Television telephone

• US 5,966,164 A
• Filed: 06/13/1997
• Issued: 10/12/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/1991
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Takizawa, Masaaki, Yokoi, Kenji, Ishinabe, Iwao, Watanuki, Toshiaki, Mikamo, Katsumi, Matsubayashi, Yoshinobu, Yoshimaru, Takushi, Takahashi, Masahiro, Gotoh, Hiroshi, Ishida, Kiyoshi, Shibata, Yoji, Furuya, Jun
• Primary Examiner(s): WOO, STELLA L
• Application Number:
  US08/874,222
• Time in Patent Office: 851 Days
• Field of Search: 348/14, 348/15, 348/16, 348/17, 348/18, 348/19
• US Class Current: 348/14.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/45 Picture in picture , e.g. displaying simultaneously another television channel in a region of the screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/141 between two video terminals, e.g. videophone telephonic communication systems combined with television receiver for reception of entertainment or information matter H04M11/085
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/142 Constructional details of the terminal equipment, e.g. arrangements of the camera and the display
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/148 Interfacing a video terminal to a particular transmission medium, e.g. ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0457 Connection protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0471 Terminal access circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13034 A/D conversion, code compression/expansion
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13091 CLI, identification of calling line
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13096 Digital apparatus individually associated with a subscriber line, digital line circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13103 Memory
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13106 Microprocessor, CPU
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13175 Graphical user interface [GUI], WWW interface, visual indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13176 Common channel signaling, CCS7
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13179 Fax, still picture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13204 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13209 ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1332 Logic circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13337 Picturephone, videotelephony
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/204 ISDN protocol; ISO 7
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/337 : Picturephone

Abstract

A television telephone including a movable head section, a support section and a bottom section. The movable head section includes an imaging device for inputting images and a display for displaying images. The bottom section includes a communication controller for transmission and reception of encoded information of at least one of audio and visual signals to and from a communication network, and a telephone controller for controlling transmission and reception functions and including a key console unit. The support section serves for connecting the bottom section and the movable head section and for supporting the movable head section and includes an image encoder/decoder for encoding image input signals and for decoding received image signals.

Claims

1. A communication terminal comprising:

an input video processing unit adapted to be connected to a camera taking in an image and providing video signals of the image, the input video processing unit processing the video signals from the camera and outputting processed video signals;

an output video processing unit adapted to be connected to a display and processing the processed video signals from the input video processing unit and other video signals from another unit for display on the display; and

a display indication processing unit which includes a memory having a first store portion and a second store portion which store image data from said input video processing unit and said another unit and a memory control unit which controls writing and reading out of the image data from said memory and which controls display of an output from the output video processing unit on the display by controlling writing and reading out of the image data from said memory and a signal multiplex unit which multiplexes the image data from the first store portion and the second store portion of the memory so that the output from the output video processing unit representing the other video signals from the another unit are displayed at a first portion of the display and the output from the first store portion of the output video processing unit representing the processed video signals of the image taken in by the camera are displayed at a second portion of the display as a mirror image of the image taken in by the camera.

2. The communication terminal according to claim 1, wherein the mirror image is a laterally inverted image of the image taken by the camera.

3. The communication terminal according to claim 1, further comprising a communication control unit which controls transmitting of the processed video signals from the input processing unit to a communication network and which controls receiving of the other video signals from the another unit via the communication network, the communication control unit supplying the received other video signals to the output video processing unit.

4. A communication terminal comprising:

an input video processing unit adapted to be connected to a camera taking in an image and providing video signals of the image, the input video processing unit processing the video signals from the camera and outputting processed video signals;

an output video processing unit adapted to be connected to a display and processing the processed video signals from the input video processing unit and other video signals from another unit for display on the display; and

a display indication processing unit which controls display of an output from the output video processing unit on the display so that the output from the output video processing unit representing the other video signals from the another unit are displayed at a first portion of the display and the output from the output video processing unit representing the processed video signals of the image taken in by the camera are displayed at a second portion of the display as a point symmetry image rotated 180°

of the image taken in by the camera.

5. The communication terminal according to claim 4, further comprising a communication control unit which controls transmitting of the processed video signals from the input processing unit to a communication network and which controls receiving of the other video signals from the another unit via the communication network, the communication control unit supplying the received other video signals to the output video processing unit.

6. The communication terminal according to claim 4, wherein the display indication processing unit includes:

a frame memory which stores image data; and

a frame memory control unit which controls writing and reading out of the image data from said frame memory and indicates the image data which is read out as the point symmetry image rotated 180°

of inputted image data.

7. A communication terminal comprising:

an input video processing unit adapted to be connected to a camera taking in an image and providing video signals of the image, the input video processing unit processing the video signals from the camera and outputting processed video signals;

an output video processing unit adapted to be connected to a display and processing the processed video signals from the input video processing unit and other video signals from another unit for display on the display; and

a display indication processing unit which controls display of an output from the output video processing unit on the display so that the output from the output video processing unit representing the other video signals from the another unit are displayed at a first portion of the display and the output from the output video processing unit representing the processed video signals of the image taken in by the camera are displayed at a second portion of the display as at least one of a mirror image, a point symmetry image 180° and

a normal image of the image taken in by the camera.

8. The communication terminal according to claim 7, wherein the displayed image at the second portion of the display is at least one of the mirror image and the point symmetry image rotated 180°

of the image taken in by the camera.

9. The communication terminal according to claim 7, further comprising a communication control unit which controls transmitting of the processed video signals from the input processing unit to a communication network and which controls receiving of the other video signals from the another unit via the communication network, the communication control unit supplying the received other video signals to the output video processing unit.

10. The communication terminal according to claim 7, wherein the display indication processing unit includes:

a frame memory which stores image data; and

a frame memory control unit which controls writing and reading out of the image data from said frame memory and indicates the image data which is read out as at least one of the mirror image and the point symmetry image rotated 180°

of inputted image data.