JPH0970031A - Video conference system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a video conference system in which who is making utterance among attendees is discriminated at a glance by displaying a figure of an utterance party superimposingly in the vicinity of the utterance party in a full scene of the attendees. SOLUTION: Prior to conference start, deflection angle information of a camera picking up seats of attendees and displayed XY coordinates of the superimposed image are inputted to a control signal 9 from a control console 8 and the information is expanded in a storage section 7 as a retrieval table. An utterance party television camera 4 picks up an image of a range to be designated while a turning base 6 is turned depending on the deflection angle information. A superimpose control section 10 superimposes the video image picked up by the utterance party television camera 4 onto a video image picked up by a full scene television camera 3 based on a display coordinate of the table and displays the result onto a monitor 2. Thus, who is making an utterance is discriminated at a glance among the attendees.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video conference system, and more particularly to screen display in the video conference system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a television conference system is one in which a television camera and a television monitor (hereinafter referred to as "monitor") are installed mutually to advance a conference while looking at the faces of conference attendees at a remote place. In that case, it is desirable that only the speaker, among the attendees of the conference, is photographed by the TV camera and displayed on the monitor of the other party so that it is possible to know who is speaking. Therefore, one TV camera is placed on a swivel base and the swivel base is rotated so that only the speaker is shot, and the speakers are sequentially shot. It was configured to shoot.

Furthermore, the position of the TV camera for photographing the speaker is regarded as the swing angle of the swivel base, and the swing angle and the seat are associated with each other and stored in the storage unit in advance before the conference starts. If there was a speaker to shoot at, I immediately turned to the TV camera and filmed.

This conventional video conference system will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, the conventional video conferencing system shows attendees A to F sitting in the seats of the conference table 1.
Panoramic TV camera 3 for shooting all the members, a speaker TV camera 12 for shooting only the speaker, a swivel base 6 on which the speaker TV camera 12 is mounted, and a swing of the swivel base 6. A shake angle detection mechanism 5 for detecting an angle (that is, a shake angle of the television camera 12) is included. In the following description and drawings, the same reference numerals may be used for seats and attendees for convenience of description.

Also, in the conventional video conference system shown in the figure, a control console 8 operated by a moderator or operator of a conference, a storage unit in which a swing angle of a swivel base 6 and a seat are stored in advance in association with each other. 7, a control unit 9 that controls the rotation of the swivel base 6 in accordance with the detection output of the deflection angle detection mechanism 5, an instruction from the control console 8 and the stored contents of the storage unit 7.
It is comprised including. Reference numeral 11 is a panoramic monitor for displaying all the attendees of the conference, and 12 is a speaker monitor for displaying only the speaker.

In such a configuration, the position of the television camera for photographing the speaker is regarded as the swing angle of the swivel base, and the swing angle and the seat are associated with each other and the storage unit 7 is stored in advance before the conference starts.
To memorize it. During the conference, the image captured by the panoramic TV camera 3 is displayed on the panoramic monitor 11. At the same time, the moderator or operator of the conference operates the control console 8 to control the swing angle of the swivel base 6, and only the speaker is photographed by the speaker TV camera 4 and displayed on the speaker monitor 12.

The image captured by the panoramic TV camera 3 and the image captured by the speaker TV camera 4 are also sent to another station (not shown) to monitor the panoramic view in the receiving station.
Each is displayed on the speaker monitor.

The above is the method of operating the entire system.
As described above, conventionally, a monitor for displaying all the attendees of a conference and a monitor for displaying the speakers are separately required. An example of this monitor display is shown in FIGS.

That is, FIG. 7 shows attendees A to F of the conference.
A screen of the monitor showing all of the members is shown. Further, FIG. 8 shows a case in which the attendee B is the speaker among the attendees A to F of the conference.

