JP2000036875A - Portable telephone set with video telephone set function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To continue voice communication without communication of a disturbed image that one cannot bear to look at it or without interrupting a channel by controlling the portable telephone set so that only voice communication is conducted, when a sufficient transmission rate to transmit the image is not obtained depending on a state of a radio wave or the like. SOLUTION: When no operation for terminating communication is made (S1), the procedure transits to a discrimination procedure as to whether or not a data transmission rate is 8 kbps or over (S2). When the data transmission rate is 8 kbps or over and it is judged that communication is sufficiently executed, voice communication is conducted (S3). Then whether or not high speed data communication, whose transmission rate is 64 kbps or over is available, is successively discriminated (S4). When the transmission rate of 64 kbps or over is not secured, the image communication stop mode is switched (S6). Then the data transmission rate is set to 8 kbps, and the processing of an image processing section is stopped (S7). Thus, consecutive voice communication is attained without interrupting the channel.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable telephone with a video telephone function capable of communicating both images and sound.

[0002]

In recent years, due to research and development of W-CDMA and the like, portable telephones with a video telephone function capable of communicating images such as voice and moving images have been put to practical use. In this case, 8k is required for voice communication.
Although a low data transmission rate of about bps is possible, a high-speed data transmission rate of 64 kbps or more is required for communicating moving images with voice.

However, high-speed data communication as described above requires good radio wave conditions and sufficient transmission speed to be obtained. If the radio wave conditions deteriorate, images are distorted. There is a possibility that the line may become unbearable or the line may be disconnected.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a television capable of performing only voice communication when the communication state is poor due to the state of radio waves and the like and only a low data communication speed can be obtained. It is to provide a mobile phone with a telephone function.

[0005]

According to the portable telephone having the videophone function, the voice communication and the image communication can simultaneously perform the voice communication and the image communication. In this case, when a transmission speed sufficient for communicating images cannot be obtained due to the state of radio waves or the like from the beginning of communication, only voice communication is performed from the beginning of communication. Therefore,
Communication of a disturbed image which is hard to see is no longer performed, and communication can be continued by voice without disconnecting the line.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when both the image and the voice are being communicated, if the transmission speed sufficient for communicating the image cannot be obtained due to the state of the radio wave, etc. Switch to voice communication,
It is convenient for the user to use.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, when the state changes from a state where only a low data communication speed can be obtained to a state where high speed data communication is possible, the mode is changed from the mode only for voice communication to the image communication. Since the mode is automatically switched to the mode for communicating both voices, it is extremely convenient for the user to use.

According to the portable telephone with a videophone function, when high-speed data communication in which both a plane image and voice can be communicated, when only a low-speed data communication can be performed due to a radio wave condition or the like, When switching to voice communication only, and then the state of the radio wave is improved and high-speed data communication is possible, image communication is automatically resumed and both voice and image can be communicated. Is more convenient for the user.

According to the portable telephone with a videophone function of the present invention, when high-speed data communication in which both moving picture and sound can be communicated, when only low-speed data communication can be performed due to radio wave conditions or the like. Then, the moving image becomes a still image, and only the voice communication is switched. Next, when the radio wave condition is improved and high-speed data communication is possible, the image communication in which the still image becomes a moving image is automatically restarted. Since both voice and image can be communicated, it is extremely convenient for the user to use, and it is possible to prevent erroneous determination that there is a failure as compared with the case where the display of an image is stopped. it can.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below.
This will be described with reference to the drawings. First, the electrical configuration will be described with reference to FIG. The control unit 1 as a control means is mainly constituted by a microcomputer. The human output port of the control unit 1 is connected to a signal input / output terminal of the radio unit 2, and the transmission / reception terminal of the radio unit 2 is connected to the antenna 3. Further, the input / output port of the control unit 1 is connected to the input / output terminal of the audio processing unit 4,
An output terminal and an input terminal of the audio processing unit 4 are a beaker 5 as an audio output unit and a microphone 6 as an audio input unit.
Connected to each other. Further, an input / output port of the control unit 1 is connected to an input / output terminal of the image processing unit 7, and an output terminal and an input terminal of the image processing unit 7 are a display 8 as image display means and an image input means. Each is connected to a camera 9.

