KR0176061B1 - Multimedia Conference Method in Local Area Network - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a multimedia conferencing method in a local area network (hereinafter, referred to as a local area network), the characteristic of which is that the addressing system of a multimedia conference in which multiple people simultaneously participate in a LAN-enabled environment using a personal computer. In the first addressing method using the TCP / IP broadcasting method, which is a communication protocol in a LAN, and a name table in the network interface NetBIOS, and each node is entered by a group address and broadcasting entered when the participant attends the conference. The second address method of comparing the group address of the data transmitted to the second group to get the same group members and the other group members to discard, and the third address method of assigning a unique number for each participant in the application and managing them as a table. As it is to use, the effect is LAN There are many people at the same time in a real time environment, can proceed with the meeting in front of the PC, it can be used to reduce the cost of the hardware purchase is required for meetings by using a non-compressed board is not compressed in the multimedia data transmission.

Description

Method for having multimedia conference on LAN

1 is a hardware diagram for a multimedia conference according to the present invention.

2 is a diagram showing a data input / output relationship in the participant PC shown in FIG.

3 is a software structure diagram for a multimedia conference.

4 illustrates a group management address scheme for multimedia conferencing.

5 is a flow chart of the conversion process.

6 is a flowchart of a voice processing process.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multimedia conferencing method in a local area network (hereinafter, referred to as a local area network). In particular, in an environment in which a local area network is established, several people abbreviate their own personal computer (PC) at the same time. ), A method of meeting and exchanging multimedia data such as voice and video as well as problem data and graphic data.

Generally, a process refers to a program running on a computer. In the present specification, when a plurality of processes organically combine to form a large chunk that performs one large role, the large chunk is defined as a hyperprocess.

Conventionally, there has been a multimedia conferencing system that is performed in an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) environment using a PC.

However, there is a problem that the price is high and that the system is performed in a non-generalized ISDN environment and cannot be used by many people.

Of course, sometimes there was a system that is performed in a general telephone network or a LAN environment, but all of them had a problem in that they could not meet because many people were to conduct the meeting only in a 1: 1 manner.

In addition, even if there is a product that can be multiple people meeting, there is a problem that a lot of burden in the price because expensive multi-control unit (Multipoint Control Unit, hereinafter referred to as MCU) must be installed and used separately.

An object of the present invention to solve the above problems is to provide a method in which each user can have a conference by connecting the PC to the LAN and using multimedia data at the same time in a LAN environment.

A feature of the present invention for achieving the above object is a method for broadcasting TCP / IP, which is a communication protocol in a LAN, in an addressing system of a multimedia conference in which several people simultaneously use a personal computer in a LAN. Place a name table in NetBIOS, which is the first addressing method used and the network interface, and compare the group address entered when the participant attends the meeting with the group address of the data sent to each node by broadcasting so that the same group members are drunk. The other group members use a second address method for discarding and a third address method for assigning a unique number to each participant in an application program and managing them as a table.

Another feature of the present invention for achieving the above object is a voice of a multimedia conference in which several people simultaneously participate by using a personal computer including a voice processing means having a first buffer and a second buffer in a LAN-constructed environment. In the data transmission method, a first process of receiving a voice signal until the first buffer is full and storing the voice signal in the first buffer and transmitting the voice data stored in the first buffer, and simultaneously the second buffer A second process of receiving a voice signal until it is full and storing it in the second buffer and transmitting the voice data stored in the second buffer, and at the same time receives the voice signal until the first buffer fills up to the first buffer And a third process of storing and a fourth process of proceeding to the second process.

Another feature of the present invention for achieving the above object is a method for granting a function of multimedia conferencing performed by a plurality of people at the same time using a personal computer in a LAN-constructed environment, the function of the chairman and the functions of the general participants; The common function of both the chairman and the general participant is to separate the conference function and to control the conference so that there is no confusion during the conference.

