Communication system and terminal units connected thereto

• US 20040139052A1
• Filed: 12/02/2003
• Published: 07/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxell, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Umemura, Masaya, Hara, Tsutomu, Okamura, Shinichiro, Kondo, Nobukazu, Kazushige, Hiroi, Ogiwara, Kazuchika, Yokozawa, Tooru
• Granted Patent: US 7,584,431 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A communication system including a network and at least two terminal units connected thereto. Each terminal unit includes a session controlling unit for controlling a session for enabling transmission/receiving of voice, image, handwritten data to/from the remote terminal unit individually, and a display unit for displaying the image and the handwritten data. The image data and the handwritten data are overlapped and displayed on a display of the display unit.

Claims

1. A communication system comprising:

a network; and

at least two terminal units connected thereto,

wherein each terminal unit comprises;

session controlling means for controlling a session for enabling transmission/receiving of voice, image, and handwritten data to/from the remote terminal unit individually, and

display means for displaying said image and said handwritten data,

wherein said image data and said handwritten data are overlapped and displayed on a display of said display means.

2. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein transmission/receiving of voice data is capable while said image data and/or handwritten data are displayed.

3. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the terminal unit further comprises:

an image/handwritten data managing means for managing image/handwritten data,

wherein the image/handwritten data managing means has a plurality of planes, and

wherein the managing means displays basic image data on one of the plurality of planes, and displays handwritten data currently handled in communication on a different plane, so that image and handwritten data are displayed so as to overlap each other by putting the different planes in layers.

4. The communication system according to claim 3, wherein in the terminal unit the image/handwritten data managing means, when having transmitted/received image data, adjusts sizes of the image data plane and the handwritten data plane to the size of the transmitted/received image data.

5. The communication system according to claim 3, wherein the terminal unit further comprises:

erasing/information transmitting means for erasing image and handwritten data from the display means through the image/handwritten data managing means and transmitting erasure information to the remote terminal unit.

6. The communication system according to claim 3, wherein the terminal unit further comprises:

an erasing/information receiving means for erasing image and handwritten data from the display means through the image/handwritten data managing means according to the erasure information from the remote terminal unit.

7. The communication system according to claim 5, wherein in the terminal unit the erasing/information transmitting means can select either image or handwritten data or both of image and handwritten data as an object to be erased and erase a selected object from the display means.

8. The communication system according to claim 6, wherein in the terminal unit, the erasing/information transmitting means notifies the remote terminal unit of completion of the object erasure so that the remote terminal erases the object from its display means according to the notice.

9. The communication system according to claim 7, wherein in the terminal unit the erasing/information transmitting means notifies the remote terminal unit of completion of the object erasure so that the remote terminal erases the object from its display means according to the notice.

10. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the terminal further comprises:

storing means for storing data to be processed by the self terminal unit,

wherein the storing means can select either image or handwritten data or both of image and handwritten data as an object to be stored and stores the selected object in a storage means.

11. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein in the terminal said session controlling means, when starting and ending image and/or handwritten data communication, can transmit/receive image and/or handwritten data from/to the remote terminal unit registered beforehand without requiring the permission of the receiving-side user.

12. The communication system according to claim 11, wherein in the terminal the session controlling means, when starting and ending a voice session, receives voice data from the remote terminal unit registered beforehand without requiring permission of the receiving-side user.

14. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the terminal further comprises:

a handwritten data inputting means for obtaining handwritten data inputted by a user,

wherein the handwritten data inputting means, when one of two terminal units transmits/receives handwritten data to/from the other, effects exclusive control so that one terminal unit is allowed to input/transmit handwritten data in contrast the other terminal unit is not allowed.

15. The communication system according to claim 14, wherein in the terminal said the handwritten data inputting means effects exclusive control with the start of hand-writing as a trigger.

16. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein in the terminal The terminal unit further comprises:

a handwritten data controlling means for controlling transmission/receiving of handwritten data,

wherein said handwritten data controlling means collects a sampled handwritten data in a chunk at the predetermined number of sampling times to transmit/receive the chunk of sampled handwritten data.

17. The communication system according to claim 16, wherein in the terminal the handwritten data controlling means denotes whether or not a notice is received at each chunk of data alternately between the two subject terminal units.

18. The communication system according to claim 16, wherein in the terminal the handwritten data controlling means permits of editing of handwritten data on the handwritten data plane while prohibited editing of image data on the image data plane.

19. The communication system according to claim 3, wherein the terminal further comprises:

a display controlling means for displaying image and handwritten data on the display means according to instructions received from the image/handwritten data managing means,

wherein the display controlling means prepares the coordinate systems for both the basic image data and handwritten data, enables a position pointed by handwritten data to be exchanged between two terminal units.

20. The communication system according to claim 19, wherein in the terminal the display controlling means enable to scroll both of the image data and the handwritten data to display both of the data on the display means of the remote terminal unit if the position pointed by the handwritten data might not be displayed on the display means of the one terminal unit.

13. The communication system according to claim i, wherein the terminal further comprises:

an image data transmission controlling means for controlling transmission of image data; and

an image data receiving controlling means for controlling receiving of image data,

wherein each of the image data transmission controlling means and the image data receiving controlling means selects a name or contents of the basic image data to transmit/receive the selected one to/from the remote terminal unit.

21. A communication system comprising:

a network; and

at least two terminal units connected thereto,

wherein each terminal unit comprises;

setting data inputting means for setting a self operation of the terminal and specifying a remote terminal unit with which the terminal unit is to communicate,

communication control/input/output means for enabling data to be interchanged between terminal units through the network,

voice inputting means for inputting an external voice to the self terminal unit,

voice outputting means for outputting voice data from the terminal unit to external,

input processing means for processing information inputted from a user through the setting data inputting means,

session controlling means for controlling a session for enabling transmission/receiving of a voice to/from the remote terminal unit through the communication control/input/output means,

voice transmitting means for encoding voice data inputted through the voice inputting means as packet data to transmit the encoded data to the remote terminal unit through the communication control/input/output means,

voice receiving means for obtaining encoded voice data from a voice data packet received through the communication control/input/output means to decode and output the decoded voice data through the voice outputting means,

storage means for storing data to be processed by the self terminal unit,

display means for displaying data,

a bus for the connection of the setting data inputting means, the communication control/input/output means, the voice inputting means, the voice outputting means, the storage means, and the display means,

handwritten data inputting means for obtaining handwritten data inputted by a user,

handwritten data controlling means for controlling transmission/receiving of handwritten data,

image data transmission controlling means for controlling transmission of image data,

image data receiving controlling means for controlling receiving of image data, image/handwritten data managing means for managing image/handwritten data, and

display controlling means for displaying image and handwritten data on the display means according to instructions received from the image/handwritten data managing means,

wherein the session controlling means controls the session so that the self terminal unit can transmit/receive image and handwritten data to/from the remote terminal unit through the communication control/input/output means, thereby enabling voice communications while pointing to images with use of voices, images, and handwritten data.