Television conference system

• US 5,206,721 A
• Filed: 03/08/1990
• Issued: 04/27/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Yoshida, Yuji, Homma, Toshihiro, Imai, Ryusaku, Ishiguro, Hitoshi, Ashida, Youichi, Yamaguchi, Masakazu, Sato, Hitoshi, Natori, Hiroaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Dwyer, James L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F.
• Application Number:
  US07/490,469
• Time in Patent Office: 1,146 Days
• Field of Search: 379/54, 379/53, 379/202, 379/206, 358/85, 370/62
• US Class Current: 348/14.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/002 Special television systems not provided for by H04N7/007 - H04N7/18 still pictures via a television channel H04N1/00098
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

A television conference system having at least one of the functions of automatically directing a camera toward a speaker, of transmitting video signals of picture images from a plurality of television cameras, and of displaying a document image. The television conference system includes a microphone input judgement unit for judging the existence of any input into microphones provided for the speakers of a television conference; a judgement result holding unit for holding the results of the judgement of existence of the microphone inputs over a first predetermined period, the first predetermined period being longer than the shortest period of continuous speaking; a time totaling unit for obtaining the total time of the microphone inputs during the first predetermined period from the results of judgement held in the judgement result holding unit; a speaker specifying unit for specifying as the current speaker the speaker using a microphone having a total time obtained by the time totaling unit which is over a second predetermined period, the second predetermined period being the standard continuing period of noise; and a camera drive unit for driving a camera within a shooting range of the speaker specified as the current speaker by the speaker specifying unit.

Claims

1. A television conference system for automatically shooting a current speaker of a plurality of speakers with a camera, comprising:

microphone input judgement means for judging existence of microphone inputs into microphones provided for each of the speakers;

judgement result holding means for holding the results of the judging of the existence of the microphone inputs over a first predetermined period, the first predetermined period being longer than the shortest period of continuous speaking, said judgement result holding means including a plurality of storage buffers, the number of the storage buffers being the same as the number of samplings in the first predetermined period, and the storage buffers being ring shift registers;

time totaling means for obtaining a total time of the microphone inputs during the first predetermined period from the results of the judging held in said judgement resulting holding means;

speaker specifying means for specifying as a current speaker the speaker using the microphone input having the total time obtained by said time totaling means over a second predetermined period, the second predetermined period being a predetermined continuing period of noise; and

camera drive means for driving a camera within a shooting range of the speaker specified as the current speaker by said speaker specifying means.

2. A television conference system for automatically shooting a current speaker of a plurality of speakers with a camera, comprising:

microphone input judgement means for judging existence of microphone inputs into microphones provided for each of the speakers;

judgement result holding means for holding the results of the judging of the existence of the microphone inputs over a first predetermined period, the first predetermined period being longer than the shortest period of continuous speaking;

time totaling means for obtaining a total time of the microphone inputs during the first predetermined period from the results of the judging held in said judgement result holding means;

speaker specifying means for specifying as a current speaker the speaker using the microphone input having the total time obtained by said time totaling means over a second predetermined period, the second predetermined period being a standard continuing period of noise; and

camera drive means for driving a camera within a shooting range of the speaker specified as the current speaker by said speaker specifying means;

calculation means for calculating a number of microphone inputs with the total time found by said time totaling means over a preset time, and

said speaker specifying means including selection means for selecting, from the speakers corresponding to the number of microphone inputs calculated by said calculation means, as the current speaker the speaker for which the total time is the longest.

3. A television conference system for automatically shooting a current speaker of a plurality of speakers with a camera, comprising:

microphone input judgement means for judging existence of microphone inputs into microphones provided for each of the speakers;

judgement result holding means for holding the results of the judging of the existence of the microphone inputs over a first predetermined period, the first predetermined period being longer than the shortest period of continuous speaking;

time totaling means for obtaining a total time of the microphone inputs during the first predetermined period from the results of the judging held in said judgement result holding means;

speaker specifying means for specifying as a current speaker the speaker using the microphone input having the total time obtained by said time totaling means over a second predetermined period, the second predetermined period being a standard continuing period of noise; and

camera drive means for driving a camera within a shooting range of the speaker specified as the current speaker by said speaker specifying means;

said microphone input judgement means including sampling means for comparing output signals from the microphones with a predetermined level to obtain digital signals representing whether there is an existence of an input into the microphones, and for sampling the digital signals at a predetermined sampling frequency.