Another feature of the present invention for achieving the above object is a media processing method of a multimedia conference in which multiple people simultaneously participate by using a personal computer in a LAN-configured environment. If there is a first process and the meeting control data, the second process of processing the meeting control data, if there is data in the shared space, the third process of processing the data in the shared space and the file transfer data, if there is And a fourth process of processing the transfer data and a fifth process of processing the file transfer data into the still image data if there is still image data.

Another feature of the present invention for achieving the above object is a method of receiving video data of a multimedia conference in which multiple people simultaneously participate by using a personal computer connected to a camera in a LAN-configured environment. A first process of receiving image data received through a communication network and storing the image data in a memory; and a second process of generating a file in a large storage means according to whether or not image data of one frame is collected in the memory; And a fourth process of storing a file in the image temporary storage means and a fourth process of outputting an image of one frame stored in the image temporary storage means on the screen.

Another feature of the present invention for achieving the above object is in a hyper-process for a multimedia conference in which several people simultaneously participate by using a personal computer connected to a camera in a LAN-enabled environment, by connecting the system and the participant A user interface process that provides a base screen for participants to meet, and a memory area to store data for meetings, a shared space for collaborative data, and a memory area for data for meetings, to store personal data. The conference control process, which controls the entire process from holding a meeting to closing a personal space, and the transmitting side converts voice and video into digital data and transmits the digital data to the communication network. To restore Mars It is a communication network that manages voice and harmony processing processes, media control processes that control the priority of multimedia such as text, graphics, voice, and video, and a multipoint connection management process and conference program that manages groups so that multiple people can conduct meetings simultaneously. It includes a network interface process that connects to and a group management process that performs final group management and controls the exchange of information between each participant.

In order to achieve the above object, another feature of the present invention is a method of transmitting video data of a multimedia conference in which multiple people simultaneously participate by using a personal computer connected to a camera in a LAN-configured environment, wherein the camera is a conference participant. The first process of capturing the state of the image and the second process of the image captured in the first process is stored in the image temporary storage means and the third data stored in the image temporary storage means is stored in a large storage means to make a file A fourth process of dividing a file stored in the large-storage means into a size that can be transmitted at one time and a fifth process of transmitting the divided file fragments through a communication network according to whether the image data of one frame is collected in a memory; It's there.

In order for multiple people to have a meeting simultaneously using a PC, group management must be preceded so that participants in the meeting can be recognized as a group, and additional participants and reviewers can communicate with each other. Every time there is a new participant should be able to receive new information.

In addition, the multimedia conference according to the present invention allows the conference to be conducted with a chairman of the participants for a conference close to the actual conference, and each participant can use the collaborative work area by obtaining a voice from the chairman.

In addition, each media uses pure data with no compression at all in consideration of the minimum cost, and each media processing is controlled by giving priority to each media, focusing on real-time processing of voice, and to show the faces of participants. Provide still image service.

To do this, each PC connected to the LAN additionally includes a voice board 16 and an image board 15 for processing and transmitting voice and mars, as well as hardware equipment for processing text and graphics only, and a microphone 21. ), Speakers 22, camera 31, etc. must be connected to a PC.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a hardware configuration diagram for a multimedia conference according to the present invention.

Referring to Figure 1, the configuration of the hardware for multimedia conferencing will be described.

A participant establishes a LAN environment in which conference participants separated from each other send and receive conference related data.

In addition, the voice board 16 and the video board 15 are embedded in the personal PC of the participant, and the camera 31, the microphone 21, the speaker 22, and the like are connected to the outside to establish a basic equipment for a multimedia conference.

The image board 15 used here is an overlay board that receives an external image signal and overlays it on the computer monitor 32.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the data input / output relationship in the participant PC shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 2, the data input / output relationship in the participant PC is described as follows.

Character-oriented data input through the keyboard 41, the pen 42, or the like is transmitted to the communication network through the memory 13.

