JPS61189782A - Speaker display system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To always discriminate clearly the speakers in a conference by converting the voice signals of the speaker into the discriminating codes to send these codes to a conference room at the remote side together with the voice signals and displaying the speaker discriminating information immediately on a display device through a receiver that received those signals and codes. CONSTITUTION:A TV camera 2 is controlled with operation of a console 6 and the video information on each participant of a conference is picked up and transmitted to a controller 1. Then a well-defined video discrimination code is automatically added and stored in a file memory 7. The speaking voices are supplied through a microphone 4, and the controller 1 retrieves a table of correspondence between the information on the seated microphone positions and the video discrimination codes based on the input information on the voice microphone position. Thus the corresponding video discrimination code is extracted and multiplexed with the voice information of a speaker to be sent to another conference room via a communication circuit 8 and a conference node 9. Then said multiplexed code and information are separated from each other by the controller 1. The voice information is delivered to a speaker 5. While the video discrimination code is used as a retrieving key of the video information. This key is used for retrieval of the video information within the memory 7. The controller 1 displays the speaking video information on a display device 3.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention provides a method for automatically identifying speakers when holding a teleconference by connecting a plurality of teleconference devices with a communication line. This relates to a speaker display method that visually displays the speaker.

(Prior Art) A conventional video conference system in which multiple conference participants sit together at a video conference table and is equipped with a video projector and a television camera in front has a speed of 32 Mb/s, 6.3 Mb/s, or 1.5 Mb/s. Using the wideband transmission path of the conference room, a video conference of the conference room imaged by a television camera and audio are sent and received to conduct a teleconference.

In this case, the speaker can be identified by observing the movements of the conference participants displayed on the video projector. In addition, when images are being sent from multiple conference rooms at the same time, the screen is divided and displayed (split screen).On the other hand, there is a 64Kb /s narrowband digital transmission line or 4
There is a still image transmission conference in which a still image of a conference room is sequentially transmitted one frame at a time using an analog telephone network in the Hz band.

(Problems to be solved by the invention) The former video conferencing method requires broadband transmission lines, which are expensive equipment, and images of people are small because the image is taken as a view of the entire conference room, making it difficult for people to enter the conference. As the number increases, there is a drawback that person identification and speaker identification become difficult.

Also, in the latter case, as with video conferences, there is a drawback that as the number of participants in the conference increases, it becomes difficult to identify people and speakers.

The present invention eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks by automatically detecting the speaker's voice signal, converting it into a speaker identification code, and converting it into a voice signal. At the same time, the device sent to the other party's conference room and receives the speaker identification code immediately displays the speaker identification information (video information 1 name code of the speaker sent in advance, etc.) on the display device. It is.

(Function) In this way, it is possible to always clearly identify speakers in a conference regardless of the number of conference participants, and it is also possible to use an inexpensive narrowband transmission path.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is an embodiment diagram showing the system configuration of the present invention, in which 1 is a control device, 2 is a television camera, 3 is a display device, 4 is a microphone, 5 is a speaker, and 6 is an operation console. , 7 is a file storage device.

8 is a communication line, and 9 is a conference node.

First, an example of the operation of the 1-communication conference system will be briefly explained.

When three conference rooms A, B, and C are connected for a communication conference, the conference node 9 is used.

The conference notebook 9 is a device that relays and transfers signals transmitted via each of the plurality of communication lines 8 to other communication lines. (For example, see "Patent Application 1982-182285 Multipoint Communication Control System.") Each conference room is equipped with a communication conference device, which is connected to the conference node 9 via a 64 Kb/s digital communication line.
There is.

First, in each conference room A, B, and C, the teleconference device is operated to control the television camera 2 by operating the operation console 6 to capture video information of each conference participant. The captured video information is transmitted to the control device 1, automatically assigned a unique video identification code (for example, terminal identification number + imaging sequence number), and stored in the file storage device 7.

At this time, in order to create a correspondence table between the video identification code and the position information of the microphones each seated by the conference participant, the conference participant operates the console 6 to input the seated microphone position information in correspondence with the video information. The control device 1 creates and manages a correspondence table between seated microphone position information and video identification codes.