4. A television conference system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said judgement result holding means comprises a plurality of storage buffers, provided for the microphones, for holding the digital signals from said sampling means for the first predetermined period.

5. A television conference system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said time totaling means and said speaker specifying means comprises a processing circuit, operatively connected to said storage buffers, for reading the digital signals in said storage buffers, for determining the total time of the microphone input based on the digital signals read, and for specifying the current speaker based on the total time determined.

6. A television conference system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said processing circuit further comprising comparing means for comparing the total time of each of the microphone inputs with the second predetermined period, wherein when the total time exceeds the second predetermined period, the speaker corresponding thereto is specified as the current speaker, and a microphone identifying number corresponding thereto is output.

7. A television conference system as claimed in claim 6, wherein said processing circuit further comprising means to specify as the current speaker the speaker using the microphone having the total time which is greatest among in the total times of all of the microphone inputs.

8. A television conference system as claimed in claim 7, wherein said camera drive means comprises a swivel base control unit, operatively connected to said speaker specifying means, for controlling a power swivel base of the camera in response to the microphone identifying number.

9. A television conference system for automatically shooting a current speaker of a plurality of speakers with a camera, comprising:

microphone input judgement means for judging existence of microphone inputs into microphones provided for each of the speakers;

judgement result holding means for holding the results of the judging of the existence of the microphone inputs over a first predetermined period, the first predetermined period being longer than the shortest period of continuous speaking, said judgement result holding means including a plurality of storage buffers, the number of the storage buffers being the same as the number of samplings in the first predetermined period, and the storage buffers being ring shift registers;

time totaling means for obtaining a total time of the microphone inputs during the first predetermined period from the results of the judging held in said judgement result holding means;

speaker specifying means for specifying as a current speaker the speaker using the microphone input having the total time obtained by said time totaling means over a second predetermined period, the second predetermined period being a predetermined continuing period of noise; and

camera drive means for driving a camera within a shooting range of the speaker specified as the current speaker by said speaker specifying means,

the first predetermined period being approximately four seconds.

10. A television conference system for automatically shooting a current speaker of a plurality of speakers with a camera, comprising:

microphone input judgement means for judging existence of microphone inputs into microphones provided for each of the speakers;

judgement result having means for holding the results of the judging of the existence of the microphone inputs over a first predetermined period, the first predetermined period being longer than the shortest period of continuous speaking, said judgement result holding means including a plurality of storage buffers, the number of the storage buffers being the same as the number of samplings in the first predetermined period, and the storage buffers being ring shift registers;

time totaling means for obtaining a total time of the microphone inputs during the first predetermined period from the results of the judging held in said judgement result holding means;

speaker specifying means for specifying as a current speaker the speaker using the microphone input having the total time obtained by said time totaling means over a second predetermined period, the second predetermined period being a predetermined continuing period of noise; and

camera drive means for driving a camera within a shooting range of the speaker specified as the current speaker by said speaker specifying means,

the second predetermined period being approximately two seconds.

11. A television conference system for transmitting video signals corresponding to picture images from a plurality of television cameras, comprising:

a plurality of television cameras, said plurality of television cameras including an overview shooting camera for shooting an overview and at least one portion shooting camera for shooting portions within the overview;

transmission means for transmitting video signals obtained by said plurality of television cameras, said transmission means includes at least selection means for selecting the video signals by dividing each picture'"'"'s worth of video signals from each of said plurality of television cameras into a plurality of blocks and by switching between the video signals from said overview shooting camera and the video signals from said portion shooting cameras in units of the blocks in accordance with a predetermined transmission ratio;

reception means for receiving the video signals from said transmission means;

combining means for combining the video signals into a combined picture image; and

display means for displaying the combined picture image.

12. A television conference system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the predetermined transmission ratio is a ratio between a first number of the blocks in one pictures worth of the video signals from said overview shooting camera and a second number of the blocks in one pictures worth of the video signals form said portion shooting camera.

