,045 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

For distributing a user image corresponding to the user position in a virtual space, the invention provides a method of fetching the user image taken with a video camera into the main body of a computer (S1), judging the user position in the virtual space (S2), setting a large quantization coefficient in case of an office view (S3) but setting a small quantization coefficient and an even smaller quantization coefficients for a face area in other cases (S4), then compression encoding the image data with the designated quantization coefficient ((S5) and transferring the image data to a host server apparatus 12 through a network (S6). The user terminal receives images of other users from the host server apparatus (S7), expands the image data (S8) and displays the image data on a display apparatus 44 (S9).

Claims

1. An image distribution system in a virtual space system composed of terminal apparatuses respective provided at plural users and a server apparatus connected to such plural terminal apparatuses through a communication channel for constructing a virtual space for distributing an image among the terminal apparatuses, wherein each of the terminal apparatuses comprises:

image obtaining means for obtaining an image of the user;

transmission means for transmitting the image, obtained by said image obtaining means, to said server apparatus;

reception display means for receiving and displaying the image transmitted from said server apparatus;

designation means for designating the position of the user in said virtual space; and

control means for controlling said image obtaining means according to the position of the user in said virtual space.

2. A system according to claim 1,

wherein said image obtaining means further includes image compression means for compressing the image data;

and

wherein said control means controls the compression parameter of said compression means according to said user position in said virtual space.

3. A system according to claim 1,

wherein said image obtaining means includes size conversion means for converting the size of the obtained image and cut-out means for cutting out a predetermined area from the obtained image;

and

wherein said control means selects the output of said size conversion means or said cut-out means according to said user position in said virtual space.

4. A system according to claim 1,

wherein said image obtaining means includes image pickup means for converting an optical image into an electrical signal and image pickup control means for controlling an area and a direction of the image pickup of said image pickup means;

and

said control means controls the image pickup area of said image pickup means through said image pickup control means according to said user position in said virtual space.

5. A system according to claim 1,

wherein said image obtaining means includes plural image pickup means for converting an optical image into an electrical signal;

and

said control means selects one of the outputs of said plural image pickup means according to said user position in said virtual space.

6. An image distribution system in a virtual space system composed of terminal apparatuses respective provided at plural users and a server apparatus connected to such plural terminal apparatuses through a communication channel for constructing a virtual space for distributing an image among the terminal apparatuses, wherein each of the terminal apparatuses comprises:

image obtaining means for obtaining an image of the user;

transmission means for transmitting the image, obtained by said image obtaining means, to said server apparatus;

reception display means for receiving and displaying the image transmitted from said server apparatus; and

designation means for designating the position of the user in said virtual space; and

said server apparatus comprises;

image process means for processing the image transmitted from each of said terminal apparatuses;

distribution means for distributing the image, processed by said image process means, to each of said terminal apparatuses; and

control means for controlling said image process means according to the position of the user in said virtual space.

7. A system according to claim 6,

wherein said image process means includes recompression means for recompressing image data;

and

wherein said control means controls the compression parameter at the recompression, according to the user position in said virtual space.

8. A system according to claim 6,

wherein said image obtaining means includes size conversion means for converting the size of the image and cut-out means for cutting out a predetermined area from the image;

and

said control means selects the output of said size conversion means or said cut-out means according to said user position in said virtual space.

9. An image distribution method in a virtual space system composed of terminal apparatuses respective provided at plural users and a server apparatus connected to such plural terminal apparatuses through a communication channel for constructing a virtual space for distributing an image among the terminal apparatuses, wherein each terminal apparatus comprises steps of:

recognizing the position of the user in said virtual space;

transmitting a user image corresponding to the recognized user position to said server apparatus; and

receiving and displaying the image transmitted from said server apparatus.

10. A method according to claim 9,

wherein each of said terminal apparatuses transmits the user image, compressed with a compression rate according to said user position in said virtual space, to said server apparatus.

11. A method according to claim 9,

wherein each of said terminal apparatuses applies either of the image size conversion and the predetermined area cutting-out to the obtained image according to said user position in said virtual space, and transmits the image to said server apparatus.

12. A method according to claim 9,

wherein each of said terminal apparatuses includes image pickup means for converting an optical image into an electrical signal and image pickup control means for controlling the area and direction of the image picking up by said image pickup means, and controls the area of the image picking up by said image pickup means according to said user position in said virtual space.

13. A method according to claim 9,

wherein each of said terminal apparatuses includes plural image pickup means for converting an optical image into an electrical signal, and selects one of the outputs of said plural image pickup means according to said user position in said virtual space, and transmits the image obtained by the selected image pickup means to said server apparatus.

15. A method according to claim 14,

wherein said server apparatus recompresses the image transmitted from each of said terminal apparatus with a recompression parameter according to the user position in said virtual space and distributes the image to each of said terminal apparatuses.

16. A method according to claim 14,

wherein said server apparatus applies either of image size conversion and predetermined area cutting-out to the image transmitted from each of said terminal apparatuses according to said user position in said virtual space and distributes the image to each of said terminal apparatuses.

14. An image distribution method in a virtual space system composed of terminal apparatuses respective provided at plural users and a server apparatus connected to such plural terminal apparatuses through a communication channel for constructing a virtual space for distributing an image among the terminal apparatuses, wherein

each of said terminal apparatuses obtains an image of the user and transmits the image to said server apparatus;

said server apparatus processes the image transmitted from each of the terminal apparatuses according to the position of the user in said virtual space and distributes the image to each of said terminal apparatuses; and

each of said terminal apparatuses receives and displays the image transmitted from said server apparatus.

17. A program executable by reading in a computer for realizing an image distribution method in a virtual space system composed of terminal apparatuses respective provided at plural users and a server apparatus connected to such plural terminal apparatuses through a communication channel for constructing a virtual space for distributing an image among the terminal apparatuses, the program causing to realize the image distribution method comprising steps of:

recognizing the position of the user in said virtual space;

transmitting a user image corresponding to the recognized user position to said server apparatus; and

receiving and displaying the image transmitted from said server apparatus.