The voice of the analog signal input to the PC through the microphone 21 is converted into a digital signal in the process of being processed by the voice board 16 and transmitted to the communication network through the memory 13.

In addition, the voice signal of the digital signal input to the PC through the communication network enters the voice board 16 via the memory 13, is converted into an analog voice signal in the process of processing the voice signal in the voice board 16 speaker Output through

However, in the case of image transmission, since the overlay board is used as the image board 15, the input / output procedure is somewhat complicated and the amount of data is large, so the hard disk 14 is utilized.

The image data entered through the camera 31 is mapped to the VGA card 12 inside the PC by using the overlay function on the image board 15 and output to the participant's own monitor 32 and simultaneously transmitted to other participants. In order to do so, the data is temporarily stored in the hard disk 14 and transmitted by a predetermined size when transmitting to the communication network.

3 is a software structural diagram for a multimedia conference.

Referring to FIG. 3, the hyperprocess structure for a multimedia conference will be described as follows.

The user interface process 61 is a process of providing a base screen for participants to meet and connects the system and the participants.

The shared space 71 and the personal space 72 are areas of memory 13 that store data necessary for meetings. The data for collaboration are stored in the shared space 71, and the personal data are stored in the personal space 72. Save it.

The meeting control process 73 is a process of controlling the whole process from holding a meeting to closing.

The audio and image processing process 74 performs a process of converting audio and images into digital data and transmitting them to the communication network in the case of the transmitting side, and restores the digital data to the original audio and image in the case of the receiving side. to be.

The media control process 62 is a process for controlling multimedia priorities such as text, graphics, voice, and pictures.

The multipoint connection management process 63 is a process for managing a group so that several people can conduct a meeting at the same time.

The network interface process 64 is a process of connecting a conference program to a communication network.

The group management process 65 is a process for performing final group management and controlling the exchange of information between each participant.

4 is a diagram illustrating a group management address system for a multimedia conference.

Referring to FIG. 4, a group management address system for a multimedia conference is described as follows.

There are three addressing schemes for sending the data necessary for the meeting to each participant at the same time.

The first is an address system using a broadcasting method of TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol), which is a communication protocol in a LAN.

The addressing system based on broadcasting is an addressing system that uses '1' for all 'hostid' of IP (Internet Protocol) address. This method has a disadvantage of slightly increasing traffic since data is transmitted to nodes of all communication networks. However, it is essential to transmit data to all participants at the same time in current LAN environment.

Next, the second addressing system uses the name table of the network interface NetBIOS.

This method puts a name table in NetBIOS and compares the group address entered when the participant attends the meeting with the group address of the data sent to each node by broadcasting so that the same group members are drunk and the other group members are discarded. .

Finally, the third address system is an address system that assigns a unique number for each participant in an application and manages it as a table.

That is, a table is set to allow the application program to manage the status information for each participant, and the information necessary for the conference or the information on the individual participant of the conference is managed during the conference.

In addition, by assigning a unique number in the order of names among the participants to distinguish the participants in a group, multicasting is made so that it is possible to transmit data simultaneously between the same group members who have undergone the above two procedures.

Table 1 summarizes the conference function of the participants, which are divided into the functions of the chairman and the functions of the general participant.

By separating the conference function and proceeding with the conference, we aim at the actual conference effect.

The functions of the Chairman shall be as follows, inviting the meeting, initiating the meeting, ending the meeting, declaring a recess, declaring the session, granting the right to speak, and requesting the return of the right to speak.

Functions of the chairman, such as the collection of the right to speak, and all meeting participants such as document transmission, chat, meeting information, time viewing, election and election results viewing, media control, video transmission, voice transmission, and use of the shared space 71 There is a function.

The general participant functions include the functions of only the general participant, such as requesting the voice, returning the voice, seats, joins, and the like, sending documents, chatting, meeting information, viewing time, viewing election and election results, media control, video transmission, voice transmission, and shared space. (71) There is a function that all the meeting participants such as use have.

