JPH07203403A - Interactive communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] By using a public line and a videophone / videoconference terminal to construct a program providing device that can provide programs to an interactive television, the existing television receiver can be used exclusively. Eliminates the need for infrastructure maintenance such as cable installation. [Structure] The program providing device includes a television receiver 1, a VTR 2,
An encoding unit 3, a multiplexing unit 6, a magneto-optical disk 7, a system control unit 8 and a line control unit 12 are provided. Line control unit 1
Reference numeral 2 controls a plurality of ISDN basic and primary interfaces, respectively, and performs call setup message communication and program file transmission with a viewer's interactive television. When the call setting message requesting the program arrives from the viewer, the program providing apparatus selects the video coding mode and the audio coding method according to the type of the program, and the viewer's interactive television and the video coding mode and the audio are selected. If they match with each other in the encoding method, the program file is transmitted via the line control unit 12.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an interactive communication device for providing a file on demand.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In conventional television broadcasting, a broadcast station unilaterally provides a program to each viewer. Viewers checked the programs in the newspapers and magazines in advance, and adjusted the TV channel to the broadcast time or set the video recording.

Therefore, there is a demand for the development of an interactive television capable of broadcasting a program at an arbitrary time in response to a request from a viewer.

[0004]

However, when the interactive television is realized by the existing television receiver, there is a problem that the maintenance of the infrastructure such as the attachment of a dedicated cable is necessary.

Therefore, the present invention constructs a program providing device capable of providing a program to an interactive television by using a public line and a videophone / videoconference terminal, so that a dedicated cable can be used even if an existing television receiver is used. The purpose is to eliminate the need for maintenance of infrastructure such as attachments.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the interactive communication apparatus of the present invention comprises an encoding means for encoding file information, and file information for storing a plurality of encoded file information. Storage means, line control means for controlling a communication line for providing the stored file information, and file information requested via the communication line is specified from the plurality of stored file information. And file providing means for providing the specified file information via the communication line.

[0007]

The interactive communication apparatus of the present invention encodes file information by the encoding means, stores a plurality of file information encoded by the file information storage means, and provides the file information stored by the line control means. A file setting means for specifying the file information requested by the file setting means from the plurality of stored file information, and the file information specified by the file providing means for the file information. Provided via a communication line.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An interactive television as an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to the interactive television, but can be used in various devices such as a video conference system that interactively communicates filed data. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the interactive television of this embodiment. Reference numeral 1 denotes a television receiving unit including a television antenna and a tuner for receiving a television program broadcast. Reference numeral 2 is a VTR for recording the signal received by the television receiver 1. An encoding unit 3 compresses and encodes a video signal, and includes an audio encoding unit 4 and a video encoding unit 5. Speech coding unit 4
Then, as an audio encoding method, an MPEG encoding method, P
CM encoding method (μ_law), APC-AB (16K
bps) coding method and SB-ADPCM (7 KHz band) coding method are adopted. The video encoding unit 5 employs two types of video encoding methods, the H261 method and the MPEG method.

MPEG and H261 are standardized as a high-efficiency coding system for moving images. MPEG is a storage media type encoding system for recording images and audio at a recording speed of 1.5 Mbps, and H261 is an encoding system aimed at the use of videophone / conference systems.
The target is a rate of K to 2 Mbps.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a multiplexing unit for synchronously multiplexing the audio data and the video data encoded by the encoding unit 3. 7
Is a magneto-optical disk for storing the data from the multiplexing unit 6 as a file for each program. Reference numeral 8 denotes a system control unit that controls the entire interactive television, and includes a CPU 9 and an R.
It has OM10 and RAM11. A line control unit 12 controls a plurality of ISDN basic and primary interfaces.