It is also possible to consider a modification in which one screen is divided into two, and the speakers are displayed in the upper part and all the attendees are displayed in the lower part, instead of displaying them separately on two monitors. FIG. 9 shows the case where this screen is divided into two and displayed. That is, all of the attendees A to F are displayed at the bottom of the screen, and only the speaker of the attendees is displayed at the top of the screen.

[0011]

The above-mentioned conventional video conference system has the following drawbacks. First,
As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, in the system in which the speaker and all the meeting attendees are displayed on separate monitors,
There was a drawback that two monitors were required. Also,
When the number of attendees is large, the image of each attendee becomes small, and it is difficult to determine who is speaking.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 9, in a system in which one screen is divided into two and all the attendees of the conference are displayed in the lower part and only the speaker is displayed in the upper part, the face of the speaker is clearly visible. , It was difficult to understand who was speaking at the bottom of the table.

Incidentally, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-312478 also describes a technique for displaying a plurality of information on one screen. Which of the attendees is speaking even if such technique is used? Has the drawback that it is difficult to understand.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and the purpose thereof is to provide a video conference system capable of discriminating at a glance which one of the attendees is speaking. That is.

[0015]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A video conference system according to the present invention is a panoramic video camera for photographing all the participants of a conference, a speaker TV camera for photographing only the speaker of the conference attendants, and the conference. A table that associates each of the attendees with a display position in the vicinity of the image display portion of each meeting attendee on the screen displaying the image captured by the panoramic TV camera, and the image of the speaker captured by the speaker TV camera Is combined with the display position indicated by the table, and the image combined by this image combining means is transmitted and displayed on the television monitor of the receiving station.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The operation of the present invention is as follows.

All the attendees of the conference are photographed by the panoramic television camera, and only the speaker of the attendees is photographed by the speaker television camera. Each of the conference attendees and the display position in the vicinity of the image display portion of each conference attendee on the screen displaying the image captured by the panoramic TV camera are stored as an association table. The video of the speaker taken by the speaker TV camera is combined with the display position indicated by this table. The combined video is transmitted and displayed on the television monitor of the receiving station.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a video conference system according to the present invention, and the same parts as those in FIG. 6 are designated by the same reference numerals. In the figure, a video conference system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a panoramic TV camera 3 capable of capturing the entire view of a conference and a speaker TV camera 4 capable of capturing only one of attendees of the conference. And a revolving base 6 configured so that each attendee can be sequentially photographed by fixing and driving the speaker TV camera 4 on a pedestal, and freely controlling the revolving base 6 left and right. It is configured to include a control unit 9 for controlling and a control console 8 for sending a control signal to the control unit 9.

Further, in the figure, the video conference system according to the present embodiment detects a speaker and a camera deflection angle detection mechanism 5 for detecting and outputting at which position the speaker TV camera 4 is currently photographing a seat. The information stored in the storage unit 7 that stores the information indicating which position of the attendee's panoramic screen should be displayed in the superimpose mode and the speaker in the video captured by the panoramic TV camera based on the information from the control unit 9 A superimpose control unit 10 that superimposes images captured by the TV camera 4 and a monitor 2 that displays the images that are superposed by the superimpose control unit 10 are included. The image synthesized by the superimpose control unit 10 is sent to another station (not shown) and displayed on the monitor in the receiving station.

In such a structure, the seat position of the attendees, the deflection angle information of the camera for projecting the seat, and the superimposed image to be displayed in advance on the full screen are displayed before the conference starts. The display XY coordinates are input from the control console 8 to the control unit 9. The control unit 9 develops this information in the memory of the storage unit 7 as a search table. The swivel base 6 is controlled in accordance with the swing angle information, swivels in the designated direction, and the photographing in the designated range is performed.

