JP2002247541A - Multipoint video display control method and remote conference system for performing multipoint video display control - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To share material video images registered at one spot and to simultaneously perform a control operation in a remote conference or the like. SOLUTION: A video display computer which receives the control operation for video display sends the information of computers sharing the control operation together with the display control signals to a server computer for display control signal management. The server computer for the display control signal management simultaneously sends the control operation data of the video display to the computers sharing the control operation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multi-point video display control method and a multi-point video display control method for transmitting shared video and video display control signals from a plurality of computers distributed at remote multi-points and sharing them among participants. The present invention relates to a remote conference system that performs point image display control.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional remote conference system, it is possible to share materials and share only face images or desk images of participants. Therefore, it is necessary to separately deliver the material video that is indispensable for the teleconference in video editing, and to share the display control of the material video among the participants, the display control information is transmitted by voice or text on the teleconference system There is a need to.

[0003]

As described above, in a remote meeting in video editing, the source video and display control cannot be shared, which is inconvenient in communicating with the editing.

[0004] It is an object of the present invention to enable a registered source video to be shared at a single location and to allow simultaneous control operations.

[0005]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, an image display computer which is arranged at multiple points and is used by a user independently, and an image display control signal for all points are provided. In a system including a server computer for managing a video, a material video registered from a video display computer and a material video display control signal are shared between participants.

[0006] With this, the user can smoothly exchange information necessary for video editing by sharing the material video and its display control among the participants in a remote conference scene in video editing.

[0007]

FIG. 1 shows a system on which the present invention is based. Reference numeral 1 in the figure denotes a server computer for managing video display control signals, and 2 (1) to 2 (3) denote user computers used for video display and display control, respectively. The computers 1 and 2 are connected to a network and can exchange data with each other.

FIG. 2 shows a processing procedure of a program which is a feature of the present invention. In the present invention, any one of the user computers holds the material video to be shared in the conference. Here, it is assumed that the user computer 2 (1) initially holds the material video. The user computer 2 (1) assigns an identifier to the material video required for the conference in advance and performs the material registration process P1. Then, the material video is transferred between the participants. As a result, the source video is transmitted and received between the user computers participating in the conference, and each user computer saves the shared source video P
2 is performed.

Next, the processing at the start of the material video display control will be described. First, a list of user computers sharing the display control of the material video from the user computer 2 (1), that is, a participant registration process P3 for registering participants of the remote conference.
Then, a list of user computers sharing the display control signal is transmitted from the user computer 2 (1) to the server computer 1. This list is called a participant list.

The server computer 1 performs a material collection process P4 for acquiring a list of material videos stored in each user computer from each user computer registered in the participant list, and performs a logical operation of the list of all material videos. Then, a list of material videos that can be displayed and controlled by being shared among all user computers is calculated. That is, a shared material list creation process P5 is performed. This list of material videos that are shared and whose display can be controlled is called a shared material list.

Next, the server computer 1 stores the shared material list in all user computers 2 (1) to 2 (1) to participate in the conference.
2 (n). Each user computer determines a material video whose display can be controlled based on the shared material list, and displays a list of the material videos on the screen. That is, list display processing P
6. Perform P7.

When the user specifies a material video from the list displayed by the above processing and performs display control processing P8,
A list of user computers sharing the display control signal,
An identifier of a material video to be display-controlled and a display operation control signal are transmitted. This is called a unique display control signal. The user computer used at this time is not limited to the user computer 2 (1), and may be any user computer.

The server computer 1 extracts the list of user computers and the identifier of the material video from the received unique display control signal, and simultaneously transmits the identifier of the material video and the display control signal to the user computers in the list as a shared control signal. A transmission process P9 is performed.

Each of the user computers 2 (1) to 2 (n)
Extracts the identifier of the material video from the shared control signal received from the server computer 1 to prepare for the display control process, extracts the display control signal, and performs the display control process P of the material video.
10. Perform P11.

The above is the procedure of the present invention. A charging method in the case where the server computer owner carries out the present invention for a fee will be additionally described. There are various charging methods, but three methods are particularly conceivable. The first is a method of charging based on the number of times the user computer 2 has connected to the server computer 1. The second is a method based on the connection time, and the third is a method based on the data amount of the transferred material video.

Next, the computer configuration required to implement the method of the present invention will be described. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of the user computer. Reference numeral 3 denotes a video display device for displaying a source video, 4 denotes a data storage device for storing source video to be transmitted and received, 5 denotes a display control unit for controlling display of video, and 6 denotes source video information stored in the data storage device. A storage data management unit for managing, 7 is a material video transmission unit for reading and transmitting a material video from a data storage device, 8 is a material video reception unit for receiving a material video and storing it in the data storage device, and 9 is a display of a material video. A signal processing unit for processing the control signal; a control signal receiving unit for receiving the display control signal;
Reference numeral 1 denotes a control signal transmission unit that transmits a display control signal.