In addition, the general participant function can also function as a chairman if he has the right to speak according to whether or not he has the right to speak.

5 is a flowchart of an image processing process.

Referring to FIG. 5, the image processing process will be described below.

First, an image signal received through the camera 31 is input using an overlay board which does not compress image data.

Then, the VGA signal 12 carries the image signal on a signal to the monitor 32 and sends it.

However, the image data shown on the screen cannot be accessed directly. Therefore, in the frame buffer of the image board 15 that stores the input image signal, image data is loaded and stored as a file in the hard disk 14, and then the file is divided and transmitted in packet units. The receiving side receives the recombination and reloads the process.

First, in S101, the camera 31 captures the appearance of the conference participant, at which time a frame of a fixed video window size is captured.

In S102, the image captured in S101 is stored in the buffer of the image board 15. In FIG.

In S103, the data stored in the buffer of the image board 15 is stored in the hard disk 14 and made into a file.

In S104, it is determined whether all the data of one frame is stored in the memory 13.

If it is determined in S104 that all the data of one frame is not stored in the memory 13, the flow advances to S101.

If it is determined in S104 that all the data of one frame is stored in the memory 13, in S105, the file stored in the hard disk 14 is divided into sizes that can be transmitted at one time and transmitted through a communication network.

On the receiving side, the process is performed in the reverse of the process performed on the transmitting side. In S106, the image is continuously received and received through the communication network, and is stored in the memory 13.

In S107, it is determined whether data of one frame is received.

If it is determined in step S107 that data of one frame has not been received yet, the process proceeds to step S106.

If it is determined in step S107 that data of one frame is received, a file is created in the hard disk 14 in S108.

In S109, the image board 15 reads the file stored in the hard disk 14 and stores it in the video buffer.

In S110, the image board 15 displays an image of one frame stored in the video buffer on the screen.

6 is a flowchart of a voice processing process.

Referring to Figure 6, the speech processing will be described.

The voice processing should be performed in real time. When the delay of the sound is more than 50ms for a person who is sensitive, and about 70ms or more for a person who is rather dull, the human ear may feel the delay.

If the voice delivery delay from the start of the input until it is transmitted to other participants exceeds about 70 ms, the meeting participant feels confused at the meeting.

Therefore, since the voice must be processed in real time, the previous input must be digitized and transmitted to other attendees for a time from the moment when the input is started to the extent that the human's return delay cannot be recognized.

At the same time, it still has to accept 8 입력 input.

As described below, a double buffer technology is required. In order to input and output voice, two buffers of the same size are used to receive input into one buffer and transmit data previously input to the other buffer.

First, as viewed from the input side of the voice, when the voice is sampled and filled into one buffer, the input is received into the next buffer, and at the same time, the contents of the previous buffer are multicast directly on the communication network.

In other words, the flow is as follows.

In S201, an audio signal is received and stored in the first buffer until the first buffer is full.

In S202, multicasting of the voice data stored in the first buffer is performed, and at the same time, the voice signal is received and stored in the second buffer until the second buffer is full.

In S203, the voice data stored in the second buffer is multicasted, and at the same time, the voice signal is received and stored in the first buffer until the first buffer is full.

Proceed to step S202.

Since the time it takes to fill the buffer depends on the size of the buffer, the size of the buffer should be set within the range that there is no transmission delay for real time transmission.

TCP / IP's User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is used as the transmission protocol. The size of data that can be sent at one time on UDP (512 bytes) must be considered to determine the most effective size.

The output side must know the moment when the specified buffer is played to the end, and the length of the buffer must be the same as the input side.

Table 2 is a table showing the priority of each media to control each media.

Referring to Table 2, the priority of each media is as follows.

In order to control the respective media, the media is divided into voice data, still picture data, file data in the shared space 71, text and graphic data other than file data in the shared space 71, and conference control data.