Here, as shown in FIG. 2, the search table 70 in the storage unit 7 displays a seat name first, a camera swing angle for displaying the seat, and finally a superimpose display. It is composed of XY coordinate values. That is, referring to the figure, the camera shake angle θA and the superimpose position (XA, YA) of the attendant A when speaking is corresponding to the seat A. Further, the camera shake angle θB corresponds to the seat B and the superimpose position (XB, YB) when the attendee B speaks, and the camera shake angle θC to the seat C and the superimpose when the attendee C speaks. The impose position (XC, YC) corresponds. Similarly, the camera shake angle θF and the superimpose position (XF, YF) of the attendant F when speaking are corresponding to the seat F.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the deflection angle of the camera is represented by the angle from a certain starting point O to the position of each seat in the case similar to the television camera 4. FIG.
In the case of, it is the angle from the starting point O to the position of the seat C,
The angle is θ C.

Here, the operation will be described by taking the case where the attendee B speaks as an example. When the speaker B speaks, the moderator or operator of the conference instructs the control console 8 to display the speaker B on the control unit 9. Control unit 9 that received the instruction
Retrieves the camera shake angle information and the display XY coordinate values preset in the search table 70 of the storage unit 7. The control unit 9 turns the turntable 4 according to the deflection angle information, and sends the display XY coordinate values to the superimpose control unit 10. In this example, the coordinates (XB, YB) will be transmitted.

The superimpose controller 10 controls the speaker photographed by the speaker TV camera 4 at the XY coordinate value designated by the controller 9 of the panoramic image of the attendee photographed by the panoramic TV camera 3. The image of B is synthesized and output. As a result, the appearance of the speaker B can be displayed by superimposing near the upper part of the speaker B in the entire view of the attendees.

An example of this display is shown in FIG. As shown in the same figure, the coordinates (X) of the upper position in the vicinity of the speaking participant B in the images of the participants A to F of the conference.
(B, YB) is sent by the superimpose control unit 10, and as a result, the image 40 having the coordinates at the upper left coordinate point is displayed in a combined manner with the panoramic image. Therefore, only by looking at this screen, it is possible to easily determine who is speaking in the conference. The display is not limited to the upper position, and may be displayed near the video portion of the speaker.

Further, FIG. 5 shows a display example when the attendee D speaks. As shown in the figure, the image 50 of the attendee D is displayed at a position above the attendee D who is speaking in the images of the attendees A to F of the conference. Therefore, only by looking at this screen, it is possible to easily determine who is speaking in the conference. In the case of the same figure, the display XY coordinate values fetched from the search table 70 are coordinates (XD, YD), and the image 50 having these coordinates as the upper left coordinate point is synthesized and displayed on the panoramic image. There is.

In short, preset coordinate values are sent to the superimpose controller 10 and the image of the speaker is displayed according to the position of the coordinate values.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, by displaying the figure of the speaker in a superimposing position in the vicinity of the speaker in the entire view of the attendee, which of the attendees speaks. The effect is that you can see at a glance. In addition, by displaying all attendees and speakers on one monitor,
Since one of the two monitors that has been conventionally required is unnecessary, there is an effect that space can be saved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a video conference system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a search table in a storage unit.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a swing angle of a swivel base.

4 is a diagram showing an example of a monitor display by the video conference system of FIG.

5 is a diagram showing another monitor display example by the video conference system of FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional video conference system.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of monitor display by a conventional video conference system.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a monitor display example by a conventional video conference system.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing another monitor display example by the conventional video conference system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 conference table 2 monitor 3 panoramic TV camera 4 speaker TV camera 5 swing angle detection mechanism 6 swivel base 7 storage unit 8 control console 9 control unit 10 superimpose control unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A panoramic television camera for photographing all conference attendees, a speaker TV camera for photographing only the speaker of the conference attendees, and a panoramic television camera for each of the conference attendees. A table that associates the display positions in the vicinity of the video display portions of the conference attendees on the screen displaying the video with the video of the speaker taken by the speaker TV camera is combined with the display position indicated by the table. And a video synthesizing means for transmitting the video synthesized by the video synthesizing means and displaying the video on the television monitor of the receiving station. 2. The video conference system according to claim 1, wherein the display position is a position above an image display portion of each conference attendee on the screen.