13. A television conference system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the predetermined transmission ratio is the ratio between the amount of video signals to be transmitted from said overview shooting camera and the amount of video signals to be transmitted from said portion shooting camera.

14. A television conference system for transmitting video signals corresponding to picture images from a plurality of television cameras, comprising:

a plurality of television cameras, said plurality of television cameras including an overview shooting camera for shooting an overview and at least one portion shooting camera for shooting portions within the overview;

transmission means for transmitting video signals obtained by said plurality of television camera, said transmission means includes at least selection means for selecting the video signals by dividing the video signals from each of said plurality of television cameras into a plurality of blocks and by switching between the video signals from said overview shooting camera and the video signals form said portion shooting camera in units of the blocks in accordance with a predetermined transmission ratio;

reception means for receiving the video signals from said transmission means;

combining means for combining the video signal into a combined picture image; and

display means for displaying the combined picture image,

the predetermined transmission ratio being a ratio between a first number of the blocks in one picture'"'"'s worth of the video signals from said overview shooting camera and a second number of the blocks in one picture'"'"'s worth of the video signals from said portion shooting camera;

said selection means including

a selector, operatively connected to said plurality of television cameras, for selecting the video signals to be output in response to a switching signal;

an encoding and compressing circuit, operatively connected to said selector, for encoding and compressing each of the blocks of the video signals selected by said selector; and

a control unit, operatively connected to said selector and said encoding and compressing circuit, for counting a number of the blocks of the video signals output from said encoding and compressing circuit to provide the switching signal to said selector.

15. A television conference system as claimed in claim 14, wherein said control unit comprises a counter for counting the number of the blocks of the video signals output from said encoding and compressing circuit.

16. A television conference system as claim in claim 15,

wherein said counter has a preset terminal, and

wherein said control unit further comprises a setting unit for supplying the predetermined transmission ratio to the preset terminal of said counter.

17. A television conference system as claimed in claim 16, wherein said counter further has a carry signal terminal for outputting a carrier signal when a preset number of blocks, set by said setting unit, is counted, the carrier signal being applied as the switching signal to said selector.

18. A television conference system as claimed in claim 17,

wherein said system further comprises:

a first picture memory for storing the video signals from said overview shooting camera; and

a second picture memory for storing the video signals from said portion shooting camera and

wherein said selecting means selects one of said first and second picture memories to obtain the video signals to be transmitted.

19. A television conference system for transmitting video signals corresponding to picture images from a plurality of television cameras, comprising:

a plurality of television camera, said plurality of television cameras including an overview shooting camera for shooting an overview and at least one portion shooting camera for shooting portions within the overview;

transmission means for transmitting video signals obtained by said plurality of television cameras, said transmission means includes at least selection means for selecting the video signals by dividing the video signals from each of said plurality of television cameras into a plurality of blocks and by switching between the video signals from said overview shooting camera and the video signals from said shooting camera in units of the blocks in accordance with a predetermined transmission ratio;

reception means for receiving the video signals from said transmission means;

combining means for combining the video signals into a combined picture image; and

display means for displaying the combined picture image,

said selection means including

first selector means for selecting the video signals from said overview shooting camera and from said portion shooting camera in response to a variably set ratio,

encoding and compressing means for encoding and compressing the output video signals selected by said first selector,

first buffer memory means, having a data storage amount, for storing the video signals from said portion shooting camera passing through said first selector and said encoding and compressing circuit,

second buffer memory means having a data storage amount, for storing the video signals from said portion shooting camera passing through said first selector and said encoding and compressing circuit,

second selector means for selecting the outputs of said first and second buffer memory means in bit units and with the predetermined transmission ratio, and

control means for controlling said first selector means, said first and second buffer memory means, and said second selector, said control means generates the variably set ratio with reference to the amounts of video signals stored in said first and second buffer memory means in such a way that when the data storage amount in one of said first and second buffer memory means becomes different from that of other of said first and second buffer memory means, the variably set ratio is changed to correct the difference.

20. A television conference system as claimed in claim 19, wherein said control means comprises a conversion table for providing the variably set ratio in response to the data storage amount of the video signals stored in said first and second buffer memory means.