In the control section 1, the input port is connected to a key operation section 10 as operation input means. The key operation unit 10 includes a “power” key, a “start” key,
"End" key, "0" to "9" numeric keys and "Image"
Various keys such as keys are provided.

The radio unit 2 including the antenna 3 and the audio processing unit 4 constitute an audio communication unit according to the present invention, and the radio unit 2 including the antenna 3 and the image processing unit 7 constitute an image communication unit according to the present invention. Make up.

Here, when the "power" key of the key operation unit 10 is pressed by the caller (user), the power is turned on to the electric component circuit shown in FIG. Of the electric field having the strongest electric field strength is transmitted to the radio unit 2 as a received high-frequency signal. The radio unit 2 converts the received high-frequency signal into a reception baseband signal via an antenna duplexer, a high-frequency amplifier, and a reception mixer, and
To be transmitted. The control unit 1 obtains broadcast information by demodulating the received baseband signal. When it is determined that location registration is required from the obtained broadcast information, the control unit 1 converts the location registration information into a transmission baseband signal. The data is converted and transmitted to the wireless unit 2. The radio unit 2 converts the transmission baseband signal into a transmission high-frequency signal by a transmission mixer, and transmits the transmission high-frequency signal as a radio wave from the antenna 3 via a power amplifier and an antenna duplexer. As described above, the mobile phone (the control unit 1) is in the standby state.

To make a call (call), when the caller inputs the telephone number of the communication partner using the key of the key operation unit 10, the control unit 1 displays the telephone number via the image processing unit 7 on the display unit 8. To be displayed. When the caller confirms the telephone number and presses the “start” key of the key operation unit 10 to establish a call, the voice of the caller is converted into an electric signal by the microphone 6 and transmitted. Is manually input to the voice processing unit 4.

The transmission voice signal manually input to the voice processing unit 4 is converted into a digital signal via an internal amplifier and A / D converter, and further compressed via a voice encoding circuit to reduce the bit rate. The transmitted transmission data signal is input to the control unit 1. And the condition of the radio wave is good and 64kb
When high-speed data communication of ps or more is possible, when the sender presses the "image" key, which is a selection means of the key operation unit 10, the image on the sender side is converted into an electric signal by the camera 9 and transmitted. The image signal is manually input to the plane image processing unit 7. The transmission image signal manually input to the image processing unit 7 is converted into a digital signal via an Uchiro amplifier and an A / D converter, and further compressed via an image encoding circuit to reduce the transmission bit rate. It is input to the control unit 1 as an image data signal.

The control section 1 performs code division multiplexing (CDMA) processing on the manually transmitted transmission audio data signal and transmission image signal, digitally modulates them, and transmits them to the radio section 2 as transmission baseband signals. The radio unit 2 converts a transmission baseband signal into a transmission high-frequency signal, and further transmits the radio wave from the antenna 3 to the base station via a high-frequency power amplifier and an antenna duplexer.

On the contrary, the radio wave transmitted from the base station is received by the antenna 3 and transmitted to the radio unit 2 as a received high-frequency signal. The radio unit 2 converts the received high-frequency signal into a reception baseband signal via the antenna sharing device, the high-frequency amplifier, and the reception mixer, and transmits the signal to the control unit 1. The control unit 1 demodulates the received baseband signal, performs CDMA processing, converts the received baseband signal into received audio data and received image data, and transmits them to the audio processing unit 4 and the image processing unit 7, respectively. The received voice data transmitted to the voice processing unit 4 is expanded by a voice decoding circuit to become a received voice digital signal, which is converted by a D / A conversion circuit into a received voice signal which is an analog signal, and is passed through an amplifier to a speaker 5.
Is transmitted to Accordingly, the beeker 5 converts the received voice signal into a sound to obtain the received voice. The received plane image data transmitted to the image processing unit 7 is expanded by an image decoding circuit to become a received image digital signal, which is transmitted to the display 8. Accordingly, the display 8 can display the received image signal.