Next, operate the console 6 in each conference room A, B, and C,
Instructs to send the video information and video identification code to other conference rooms. When the control device 1 receives the transmission instruction from the operation console 6, it reads out all video information and video identification codes in its own conference room from the file storage device 7, and transmits them to other conference rooms via the communication line 8 and the conference node 9. Send. In each teleconference device, the control device 1 receives video information and video identification codes sent from other conference rooms, and stores them in the file storage device 7.

The above is the input processing and transmission/reception processing of video information that is performed prior to holding a conference.

Subsequently, when the meeting starts, each conference room A, B t'
Any conference participant within C will be free to discuss.

In this case, the voice of a speaker among the conference participants is input from a microphone 4 provided to correspond to the speaker. Based on the input audio microphone position information, the control device 1 indexes the correspondence table between seated microphone position information and video identification code, extracts the corresponding video identification code, and multiplexes it with the speaker's audio information. , communication line 8, and conference node 9 to other conference rooms.

The transmitted speaker's audio information and video identification code 1,
The audio information is separated by the control device 1 and output to the speaker 5. Further, the video identification code is used as a key for retrieving video information, and is used for retrieving video information in the file storage device 7. The control device 1 displays the speaker's video information obtained through the video information search on the display device 3.

In this way, during a conference, the speaker's video information is simultaneously output to each conference room along with the speaker's voice.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the basic operation of the present invention.

This means that the video information displayed on the display device changes every time the speaker changes. The time for switching video information is approximately 1 second or less, including file search time and the like.

FIG. 3 is an embodiment showing a detailed configuration of the control device portion of the teleconferencing device shown in FIG.
MP), 20 is speaker detection and voice switch (VS)
Microprocessor (μP) for control, 30
a to 30d are voice switches (VS), 40 is an audio mixing circuit (MIX), 50a and 50b are audio analog-to-digital conversion circuits (CODEC), and 60 is a digital audio signal and digital non-audio signal synthesis circuit (
70 is a digital audio signal and digital non-audio signal separation circuit (DEMUX), 80 is a communication control unit (COM), 90 is a main memory unit (MEM), and 100 is a main processor unit (CPU).

The method for detecting one speaker and the method for transmitting and receiving audio and video identification codes will be further explained using FIG.

When the speaker of the lung microphone makes a speech in the microphone 4, the speech is converted into an analog electrical signal by the microphone, amplified by the amplifier 10b, and transmitted to the voice switch 30b.

It is also transmitted to the microprocessor 20 at the same time.

The microprocessor 20 compares the levels of the input audio signals and selects the one with the highest audio signal level. As a result, the voice output from the Mb microphone is selected.

The microprocessor 20 recognizes this as the main processor 1.
At the same time, the voice switches 30a to 30d are controlled to open the gate of only the voice switch 30b (no loss insertion).
, and other voice switches 30a, 30c.

30d closes the gate (performs loss insertion).

Therefore, only the input audio signals from the Mb microphones are output from the audio mixing circuit 40 as a simply added output signal, and are amplified by the amplifier 10e. This analog electrical signal is PCM encoded by the audio analog/digital conversion circuit 50a to become a 64 Kb/s digital electrical signal, which is transmitted to the digital audio signal and digital non-audio signal synthesis circuit 60.

On the other hand, the main processor section 100 includes a microprocessor 2
Based on the lung microphone position information received from 0, the correspondence table between the seated microphone position information and video identification code stored in the main storage unit 90 is indexed, the corresponding video identification code is extracted, and it is transmitted. The information is transmitted to the control unit 80.

At the same time, the video information stored in the file storage device 7 is searched based on the video identification code, and the corresponding video information is displayed on the display device 3. Communication control unit 8
0 transmits the video identification code received from the main processor 100 to the digital audio signal and digital non-audio signal synthesis circuit 60.

In the digital audio signal and digital non-audio signal synthesis circuit 60, since the digital audio signal and the digital non-audio signal are mixed and sent to the b/s PCM transmission line 64,
CM encoded digital audio signal (8bjt
l b in each sample value (8 bits) of 8Kb/s)
It is used as a bit for digital non-audio signals.

