Electronic whiteboard system

• US 6,999,061 B2
• Filed: 09/03/2002
• Issued: 02/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Eguchi, Kazuhiro, Hara, Naozumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisen, Alexander
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Kimnhung
• Application Number:
  US10/234,871
• Publication Number:
  US 20030058227A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,260 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-158, 345173-179, 345/443, 345/763, 345/769, 345/180, 345/629, 178/18.01, 178/18.03, 178/18.04
• US Class Current: 345/157
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/00 Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators image data processing or generation, in general G06T

Abstract

Electronic whiteboard system comprises projected position information setting means for setting projected position information of a PC screen image projected onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard, projected position information storage section for storing projected position information, desktop operation/drawing means for enabling operation on the PC screen image projected on the screen by using an electronic pin as well as storing the locus of free lines drawn on the PC screen image in correspondence with the base image of the PC screen, document information storage section for storing a pair of base image and free lines on a per page basis and storing a plurality of pages as document information, and document information regeneration means for displaying a base image on the window of a computer unit then free lines over the base image in the order the lines were drawn based on the document information stored in the document information storage section.

Claims

1. An electronic whiteboard system comprising a computer unit, an electronic whiteboard, and a projector which projects image data of the computer unit onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard,

wherein said electronic whiteboard comprises:

coordinate detection means for detecting and determining coordinate information of a position of an electronic pen on the screen; and

communications means for reporting coordinate information on the screen detected by said coordinate detection means to a computer unit, and

said computer unit comprises;

communications means for receiving said coordinate information from the electronic whiteboard;

projected position information setting means for setting projected position information of a PC screen image projected onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard by the projector;

projected position information storage section for storing said projected position information;

desktop operation/drawing means for enabling operation including drawing free lines on the PC screen image projected on the screen based on said coordinate information and said projected position information as well as storing individual stroke information of each of the free lines drawn on the PC screen image in correspondence with a base image of the PC screen;

document information storage section for storing a pair of said base image and said free lines on a per page basis and storing a plurality of pages as document information; and

document information regeneration means for displaying said base image on a display of the computer unit and then sequentially displaying the stroke information of each of said free lines over said base image in the order said free lines were drawn based on the document information stored in the document information storage section.

2. An electronic whiteboard system comprising a computer unit, an electronic whiteboard, and a projector which projects image data of the computer unit onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard,

wherein said electronic whiteboard comprises:

coordinate detection means for detecting a position of an electronic pen on the screen; and

communications means for reporting coordinate information on the screen detected by said coordinate detection means to a computer unit, and

said computer unit comprises;

communications means for receiving said coordinate information from the electronic whiteboard;

projected position information setting means for setting projected position information of a PC screen image projected onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard by the projector;

projected position information storage section for storing said projected position information;

desktop operation/drawing means for enabling operation on the PC screen image projected on the screen based on said coordinate information and said projected position information as well as storing a locus of free lines drawn on the PC screen image in correspondence with a base image of the PC screen;

document information storage section for storing a pair of said base image and said free lines on a per page basis and storing a plurality of pages as document information;

document information regeneration means for displaying said base image on a display of the computer unit and said free lines over said base image in the order said free lines were drawn based on the document information stored in the document information storage section; and

wherein coordinate detection means detects the position on the screen by using a time difference caused by infrared rays and an supersonic wave simultaneously issued from an electronic pen and received by a coordinate detection sensor provided in predetermined position to calculate the distance from the electronic pen to the coordinate detection sensor, thereby detecting the position on the screen.

3. An electronic whiteboard system comprising a computer unit, an electronic whiteboard, and a projector which projects image data of the computer unit onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard, said system comprising:

a document information storage unit for dividing in time-order individual stroke information data of a drawing provided on the screen of the electronic whiteboard with an electronic pen, combining said time-order divided stroke information data and image data projected onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard by the projector, and storing the combined data as document information, and

a document information regeneration unit for regenerating in time-order the document information stored in the document information storage unit by sequentially displaying said stored image data and time-order divided stroke information on at least one of the display screen of the computer unit and the screen of the electronic whiteboard.