21. A television conference system as claimed in claim 20,

wherein said control means comprises counter means for counting a number of bits of the video signals output from said first or second buffer memory means to generate a switching signal to be applied to said second selector means, and

wherein said second selector means selects the video signal from said first and second buffer memory means in bit units with reference to the predetermined transmission ratio.

22. A television conference system as claimed in claim 21,

wherein said counter has a preset terminal, and

wherein said control means further comprises a setting means for supplying the predetermined transmission ratio to the preset terminal of said counter means.

23. A television conference system as claimed in claim 22, wherein said counter means has a carry signal terminal for outputting a carry signal when a preset number of read clock signals is counted, the carry signal is applied as the switching signal to said second selector.

24. A television conference system as claimed in claim 23, further comprising a first picture memory means for storing the video signals from said overview shooting camera and a second picture memory means for storing the video signals forms aid portion shooting camera, output signals from said first picture memory means and from said second picture memory means are selected by said first selector.

25. A television conference system for automatically shooting a current speaker of a plurality of speakers with a camera, comprising:

microphone input judgement means for judging existence of microphone inputs into microphones provided for each of the speakers;

judgement result holding means for holding the results of the judging of the existence of the microphone inputs over a first predetermined period, the first predetermined period being longer than the shortest period of continuous speaking, said judgement result holding means including a plurality of storage buffers, the number of the storage buffers being the same as the number of samplings in the first predetermined period, and the storage buffers being ring shift registers;

time totaling means for obtaining a total time of the microphone inputs during the first predetermined period from the results of the judging held in said judgement result holding means;

speaker specifying means for specifying as a current speaker the speaker using the microphone input having the total time obtained by said time totaling means over a second predetermined period, the second predetermined period being a predetermined continuing period of noise;

camera drive means for driving a camera within a shooting range of the speaker specified as the current speaker by said speaker specifying means;

an overview shooting camera for shooting an overview of a conference room to obtain overview image data;

a participant shooting camera for shooting a participant in the conference room to obtain participant image data including a first synchronization signal in one picture image data; and

image combining means for combining the overview image data and the participant image data to form combined picture image data, the combined picture image data being transmitted from one conference room to another conference room, said image combining means including at least

memory means for storing the participant image data for at least one picture image,

address designation means for designating an address of said memory means to read the participant image data, the address being made to correspond to the address in a part of a picture image displayed by the combined picture image data by the use of the first synchronization signal so that the participant image data read from said memory means is compacted data, and

switching means having a first input terminal for receiving the overview image data from said overview shooting camera and a second input terminal for receiving the participant image data read from said memory means, for outputting the overview image data when the participant image data is not applied to said second terminal, and for outputting the participant image data by stopping transmission of the overview image data when the participant image data is applied to the second terminal.

26. A television conference system as claimed in claim 25,

wherein the overview image data obtained by said overview shooting camera includes a second synchronization signal indicating a start point of a picture of the overview image data, and

wherein the address designating means comprises at least

synchronization signal extracting means for extracting a vertical synchronization clock signal, a horizontal synchronization clock signal, and a picture element clock signal, from the overview image data;

delay circuit means for delaying the vertical synchronization clock signal for a third predetermined period to produce an output signal;

first counter means for counting the picture element clock signal, the output signal of said delay circuit means being used as a start signal for said first counter means;

second counter means for counting the horizontal synchronization signal, said second counter means having a capacity to count the horizontal synchronization signals of one picture image, the output signal of said delay circuit means being used as a start signal for said second counter means;

first register means for storing contents of said first counter means as a horizontal address of said memory means;

second register means for storing contents of said second counter means as a vertical address of said memory means.

27. A television conference system as claimed in claim 26,

wherein said second counter means produces a stop signal for stopping the counting the said first and second counter means,

wherein said first counter means further generates a control signal during counting of the picture element clock signal, and

wherein when the control signal is supplied to said switching means said switching means selects the participant image data from said memory means.