Therefore, in a digital audio signal, the lower 1 bit of each sample value is always sampled, and a video identification code is inserted therein before being transmitted. In this case, it is known that the audio quality hardly deteriorates compared to the case where no suppression is performed.

That is, in the 64 Kb/s full-duplex digital communication line 8a, digital audio signals are transmitted at a transmission rate of 56 b/s, and digital non-audio signals are multiplexed at a transmission rate of 8 Kb/s. There is.

On the other hand, when the audio signal and the video identification code transmitted by the above method are received, they are separated by the digital audio signal and digital non-audio signal separating circuit 70 through the completely reverse conversion process of the synthesizing circuit 60.

As a result, the digital voice signal is converted into an analog signal by the voice analog-to-digital conversion circuit 50b, and further transmitted to the voice switch 30d via the amplifier 10f. The gate of the voice switch 30d is opened under the control of the microprocessor 20, and audio is output from the speaker 5 via the amplifier 10d.

The video identification code is transmitted to the communication control section 80 and notified to the main processor section 100. Below, main processor section 1
00 searches for the video information stored in the file storage device 7 based on this video identification code and displays it on the display device 3.

The basic operation example related to the present invention has been explained above, but in addition to the method of handling video information as described in the above explanation, instead of handling video information, a name code is input from the console 6, and a seated microphone position is used. When the speaker is detected using the method described earlier, the name code is sent to the other party's conference room instead of the video identification code, and the main processor unit 1
00 is the name code that is displayed on the display device 3.
Another possible method is to output the information to

Furthermore, although the above description has been given as an example using a digital communication line, the principle is the same when an analog communication line is used.

As described in detail, according to the present invention, even when a meeting is held with a large number of people, speakers can be visually identified.
It has advantages such as being able to identify the speaker and being able to use an inexpensive narrow-band F-band transmission line.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an embodiment diagram showing the system configuration of the present invention, and FIG.
1 is a conceptual diagram showing the basic operation of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an embodiment showing a detailed configuration of a control device portion of the teleconference device shown in FIG. 1. 1...Control device, 2...TV camera, 3...
・Display device, 4 ... Microphone, 5
... Speaker, 6 ... Control console, 7 ... File storage device, 8 ... Communication line. 9...Conference node, 10a=10f=Amplifier (AMP), 20...
Microprocessor (μP), 30a to 30d... Voice switch (VS), 40... Audio mixing circuit (MIX), 50a, 50b... Audio analog-to-digital conversion circuit (COD[EC), 60. ...Composition circuit (MυX), 70--Separation circuit (DEMUX), 80--Communication control unit (COM), 90--Main memory (MEM). lOO: Main processor unit (CPU). Patent applicant: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation Figure 1 Figure 2

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a communication conference device that transmits and receives audio signals, still image signals, etc. using a communication line, video information of each participant in the own conference room captured by a camera is combined with a video identification code to communicate with the other conference room. A means for transmitting to a conference device, a means for accumulating video information of participants in other conference rooms sent from a communication conference device in the other conference room, and a means for matching seated microphone positions and video identification codes based on input instructions from conference participants. means for creating a table; means for detecting the audio signal at the time of the speaker's utterance and identifying the position of the microphone where the voice was input; and converting the identified microphone position information into a video identification code using the correspondence table. means for multiplexing the speaker's audio signal and the converted video identification code and simultaneously transmitting the same to a teleconferencing device in the other conference room; and separating the audio signal and the video identification code sent by the transmitting means. and a means for searching a group of video information of conference participants sent and stored in advance using the received video identification code, displaying the corresponding video information, and identifying the speaker. A speaker display method featuring: (2) By using means for inputting, transmitting, receiving, and displaying name codes instead of video signals, a correspondence table between seated microphone positions and name codes can be created based on input instructions from conference participants, and name codes can be used when a speaker is detected. A speaker display method according to claim 1, characterized in that the name code is sent to a communication conference device in a conference room of the other party, and the received name code is displayed.