When an incoming call is received, an incoming message is transmitted from the base station from the standby state, received by the antenna 3 and converted into a baseband signal by the radio unit 2, and the baseband signal is converted by the control unit 1. Upon receiving the incoming message, the incoming call operation is performed to complete the call. The operation after establishing the call is the same as that in the case of calling.

Next, a specific operation at the time of calling will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The caller inputs the telephone number of the communication partner by operating the numeric keys of the key operation unit 10 or manually inputs the telephone number of the communication partner by operating the abbreviated key, and then “start” of the key operation unit 10 When a key is pressed, the control unit 1 exits from the main routine and shifts to an interrupt routine of “communication processing” shown in FIG. Then, the control section 1 proceeds to the judgment step S1 of "communication end?" In determination step S1, control unit 1 determines whether the caller has pressed the “end” key or the called party has performed a communication end operation such as terminating the call (when “YES”). ), The process returns to the main routine (return) to perform the call termination processing. When there is no operation for terminating communication as described above in the determination step S1 (when “NO”), the control unit 1
The process proceeds to the determination step S2 of “8 kbps or more?”.

Then, the control unit 1 determines whether or not this determination step S
In step 2, it is determined whether or not the data communication speed can be secured to 8 kbps or more. If "NO", it is determined that voice communication cannot be performed, and the process returns to the main routine (return) to perform the call termination processing. When the control unit 1 determines in the determination step S2 that the data communication speed is 8 kbps or more and sufficient communication is possible, that is, "YES".
When it is determined that the “voice communication” processing step S3
Move to

In this processing step S3, the control unit 1
The voice processing unit 4 is operated, the voice processing unit 4 causes the speaker 5 to reproduce the voice of the called party, and the microphone 6 causes the voice of the caller to be input to the voice processing unit 4.
The voice communication mode is set. Next, the control unit 1 determines “64 kb
more than ps? The process proceeds to the determination step S4. Control unit 1
Is to determine whether or not the data communication speed is at least 64 kbps in this determination step S4. Then, the process returns to the determination step S1 of "end of call?" Therefore, in this case, only voice communication is performed from the beginning.

When the condition of the radio wave is good and the data communication of 64 kbps or more is possible, the control unit 1 determines "YES" in the determination step S4 and shifts to the "image communication" processing step S5. Then, in the processing step 5, the control unit 1 sets the data communication speed to 64 kbps or more, operates the image processing unit 7, and causes the display unit 8 to reproduce the plane image of the called party by the image processing unit 7. , The image of the caller is transmitted to the image processing unit 7 by the camera 9,
The image communication mode is set. At this time, since the voice communication mode has already been set in the processing step S3, both voice and image are being communicated.

Next, the control section 1 proceeds to a determination step S6 of "64 kbps or more?", And determines whether or not high-speed data communication of 64 kbps or more can be continued. When high-speed data communication of 64 kbps or more is possible, the control unit 1 determines “YES” and returns to the determination step S1. However, the control unit 1 determines “NO” in the determination step 6 when a situation occurs in which a data communication speed of 64 kbps or more cannot be ensured, such as when the state of radio waves deteriorates. The processing shifts to the processing step S7 of "image communication stop".

In this processing step S7, the control section 1 sets the data communication speed to 8 kbps and stops the processing of the image processing section 7. In this case, the image processing unit 7 has a memory for one frame image, and the control unit 1 keeps displaying the last image in the image communication mode on the display 8 as a still image. . Here, the display unit 8 is selected by the key operation selection of the key operation unit 10 of the caller.
Can be turned off so that nothing is displayed on the display 8. The control section 1 turns off the power of the camera 9 in the processing step S7.

Thereafter, the control section 1 returns to the decision step S1 and repeats the processing. However, while the processing is being repeated, the condition of the radio wave is improved, and the high-speed data communication speed of 64 kbps or more is sufficient. When it becomes possible to secure the image communication mode, "YES" is determined in the determination step S4, and the process proceeds to the processing step S5 to restore the image communication mode.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the following effects can be obtained. Under the control of the control unit 1, the wireless communication and the image processing unit 4 as the audio communication unit and the wireless unit 2 and the image processing unit 7 as the image communication unit can simultaneously perform the audio communication and the image communication. If a transmission rate sufficient for image communication cannot be obtained due to radio wave conditions or the like from the beginning of communication, the control unit 1
Since only the voice communication is performed, the communication of a disturbed image which is hard to see is prevented, and the communication can be continued by voice without disconnecting the line.