28. A television conference system for automatically shooting a current speaker of a plurality of speakers with a camera, comprising:

microphone input judgement means for judging existence of microphone inputs into microphones provided for each of the speakers;

judgement result holding means for holding the results of the judging of the existence of the microphone inputs over a first predetermined period, the first predetermined period being longer than the shortest period of continuous speaking, said judgement result holding means including a plurality of storage buffers, the number of the storage buffers being the same as the number of samplings in the first predetermined period, and the storage buffers being ring shift registers;

time totaling means for obtaining a total time of the microphone inputs during the first predetermined period from the results of the judging held in said judgement result holding means;

speaker specifying means for specifying as a current speaker the speaker using the microphone input having the total time obtained by said time totaling means over a second predetermined period, the second predetermined period being a predetermined continuing period of noise; and

camera drive means for driving a camera within a shooting range of the speaker specified as the current speaker by said speaker specifying means,

said microphone input judgement means including speaker detection judgement means for detecting the current speaker to output position information of the current speaker,

the camera being mounted on a swivel base for shooting one of the speakers, and

said system further comprising;

operation control means for providing a control signal for performing manual operation for directing the camera to the current speaker;

swivel base control means for controlling the swivel base in response to an output one of said microphone input judgement means and said operation control means; and

swivel base output judgement means provided between said microphone input judgement means and both said operation control means and said swivel base control means, said swivel base output judgement means forcibly passing the control signal from said operation control means to said swivel base control means prior to passing the position information from said microphone input judgement means to said swivel base control means when the control signal exists, and passing the position information to said swivel base control means only when the control signal does not exist and when the position information presently output is different from the position information previously output.

29. A television conference system as claimed in claim 28, wherein said swivel base output judgement means comprises:

status change detection means for detecting a status change in the outputs of said speaker detection judgement means and said operation control means;

operation content control means for performing the manual operation indicated by said operation control means the status change on the output of said operation control means is detected by said status change detection means;

speaker comparison means for performing a comparison of the speaker information previously detected by said speaker detection judgement means and the speaker information input when a signal from said speaker detection judgement means is detected by said status change detection means;

display content control means for monitoring the output of said operation content control means and for blocking the position information from said microphone input judgement means when said operation content control means is operating; and

speaker content control means for performing control over the signal information from said microphone input judgement means when said operation content control means is not operating.

30. A television conference system for displaying a document picture image of a document and a view picture image of a conference room, comprising:

a moving image camera group for obtaining the view picture image;

a document shooting camera for obtaining the document picture image;

transmission monitor means for displaying a transmission image;

reception monitor means for displaying a reception image; and

an image control means for controlling said transmission monitor means and said reception monitor means, said image control means includes at least

a first changeover switch for switching said moving image camera group in a transmitting conference room in response to a first switching signal from an opposite party conference room; and

a second changeover switch for switching in response to a second switching signal from the transmitting conference room so that the document picture image is displayed on said reception monitor means in the opposite party conference room and on said reception monitor means in the transmitting conference room, and for blocking the image from the opposite party conference room on said reception monitor means in the transmitting conference room,

said image control means being operable to simultaneously display the view picture image and the document picture image on at least one of said transmission monitor means and said reception monitor means.

31. A television conference system as claimed in claim 30, wherein said second changeover switch comprises:

a first contact for passing the document picture image from said document shooting camera to the opposite party conference room; and

a second contact for interlocking with said first contact, for selecting the document picture image from said document shooting camera or the reception image as a selected image, and for providing the selected image to said reception monitor means.

32. A method for shooting a current speaker of a plurality of speakers with a camera, each speaker having a microphone, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving input signals from each of the microphones, the input signals having one or more speech portions, and one or more noise portions within a first predetermined period;

(b) a totaling the speech portions of each of the input signals over the first predetermined period to produce a time total for each of the input signals;

(c) comparing the time totals produced in step (b) with a second predetermined period, the second predetermined period being less than the first predetermined period;

(d) selecting the current speaker as the speaker having the microphone with a corresponding time total greater than the second predetermined period; and

(e) shooting the current speaker selected in step (d) with the camera.

33. A method as claimed in claim 32, wherein said selecting in step (d) comprises the steps of:

(d1) identifying the speakers having the microphones with the corresponding time total exceeding the second predetermined period; and

(d2) determining a current speaker, from the speakers identified in step (d2), as the speaker with the largest time total.