Communication apparatus allowing a receiver to recognize a generalized situation of a sender

• US 5,691,713 A
• Filed: 09/03/1996
• Issued: 11/25/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Ishida, Eiji
• Primary Examiner(s): Hofsass, Jeffery
• Assistant Examiner(s): Edwards, Jr., Timothy
• Application Number:
  US08/718,013
• Time in Patent Office: 448 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88, 379/89
• US Class Current: 340/870.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems

Abstract

In a transmitting section, image data, voice data and screen data indicating situations of a sender are produced, and converted to generalized situation data by, for instance, thinning those data. Upon request from a receiver, the generalized situation data are transmitted to the receiving section via a network, and output, for instance, in a sequential manner, to allow the receiver to recognize the situations of the sender.

Claims

1. A communication apparatus comprising:

a transmitting section comprising;

means for capturing situation data representing a communicative status of a sender prior to communicating to the sender, the situation data includes at least one of image data, voice data and computer screen data;

data generating means for degrading the situation data to form degraded situation data and to generate generalized status data representing a communicative status of the sender and including the degraded situation data, wherein the degraded situation data renders details of the at least one of image data, voice data and computer screen data imperceptible;

transmitting section communication control means for transmitting the generalized status data; and

a receiving section comprising;

receiving section communication control means for receiving the generalized status data from said transmitting section prior to communicating to the sender, thus enabling recognition of the generalized status of the sender without revealing details of the at least one of image data, voice data and computer data;

means for outputting the generalized status of the sender including the degraded situation data; and

a network for interconnecting said transmitting section and said receiving section.

2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for storing the generalized status data.

3. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

means for storing a plurality of the generalized status data including the degraded situation data which are generated at different times, and

output control means for controlling the outputting means so that the outputting means sequentially outputs a plurality of the generalized status data in time order of the generation of the generalized status data.

4. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising degree determining means for determining a degree of degrading used when said data generating means degrades the situation data to generate the generalized status data.

5. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising output control means for controlling an outputting form of said outputting means.

6. The communication apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said degree determining means comprises:

means for designating a degrading level;

means for storing degrading degrees corresponding to respective degrading levels; and

means for determine the degrading degree by referring to said degrading degrees storing means based on the designated degrading level.

7. The communication apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said degree determining means comprises:

means for designating a name of a receiver who requested presentation of generalized status data;

means for storing degrading degrees preset for respective receivers; and

means for determining the degrading degree by referring to the degrading degrees storing means based on the designated receiver name.

8. The communication apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said degree determining means comprises:

means for designating one or a plurality of senders or a sender group;

means for storing degrading degrees preset for the respective senders; and

means for determining the degrading degree of the designated sender or senders or members of the sender group by referring to the degrading degrees storing means,

wherein said output control means controls the outputting means so that the outputting means outputs the generalized status data of the respective designated senders in a prescribed form.

9. The communication apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said generalization degree determining means comprises:

means for enabling manual input of a sender'"'"'s communicative status;

means for storing degrading degrees preset for respective sender statuses; and

means for determining the degrading degree corresponding to the input sender'"'"'s status by referring to the degrading degrees storing means.

10. The communication apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said output control means has means for synchronously outputting plural kinds of data representing the generalized status of the sender.

11. The communication apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said output control means controls the outputting means so that the outputting means outputs a plurality of data representing the generalized status of the sender stored in said storing means.

12. The communication apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said output control means controls the outputting means so that the outputting means sequentially outputs a plurality of data representing the generalized status of the sender stored in said storing means, with later occurring data superimposed on previous data.

13. The communication apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising;

means for determining whether to use said generalized status data generating means.

14. A communication apparatus in which a receiving section recognizes an environment of a transmitting section based on environmental information of the transmitting section, which information is transmitted through a network, said communication apparatus comprising:

means for capturing environment information of a transmitting section;

means, provided in a receiving section, for requesting a particular transmitting section to transmit its environmental information;

data generating means for degrading the environmental information of said particular transmitting section to form degraded environmental information and to generate generalized communicative status data including the degraded environmental information in response to the request from said receiving section, wherein the degraded environmental information renders details of the environmental information imperceptible; and

means for outputting the generalized status data including the degraded environmental information received by said receiving section.

15. A communication apparatus in which a receiving section recognizes an environment of a transmitting section based on environmental information of the transmitting section, which information is transmitted through a network, said communication apparatus comprising:

means for capturing environmental information of a transmitting section;

means for setting a disclosure-permitting level to which the environmental information is permitted to be disclosed to another party;

means for storing the set disclosure-permitting level;

means, provided in a receiving section, for requesting a particular transmitting section to transmit its environmental information;

generating means for degrading the environmental information of said particular transmitting section to generate generalized communicative status data, including the degraded environmental information based on the stored disclosure-permitting level, in response to the request from said receiving section, wherein the degraded environmental information renders details of the environmental information imperceptible; and

means for outputting the generalized status data including the degraded environmental information received by said receiving section.

16. The communication apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said generating means degrades the environmental information by thinning the environmental information.

17. The communication apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said generating means degrades the environmental information by mixing noise sound into the environmental information.

18. The communication apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said transmitting section further comprises means for switching between the generalized status data and data input through said inputting means, and for supplying the switched data to communication control means of said receiving section.