In this case, the sender can see on the screen of the display 8 that the image communication has been stopped and recognize that the image communication has not been performed normally, and the image has not been sent. This can be communicated to the other party by a voice message, and if necessary, a message to redo the communication can be given by voice.

The control unit 1 automatically switches to voice communication during communication of both voice and image when a transmission rate sufficient for image communication cannot be obtained due to radio wave conditions or the like. It is convenient for the user to use.

Further, when the control unit 1 changes from a situation where only a low data communication rate can be obtained to a situation where high-speed data communication is possible, the control unit 1 switches from a mode of only voice communication to a mode of communicating both images and voice. Since the switching is automatically performed, the operation is extremely convenient for the user.

During high-speed data communication in which both a plane image and voice can be communicated, the control unit 1 switches to only voice communication when only low-speed data communication can be performed due to the state of radio waves or the like. Next, if the condition of the radio wave improves and high-speed data communication becomes possible, the image communication is automatically resumed and both voice and image can be communicated. It is even more convenient.

Furthermore, during high-speed data communication in which both images and voice can be communicated, if only low-speed data communication can be performed due to radio wave conditions, the moving image becomes a still image and is switched to only voice communication. If the condition of the radio wave is improved and high-speed data communication becomes possible, image communication in which a still image becomes a moving image is automatically resumed, and both voice and image can be communicated. This is extremely convenient in use, and can prevent erroneous determination of a failure as compared with, for example, stopping display of an image.

In addition, since the control unit 1 can select whether or not to perform image communication by operating the "image" key of the key operation unit 10 as a selection means, there is no privacy problem.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the drawings, and the following expansions and modifications are possible. It is desirable that the display 8 has a large screen covering almost the entire surface of the mobile phone, but a small screen that occupies a part of the surface of the mobile phone as in the related art does not cause any problem.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing control contents according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 is a control unit (control means), 2 is a wireless unit (voice communication means,
Image communication means), 5 is a speaker (audio output means), 4 is an audio processing unit (audio communication means), 6 is a microphone (audio input means), 7 is an image processing unit (image communication means), and 8 is a display ( Reference numeral 9 denotes a camera (image input means).

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An audio communication means for performing voice communication, an image communication means for performing image communication, an image display means for displaying an image received by the image communication means, and a voice sound by the voice communication means It is provided to execute and control the communication and the image communication by the image communication means. When the transmission speed sufficient for communicating the image cannot be obtained due to the state of the radio wave or the like, the control is performed so that only the voice communication is performed. A mobile phone with a videophone function, comprising: a control unit. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit automatically switches to only voice communication when a transmission speed sufficient for image communication cannot be obtained due to a radio wave condition or the like during image communication. The mobile phone with a videophone function according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The control means changes from a state of only voice communication in which a transmission rate sufficient for communicating an image cannot be obtained due to a state of radio waves to a state of good radio waves and a transmission rate sufficient for communicating images. 2. The portable telephone with a videophone function according to claim 1, wherein the portable telephone with a videophone function is configured to automatically perform image communication when the communication is obtained. 4. The control means automatically switches to only voice communication during image communication when a sufficient transmission speed for transmitting a plane image cannot be obtained due to the state of radio waves or the like, and
2. The image communication device according to claim 1, wherein when the radio wave condition becomes good and a transmission speed sufficient for image communication can be obtained, the image communication is automatically restored. Mobile phone with videophone function. 5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when a transmission rate sufficient for communicating the moving image cannot be obtained due to a state of a radio wave or the like during the image communication, the image is set to a still image, and only the voice communication is automatically performed. , And when the condition of the radio wave becomes good and a sufficient transmission speed for communicating the image is obtained, the image communication is automatically restored from the still image to the moving image. The mobile phone with a telephone function according to claim 1, wherein: