Two-way interactive system, terminal equipment and image pickup apparatus having mechanism for matching lines of sight between interlocutors through transmission means
First Claim
1. A two-way interactive system comprising:
- a first terminal equipment located at a first point where a first interlocutor is present;
a second terminal equipment located at a second point where a second interlocutor is present; and
transmission means, arranged between said first terminal equipment and said second terminal equipment, for enabling two-way communication of at least image data of the first interlocutor and the second interlocutor, at least said first terminal equipment comprising;
a display unit for displaying an image of the second interlocutor, which is received through said transmission means, on a monitor;
position regulation means for regulating a position of the first interlocutor with respect to a monitor screen of said display unit; and
an image pickup apparatus for enabling transmission of an image of the first interlocutor to said second terminal equipment through said transmission means, said image pickup apparatus having an image pickup unit for directly picking up the image of the first interlocutor and a support mechanism for setting said image pickup unit at a predetermined position between the first interlocutor and said monitor, wherein while an image pickup direction of said image pickup unit is set directly toward the first interlocutor, said image pickup unit is positioned so that the first interlocutor can view said image pickup unit at a position where said image pickup unit is located within an image displaying window on said monitor screen of said display unit and above a position of an eye of a monitor image of the second interlocutor. The image displaying window being a region which the monitor image of the second interlocutor is displayed.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A two-way interactive system that includes an apparatus for matching the line of sight of interlocutors in order to enhance communication through a transmission means when the interlocutors are located in remote areas. Terminal equipment, located at the site of each interlocutor, includes a display unit, a position regulator means and an image pickup apparatus. The display unit includes a monitor that displays an image of a partner interlocutor. The position regulating means regulates the position of the interlocutor with respect to the monitor. The image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup unit which captures an image of the interlocutors and a support means which sets the image pickup unit in a predetermined position between the interlocutor and a monitor of the display unit. More particularly, the image pick up unit is positioned in a line-of-sight matching area defined by the distance from the interlocutor to the monitor and a parallactic angle formed by the lines of sight of the interlocutor to the image of the partner interlocutor and the image pickup unit.
37 Citations
62 Claims
-
1. A two-way interactive system comprising:
-
a first terminal equipment located at a first point where a first interlocutor is present;
a second terminal equipment located at a second point where a second interlocutor is present; and
transmission means, arranged between said first terminal equipment and said second terminal equipment, for enabling two-way communication of at least image data of the first interlocutor and the second interlocutor, at least said first terminal equipment comprising;
a display unit for displaying an image of the second interlocutor, which is received through said transmission means, on a monitor;
position regulation means for regulating a position of the first interlocutor with respect to a monitor screen of said display unit; and
an image pickup apparatus for enabling transmission of an image of the first interlocutor to said second terminal equipment through said transmission means, said image pickup apparatus having an image pickup unit for directly picking up the image of the first interlocutor and a support mechanism for setting said image pickup unit at a predetermined position between the first interlocutor and said monitor, wherein while an image pickup direction of said image pickup unit is set directly toward the first interlocutor, said image pickup unit is positioned so that the first interlocutor can view said image pickup unit at a position where said image pickup unit is located within an image displaying window on said monitor screen of said display unit and above a position of an eye of a monitor image of the second interlocutor. The image displaying window being a region which the monitor image of the second interlocutor is displayed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
-
-
36. A method of displaying a person'"'"'s image of a first interlocutor in an image displaying window on a monitor screen of a monitor while an image pickup unit for picking up an image of a second interlocutor located in front of said monitor is set so that the second interlocutor can view that said image pickup unit overlaps the person'"'"'s image of the first interlocutor displayed within the image displaying window on said monitor screen, the image displaying window being a region which the person'"'"'s image of the first interlocutor is displayed, said method comprising the step of:
enlarging or reducing the person'"'"'s image of the first interlocutor in the image displaying window on said monitor screen, relative to a predetermined point within the image displaying window on said monitor screen is fixed, said predetermined position insuring that a line of sight of the second interlocutor matches a line of sight of the person'"'"'s image of the first interlocutor displayed on said monitor screen. - View Dependent Claims (37)
-
38. An image pickup apparatus comprising:
-
a main body having a predetermined setting surface attached to a surface of a monitor;
an image pickup unit for picking up directly an image of a person positioned in front of said monitor;
a support mechanism which has one end attached to said main body and another end attached to the image pick up unit, as structured so that the one end can be adjusted through an attachment connecting the one end to the main body and set an image pickup direction of said image pickup unit toward the person directly viewing said image pickup unit covering a part of a screen of said monitor on which an image of the person is displayed when said main body is set on said monitor. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40)
-
-
41. A two-way interactive system, comprising
a first terminal equipment located at a first point where first interlocutor is present; -
a second terminal equipment located at a second point where second interlocutor is present; and
transmission means, arranged between said first terminal equipment and said second terminal equipment, for enabling two-way communication of at least image data of the first interlocutor and the second interlocutor, at least said first terminal equipment comprising;
a display unit for displaying an image of the first interlocutor or the second interlocutor, which is received through said transmission means, on a monitor screen;
an image pickup apparatus for enabling transmission of an image of the first interlocutor to said second terminal equipment through said transmission means, said image pickup apparatus having an image pickup unit for picking up the image of the first interlocutor, and a support mechanism for setting said image pickup unit at a position between the first interlocutor and said monitor screen; and
position regulation means for regulating a relative positional relationship between said image pickup unit and a person image displayed on said monitor screen such that, from a view of the first interlocutor, said image pickup unit overlaps said monitor screen and is located above an eye of the person image displayed on said monitor screen. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 52)
-
-
47. A terminal equipment for enabling a two-way interactive communication through a transmission means, said terminal equipment comprising:
-
a display unit for displaying at least a person image received as image signals through said transmission means, or a person image picked up by said terminal equipment, on a monitor screen;
an image pickup apparatus for enabling transmission of an image of a person present in front of said monitor screen through said transmission means; and
position regulating means, wherein said image pickup apparatus has an image pickup unit for picking up the image of the person in front of said monitor screen; and
a support mechanism for setting said image pickup unit at a position between the person in front of said monitor screen and said monitor screen, and wherein said position regulation means regulates a relative positive relationship between said image pickup unit and the person image displayed on said monitor screen such that, from a view of the person in front of said monitor screen, said image pickup unit overlaps said monitor screen and is located above an eye of the person image displayed on said monitor screen. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54)
-
-
55. A method for interactive two-way communication, comprising the steps of:
-
acquiring a first image of a first person, located in front of a monitor screen, using an image pickup unit;
transmitting the first image from the image pickup unit to the monitor screen;
displaying the first image of the first person on the monitor screen; and
regulating a relative position between the image pickup unit and the displayed first image such that, from the view of the first person, the image pickup unit overlaps the monitor screen and is located above eye level of the first image displayed on the monitor screen. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62)
-
Specification