The program received by the television receiver 1 is a VTR
2 is recorded as an analog signal. When the program ends, the VTR 2 is reproduced, and the encoding unit 3 compresses and encodes a signal for converting an analog signal into a digital signal. The audio data and the video data compressed and coded by the coding unit 3 are multiplexed on the audio and the video by the multiplexing unit 6 and stored in the magneto-optical disk 7 as a data file. An MPEG system data file and an H261 system data file are created on the magneto-optical disk 7. Since TV broadcasting is being performed on multiple channels at the same time,
The above sequence is performed for each channel.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the format of the user-user information element included in the call setup message communicated between the interactive television and the program providing apparatus. When the protocol identifier of the user-user information element is the user-specific protocol (00h), the use of the user information is negotiated between the terminals. The viewer adds a user-user information element to the call setup (SETUP) message and requests programming service. When the program providing device cannot provide the program service, the reason information is added to the user information and the disconnection recovery message is transmitted.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a format of parameters included in the user information of the user-user information element. The user protocol information consists of two octaves, a user identifier and a service identifier. The program information is used to identify the program desired to be provided. The coding information is used to identify the coding format of the provided program. When encoding a video signal, by adjusting parameters such as a frame rate, it is possible to select an image quality priority encoding mode or a motion priority encoding mode.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a mode selecting operation at the time of video coding. The system control unit 8 of the program providing device first checks the type of program to be encoded (step S10). It is determined whether or not the type of program is a sports program (step S11), and if it is a sports program, it is encoded in the motion priority mode (step S15). The motion priority mode has a higher frame rate than the normal mode coding and has good followability to motions, and thus is suitable for coding fast-moving images such as sports programs. If the type of program is not a sports program in step S11, it is further determined whether or not the type of program is a news program (step S12), and if it is a news program, it is encoded in the image quality priority mode (step S14). .
Since the image quality priority mode has a lower frame rate and better image quality than the normal mode encoding, it is suitable for displaying characters in a news program or encoding a video with little motion. If the type of program is not a news program in step S12, encoding is further performed in the normal mode (step S13). When a video signal is encoded by the H261 encoding method, an optimal audio encoding method can be selected from several types.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a coding mode selecting operation at the time of coding a voice signal. The system control unit 8 checks the type of the program to be encoded in the same manner as in the case of encoding the video signal described above (step S2).
0). It is determined whether or not the type of program is a music program (step S21), and if it is a music program, it is encoded by the SB-ADPCM encoding system of the 7 KHz band (step S21).
25). Since this system has a wider band and better sound quality than the normal coding mode, it is suitable for coding a music program or the like. If the type of program is not a music program in step S21, it is further determined whether or not the type of program is a sports program (step S22). If it is a sports program, APC-AB encoding with an encoding rate of 16 Kbps is performed. It is encoded by the method (step S24). Since this method is a low-rate encoding method, the video rate is relatively improved and the image quality is improved. It is suitable for programs in which image quality is prioritized over sound quality, such as sports programs. When it is determined in step S22 that the program is not a sports program, it is encoded by the PCM system (step S23). In order to identify which encoding method the program file was encoded with, identification information of the video encoding method and the audio encoding method is added to the management section of the program file.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a program providing method. When the program setting device receives a call setting message requesting a program from the viewer to the line control unit, the program providing device enters the incoming state (step S31). The coded information (see FIG. 6) in the user-user information element of the call setup message is analyzed (step S32). The user can use this information to specify the encoding method that can be combined with his / her terminal.

Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the video coding mode of the coded information is designated as H261 (step S33). When the video encoding mode is designated as H261, the program information of the user / user information element is analyzed to determine whether or not the program desired by the user is compatible with the audio composite capability of the user (step S35). When the user's voice composite ability is met, the program file desired by the viewer among the H261 system program files stored in the magneto-optical disk 4 is copied to the transmission area of the RAM 11 (step S38). The program file copied to the RAM 11 is transmitted to the user (step S4
0), this routine ends.

Further, when it is not suitable for the user's voice compounding ability in step S35, since the viewer's terminal does not have the ability to compound the program, the reason information “user information” of the disconnection recovery message is added to the user information. No voice ability "
User information is added and the line is disconnected (step S3).
9).

On the other hand, when the video coding mode is not designated as H261 in step S33, it is determined whether or not the video coding mode is designated as MPEG (step S34). When not specified in MPEG, the user has requested a video encoding mode other than that provided by the program providing apparatus, so the reason information “no video encoding method” is included in the user information of the user / user information of the disconnection recovery message. The reason is displayed and the line is disconnected (step S3)
6). Also, when the MPEG is designated, the program information of the user / user information element is analyzed. Among the MPEG type program files stored in the magneto-optical disk 4, the program file desired by the viewer is copied to the transmission area of the RAM 11 (step S37). Similar to the case described above, the program file copied to the RAM 11 is transmitted to the user (step S40), and this routine ends.

In this embodiment, the start time and the end time are specified when the program is specified, but the G code may be specified. Further, although the program providing apparatus of this embodiment performs all reception, recording, and encoding of broadcasting, the host station performs compression, transmits the compressed data to the local station, and the local station watches. Needless to say, the processing may be divided and constructed such that only the program is provided to the person.

[0021]

According to the interactive communication apparatus of the present invention, the encoding means for encoding the file information, the file information storing means for storing the plurality of encoded file information, and the stored file. Line control means for controlling a communication line for providing information, file setting means for specifying the file information requested via the communication line from the plurality of stored file information, and the specified Since a file providing means for providing file information via the communication line is provided, it is possible to construct a communication device capable of interactively providing a file using a public line and a videophone / videoconference terminal. Therefore, by using the existing communication line, it is possible to eliminate the need for infrastructure maintenance such as installation of a dedicated cable.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an interactive television according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a mode selection operation at the time of video encoding.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a coding mode selecting operation at the time of coding a voice signal.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a program providing method.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a format of a user / user information element included in a call setup message communicated between the interactive television and the program providing apparatus.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a format of parameters included in user information of a user / user information element.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 ... Encoding unit 4 ... Audio encoding unit 5 ... Video encoding unit 7 ... Magneto-optical disk 8 ... System control unit 12 ... Line control unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A coding means for coding file information, a file information storage means for storing a plurality of coded file information, and a communication line for providing the stored file information. Line control means, a file setting means for specifying file information requested via the communication line from the plurality of stored file information, and providing the specified file information via the communication line And a file providing means for performing the interactive communication device. 2. The encoding means includes a video signal encoding means for encoding a video signal of the file information, and an encoding mode setting means for setting a video encoding mode according to the type of the program. The interactive communication device according to claim 1, wherein the interactive communication device is provided. 3. The encoding means includes an encoding method storing means having a plurality of audio encoding methods, an encoding method selecting means for selecting an audio encoding method according to a file type, and the selected encoding method. The interactive communication device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: an encoding unit that encodes an audio signal of the file information by using an audio encoding system. 4. A compression method identifying means for identifying a compression method from the requested file information, and the file information providing means provides the file information according to the identified compression method. The interactive communication device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.