4. An electronic whiteboard system according to claim 3, wherein said document information storage unit stores said document information by processing, as a single set, time-order divided stroke information and image projected onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard when a drawing corresponding to the stroke information is provided on the screen of the electronic whiteboard with an electronic pen.

5. An electronic whiteboard system according to claim 4, wherein said single set of document information comprises a plurality of said time-order divided stroke information.

6. A drawing regeneration method for an electronic whiteboard system which projects image data of a computer unit onto the screen of an electronic whiteboard by using a projector, the method comprising the steps of:

time-order dividing individual stroke information data of a drawing provided on the screen of the electronic whiteboard with an electronic pen;

combining said time-order divided stroke information data and image data projected onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard by the projector and storing said combined data as a plurality of document information items in a document information storage unit; and

time-order regenerating said stored combined data by sequentially displaying said stored image data and time-order divided stroke information on at least one of a display screen of the computer unit and the screen of the electronic whiteboard, based on said plurality of document information items.

7. A drawing regeneration method for an electronic whiteboard system according to claim 6, wherein said storing step comprises a step of processing, as a single set, time-order divided stroke information and an image projected onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard when a drawing corresponding to the stroke information is provided on the screen of the electronic whiteboard with an electronic pen.

8. A drawing regeneration method for an electronic whiteboard system according to claim 7, wherein said single set of document information comprises a plurality of said time-order divided stroke information.

9. An electronic whiteboard system comprising a computer unit, an electronic whiteboard, and a projector which projects image data of the computer unit onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard,

wherein said electronic whiteboard comprises:

coordinate detection means for detecting and determining coordinate information of a position of an electronic pen on the screen, the coordinate detection means being provided on the screen; and

communications means for reporting coordinate information on the screen detected by said coordinate detection means to a computer unit, and

said computer unit comprises;

communications means for receiving said coordinate information from the electronic whiteboard;

projected position information setting means for setting projected position information of a PC screen image projected onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard by the projector;

projected position information storage section for storing said projected position information;

desktop operation/drawing means for enabling operation including drawing free lines on the PC screen image projected on the screen based on said coordinate information and said projected position information as well as storing individual stroke information of each of the free lines drawn on the PC screen image in correspondence with a base image of the PC screen;

document information storage section for storing a pair of said base image and said free lines on a per page basis and storing a plurality of pages as document information; and

document information regeneration means for displaying said base image on a display of the computer unit and said free lines over said base image in the order said free lines were drawn based on the document information stored in the document information storage section.

10. An electronic whiteboard system comprising a computer unit, an electronic whiteboard, and a projector which projects image data of the computer unit onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard,

wherein said electronic whiteboard comprises:

coordinate detection device for detecting a position of an electronic pen on the screen; and

communications device for reporting coordinate information on the screen detected by said coordinate detection device to a computer unit, and

said computer unit comprises;

communications device for receiving said coordinate information from the electronic whiteboard;

projected position information setting device for setting projected position information of a PC screen image projected onto the screen of the electronic whiteboard by the projector;

projected position information storage section for storing said projected position information;

desktop operation/drawing tool for enabling operation on the PC screen image projected on the screen based on said coordinate information and said projected position information as well as storing a locus of free lines drawn on the PC screen image in correspondence with a base image of the PC screen;

document information storage section for storing a pair of said base image and said free lines on a per page basis and storing a plurality of pages as document information;

document information regeneration device for displaying said base image on a display of the computer unit and said free lines over said base image in the order said free lines were drawn based on the document information stored in the document information storage section; and

wherein coordinate detection device detects the position on the screen by using a time difference caused by infrared rays and an supersonic wave simultaneously issued from an electronic pen and received by a coordinate detection sensor provided in predetermined position to calculate the distance from the electronic pen to the coordinate detection sensor, thereby detecting the position on the screen.

11. An electronic whiteboard system according to claim 10, wherein the coordinate detection device is a coordinate detection sensor, and the communication device is a radio communication device.