At the start of the remote conference, by checking the management information of the stored data management unit 6 of each user computer, necessary material images are exchanged using the material image receiving unit 8 and the material image transmitting unit 7, Prepare for meetings. The display control signal of the material video exchanged using the control signal receiving unit 10 and the control signal transmitting unit 11 is analyzed by the signal processing unit 9, and the display control unit 5 transmits the data The necessary material video is read from the storage device 4 and displayed on the video display device 3.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of the server computer. Reference numeral 12 denotes a shared control unit for processing a control signal received from the user computer to determine a user computer to be transmitted and forming a control signal to be transmitted, 13 a control signal receiving unit for receiving a control signal from the user computer, 14
Is a control signal transmission unit for transmitting a control signal to the user computer, and 15 is a charging management unit for managing charging information based on the connection time, the number of times of connection from the user computer, the data amount, and the like.

Next, the relationship between the processing procedure in the present invention shown in FIG. 2 and the function of each component will be described.

The material registration process in the process P1 is executed by a user's operation, and the stored data management unit 6 searches for the necessary material video, operates the data storage device 4 and transmits it from the material video transmission unit 7.

On the other hand, in the storage processing in step P2, the data received by the material video receiving unit 8 is stored on the data storage device 4 by the stored data management unit 6.

The participant registration process in step P3 is executed by a user's operation, and a list of input participating user computers is transmitted to the server computer as a participant list. In the server computer, the control signal receiving unit 13 receives the participant list, and the process shifts to a material collection process of step P4 in which a list of stored materials is returned to each user computer.

In the user computer, a material list transmission request from the server computer is received by the control signal receiving unit 10, the stored data management unit 6 creates a list, and the material video transmission unit 7 transmits the material list to the server computer. I do.

In the process of creating a shared material list in step P5,
The server computer logically ANDs the material list of each user computer received by the control signal receiving unit 13 with the sharing control unit 12 and transmits the calculated shared material list from the control signal transmitting unit 14 to each user computer.

In the list display process for shared materials in steps P6 and P7, the shared material list received by the control signal receiving unit 10 of each user computer is processed by the signal processing unit 9 and displayed as a shared material list.

In the display control process of step P8, the display control of the material video performed by the user is performed by the display control unit 5 and the signal processing unit 9 as a display control signal and transmitted from the control signal transmission unit 11 to the server computer. .

In the display control simultaneous transmission process in step P9, the server computer, based on the display control signal received from the user computer that performed the display operation, lists the user computers that share the operation and performs display control on the shared control unit 1.
The control signal transmitting unit 14 transmits a shared display control signal to each user computer.

In the display control processing of steps P10 and P11, each user computer receives the received shared display control signal in the control signal receiving section 10, processes it in the signal processing section 9 into a display signal format, and Pass to 5.
As a result, the display control unit 5 sends from the stored data management unit 6
Upon receiving the data to be operated, the source video is displayed on the video display device 3.

The charge management unit 15 monitors the registered material received in the process P1, the participant list received in the process P3, and the display control signal received in the process P8.
Charging is performed according to the connection time, the number of times of connection, and the data amount.

[0030]

According to the present invention, in a remote conference system using a computer in video editing, a source video required for a conference can be shared, and display control information of the source video can be shared. Communication between users can be more smoothly promoted, which can contribute to improvement of the processing result of video editing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a computer system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 shows a processing procedure of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a user computer that executes the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a server computer that executes the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3: Image display device 4: Data storage device 5: Display control unit 6: Saved data management unit 7: Material video transmission unit 8: Material video reception unit 9: Signal processing unit 10: Control signal reception unit 11: Control signal transmission unit 12: shared control unit 13: control signal reception unit 14: control signal transmission unit 15: charging management unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of material video display user computers and video display devices existing at multiple points, and a display control signal management server computer managing the plurality of material video display user computers. The computer receives a control operation for video display including playback and stop, creates data with the display control signal as a first part and second information of a computer sharing the control operation of the video display, After receiving the data, the display control signal management server computer simultaneously controls the video display to the computer that shares the video display control operation based on the content of the data. Operation data is transmitted, and display control operations are shared between user computers. A multi-point video display control method characterized by the following. 2. In order to share material video displayed at multiple locations at each location, a video display computer at one location registers the material video, distributes the video to another location, and manages a display control signal. 2. The multi-point image display control method according to claim 1, wherein the server computer checks the state of the display image and enables display at multiple points. 3. A teleconferencing system comprising a plurality of user computers for displaying material videos and a video display device present at multiple points, and a server computer for display control signal management for managing them. The plurality of video display computers accept control operations on video display including playback and stop, and use the display control signal as a first part and information on computers sharing the control operation of video display as a second part. Creates data and sends it to the display control signal management server computer.When the display control signal management server computer receives the data, the display control signal management server computer , Simultaneously transmit video display control operation data, and display data between user computers. A remote conferencing system that performs multipoint image display control, characterized by sharing control operations. 4. A computer for video display at one location registers the material video and distributes the video to another location in order to share the material video displayed at multiple locations at each location. 4. The remote conference system according to claim 3, wherein the server computer confirms a state of the display image and performs display at multiple points.