Still picture data is data for participant confirmation, and conference control data includes conference protocol and voice input / output control data.

First, the voice data is processed first, the conference control data is processed next, the data in the shared space 71 is processed next, the file transfer data is processed next, and finally, the still image data is processed. .

Therefore, the effect of the present invention is that by using a non-compressed board that can simultaneously hold a meeting in real time in front of a PC in a LAN-enabled environment, and does not compress in multimedia data transmission, the cost of purchasing the hardware required for the meeting is reduced. It can be reduced.

Claims (7)

Each personal computer includes a microphone and a speaker, a camera, a voice processing means for voice processing, and an image processing means for processing an image of the camera, and a plurality of personal computers are connected to each other by LAN. A method for a multimedia conference by a person, comprising: a) an addressing system for a multimedia conference comprising: a first address method using a broadcast method of TCP / IP, which is a communication protocol in a LAN; A name table is placed within the network interface NetBIOS, which compares the group address entered when the participant attends the meeting with the group address of the data sent to each node by broadcasting, so that the same group members are taken and other group members are discarded. A second address method; The application uses a third address method of assigning a unique number to each participant and managing them as a table, and b) The voice data processing for the multimedia conference is performed by two buffers in the voice processing means provided in each personal computer. The voice data inputted in one buffer may be stored, and the voice data inputted while transmitting the stored voice data may be stored in another buffer by alternately using two buffers. And c) transmitting the image data for the multimedia conference, storing the image obtained by the camera in a temporary storage means, storing the image data of the temporary storage means in a file, and storing the image data stored in the file. Becomes image data of one frame, it is divided into sizes that can be transmitted at And d) receiving the image data for the multimedia conference, receiving image data input through the communication network, storing the received image data in a memory, and generating a file when the image data of one frame is received. And storing the file information in a temporary storage means and outputting an image of one frame on a screen. The method of claim 1, wherein the third addressing method further comprises: allowing the application program to manage status information for each participant and to manage information necessary for the conference or information on the individual participant of the conference during a conference; A method for multimedia conferencing in a local area network, characterized by assigning unique numbers in order of names to distinguish participants in a group, thereby enabling multicasting to simultaneously transmit data among members of the same group. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice data processing transmits the voice data without compressing the voice data. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice data processing separates the voice data from each personal computer and transmits the voice data through a general telephone line. The method of claim 1, wherein the multimedia conference method in the local area network comprises: a function that only a chairman has for each personal computer participating in the conference; Functions for general participants only; And granting common functions that both the chairman and the general participant have, the function of which only the chairman has the ability to invite a meeting, to start a meeting, to end a meeting, to declare a change, to give a voice, and to return a right to speak. Including, the functions that the general participant has only, the right to speak, the right to return, seats, join functions, the common functions, document transmission, chat, viewing information of the meeting, time view, election participation, election Multimedia conferencing method in a local area network comprising the function of viewing results, controlling media, transmitting video data, transmitting audio data, and using a shared space. The multimedia conferencing method according to claim 5, wherein the function of the general participant further includes a function of a chairman when the general participant has a voice. In the hyper process for multimedia conference where multiple people participate simultaneously using a personal computer connected to a camera in a LAN environment, a user interface process that connects the system and the participants to provide a basic screen where participants can meet. A shared space for storing data for collaboration and a personal space for storing personal data as a memory area for storing data for meetings; Conference control process that controls the whole process from holding a meeting to closing, and the transmitting side converts the voice and video into digital data and transmits it to the communication network, while the receiving side restores the digital data to the original voice and image. A voice and harmony processing process that performs a role of playing a voice; A media control process for controlling the priority of multimedia such as text, graphics, voice, and images; A multipoint connection management process for managing groups so that multiple people can conduct meetings simultaneously; A network interface process for connecting the conference program to a communication network; And a group management process that performs final group management and controls the exchange of information between each participant.