Apparatus and method for video transmission in video conferencing system

• US 6,469,733 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2000
• Issued: 10/22/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Korea Telecom (KT Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Korea Telecom (KT Corporation)
• Inventors: Chong, Hak-Jin, Jang, Soon-Hwa
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F.
• Application Number:
  US09/739,570
• Publication Number:
  US 20020024588A1
• Time in Patent Office: 676 Days
• Field of Search: 348/14.01, 348/14-8-, 379/93.01, 379/93.08
• US Class Current: 348/14.08
• 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 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

An apparatus and a method for video transmission in a video conferencing system in which in order to efficiently transmit the speaker'"'"'s picture in meetings, conferences, workshops and the like, the text data is separately transmitted by being separated from the speaker'"'"'s picture. The apparatus for video transmission in a video conferencing system includes an A/D converter; a scaling part; a filtering and scaling part for filtering to remove noises from a text video data of an external source, and for scaling to expand or reduce its size to a proper one; a difference component extracting part for extracting difference components from the speaking video data and the text video data of the scaling part and the filtering and scaling part; a binary imaging part for setting a first threshold value to the extracted speaker'"'"'s video data of the difference component extracting part to form a binary image; a filtering part for setting a second threshold value to the binary speaker'"'"'s image of the binary imaging part, to carry out a filtering so as to assign a relevant region to the speaker'"'"'s image; a compressing and encoding part for compressingly encoding the speaker'"'"'s video data of the assigned region of the filtering part; and a first interfacing part for interfacing by connecting a communication network to the speaker'"'"'s video data of the encoding part and to the text video data from the other external source.

Claims

1. An apparatus for video transmission in a video conferencing system, comprising:

a signal converting means for converting an analogue speaking video data of an external source to a digital speaking data;

a scaling means for carrying out a scaling to expand or reduce the speaking video data of the signal converting means to a proper size;

a filtering and scaling means for carrying out a filtering to remove noises from a text video data of an external source, and for carrying out a scaling to expand or reduce its size to a proper one;

a difference component extracting means for extracting difference components from the speaking video data and the text video data of the scaling means and the filtering and scaling means;

a binary imaging means for setting a first threshold value to the extracted speaker'"'"'s video data of the difference component extracting means to form a binary image;

a filtering means for setting a second threshold value to the binary speaker'"'"'s image of the binary imaging means, to carry out a filtering so as to assign a relevant region to the speaker'"'"'s image;

an encoding means for compressingly encoding the speaker'"'"'s video data of the assigned region of the filtering means; and

a first interfacing means for carrying out an interfacing by connecting a communication network to the speaker'"'"'s video data of the encoding means and to the text video data from the other external source.

2. The apparatus as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a second interfacing means for receiving the speaker'"'"'s video data and the text video data by connecting them to the communication network;

a decoding means for decoding the compressingly encoded speaker'"'"'s video data of the second interfacing means; and

a mixing means for mixing together the decoded speaker'"'"'s video data of the decoding means and the text video data of the second interfacing means.

3. A method for video transmission in a video conferencing system, comprising the steps of:

a) converting an analogue speaking video data of an external source to a digital speaking data;

b) carrying out a scaling to expand or reduce the converted speaking video data to a proper size;

c) carrying out a filtering to remove noises from a text video data of an external source, and carrying out a scaling to expand or reduce its size to a proper one;

d) extracting difference components from the scaled speaking video data and the text video data of the steps b) and c);

e) setting a first threshold value to the extracted speaker'"'"'s video data to form a binary image;

f) setting a second threshold value to the binary speaker'"'"'s image to carry out a filtering so as to assign a relevant region to the speaker'"'"'s image; and

g) compressingly encoding the speaker'"'"'s video data of the assigned region, and carrying out an interfacing by connecting a communication network to the speaker'"'"'s video data and to the text video data from another external source.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, further comprising the steps of:

h) receiving the speaker'"'"'s video data and the text video data by connecting them to the communication network;

i) decoding the received speaker'"'"'s video data; and

j) mixing together the decoded speaker'"'"'s video data and the received text video data.

5. A computer readable recording medium storing a program for executing a method for video transmission in a video conferencing system, the method comprising the steps of:

a) converting an analogue speaking video data of an external source to a digital speaking data;

b) carrying out a scaling to expand or reduce the converted speaking video data to a proper size;

c) carrying out a filtering to remove noises from a text video data of an external source, and carrying out a scaling to expand or reduce its size to a proper one;

d) extracting difference components from the scaled speaking video data and the text video data of the second and third functions;

e) setting a first threshold value to the extracted speaker'"'"'s video data to form a binary image;

f) setting a second threshold value to the binary speaker'"'"'s image to carry out a filtering so as to assign a relevant region to the speaker'"'"'s image; and

g) compressingly encoding the speaker'"'"'s video data of the assigned region, and carrying out an interfacing by connecting a communication network to the speaker'"'"'s video data and to the text video data from another external source.

6. The recording medium as claimed in claim 5, further comprising the steps of:

h) receiving the speaker'"'"'s video data and the text video data by connecting them to the communication network;

i) decoding the received speaker'"'"'s video data; and

j) mixing together the decoded speaker'"'"'s video data and the received text video data.