JPH0638199A - Talker position detector - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect the position of a talker and to trace it to control a camera of a visual telephone set. CONSTITUTION:Ultrasonic wave speakers 3, 4 are provided on a receiver part of a handset 2 and an ultrasonic wave radiated from them is received by ultrasonic wave microphones 8-10. When a period of time after an ultrasonic wave is emitted till the wave is received by the ultrasonic wave microphones 8-10 is measured, the position of the receiver is located based on the principles of the triangulation. Since a talker 19 touches his ear onto the receiver, the approximated center position of the face of the talker 19 is a position somewhat deviated from the position of the receiver. Thus, the face of the talker 19 is traced by controlling a camera 18 so as to be directed in the approximated center position.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a caller position detecting device suitable for use in a videophone.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A video telephone is equipped with a display and a television camera in addition to an ordinary voice telephone so that image information can be exchanged with each other and a caller's appearance can be displayed. Here, in order to display the face of the caller on the screen in an appropriate size in the center of the screen, it is necessary to appropriately set the relative positional relationship between the TV camera and the face of the caller. In order to realize this, various techniques have been conventionally known. First, the simplest technique is to fix the direction and magnification of the TV camera in advance, display the caller's figure on another display, and the caller can see the display and position his or her face. It is known to regulate the. In addition, by analyzing the image of the face of the caller captured by the camera, the position of the face of the caller is detected, and the direction of the camera and the magnification ratio are controlled based on this to make a call. It is also known to track a person's face.

[0003]

However, the former technique is extremely cramped and inconvenient because the face of the caller must always be placed at the same position. Further, in order to display the appearance of the caller himself, it was necessary to provide a display different from that for the call. On the other hand, in the latter technique, the inconvenience of the caller is solved, but there is a problem that the device for performing the image analysis processing to detect the face position of the caller becomes extremely complicated and expensive. It was The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a caller position detecting device capable of detecting the position of the face of a caller with a simple configuration.

[0004]

In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention, there is provided a handset of a telephone set for transmitting a predetermined signal, and the signal transmission by detecting the signal. And a handset position detecting means for detecting the position of the means.

[0005]

When the signal transmitting means transmits a predetermined signal, this signal is detected by the handset position detecting means.
Here, since the handset is used in close contact with the face of the caller, the approximate position of the face of the caller can be obtained by detecting the position of the handset.

[0006]

EXAMPLES A. First Embodiment Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, 1 is a videophone, and 2 is its handset. Reference numeral 18 denotes a camera that captures the appearance of the caller 19, and can be rotated vertically and horizontally by a camera drive circuit (not shown). The handset 2 is provided with ultrasonic speakers 3 and 4 on both sides of its receiver. Further, the videophone 1 is provided with ultrasonic microphones 8 to 10 at predetermined positions thereof, by which ultrasonic waves transmitted from the ultrasonic speaker 3 or 4 are received.

Since the ultrasonic speakers 3 and 4 are provided on both side surfaces of the handset 2, only one of them faces the video telephone 1, while the other one is hidden. In the illustrated example, the speaker 19 holds the handset 2 with his / her left hand, so that the ultrasonic speaker 3 faces the videophone 1. On the contrary, when the talker 19 holds the handset 2 with his right hand, the ultrasonic speaker 4
Will face the videophone 1.

Next, the circuit configuration of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 7 is a reference clock oscillator, which generates a clock signal φ at a predetermined cycle. 5 and 6 are ultrasonic transmitters, which are synchronized with the clock signal φ,
Ultrasonic signals are respectively generated and supplied to the ultrasonic speakers 3 and 4. Here, the ultrasonic signals output from the ultrasonic transmitters 5 and 6 have different envelopes.

Next, 11 to 13 are delay detection circuits,
When the reception signals of the ultrasonic microphones 8 to 10 are supplied and the clock signal φ is supplied from the reference clock oscillator 7, the delay time of the reception signal with respect to the clock signal φ is detected and the result is output as a delay time signal. To do.
Reference numeral 14 is a speaker discrimination circuit, and when the reception signal of the ultrasonic microphone 10 is supplied, the ultrasonic wave received by the ultrasonic microphone 10 is output from any of the ultrasonic speakers 3 and 4 by detecting the envelope thereof. Determine if it was done.

Next, 15 is a speaker position calculation circuit, which calculates the position of the ultrasonic speaker 3 (or 4) based on each delay time signal output from the delay detection circuits 11 to 13. That is, since each delay time corresponds to the distance between the ultrasonic speaker 3 (or 4) and each ultrasonic microphone 8-10 in a one-to-one relationship, based on the well-known triangulation principle,
The position coordinates of the ultrasonic speaker 3 (or 4) that is the ultrasonic wave transmission source are specified.

Next, reference numeral 16 is an approximate center position calculating circuit, which is based on the position coordinates calculated by the speaker position calculating circuit 15 and the result of the judgment by the speaker judging circuit 14, and approximates the center position of the face of the talker 19. To calculate. This is because there is no great individual difference in the size of the face of the person (caller 19) and that the caller 19 almost always uses the receiver portion of the handset 2 in close contact with the ear. .

For example, when the speaker discriminated by the speaker discrimination circuit 14 is the "ultrasonic speaker 3",
When viewed from the camera 18, the position shifted to the left by about “10 cm” from the position coordinates of the ultrasonic speaker 3 is set as the approximate center position. On the contrary, when the speaker discriminated by the speaker discriminating circuit 14 is the "ultrasonic speaker 4", the position shifted to the right by about "10 cm" from the position coordinate of the ultrasonic speaker 3 is set as the approximate center position. It

Next, 17 is a camera drive circuit, which rotates the camera 18 toward the approximate center position obtained by the approximate center position calculation circuit 16 and also causes the camera 18 to move.
The focus adjustment and the enlargement ratio adjustment of the camera 18 are set according to the distance between and the approximate center position. According to the above configuration, the center of the face of the caller 19 is set as the approximate center position via the speaker position calculation circuit 15 and the approximate center position calculation circuit 16 as long as the caller 19 brings the receiver section of the handset 2 into close contact with the ear. It is calculated. Therefore, the camera 18 can track the caller 19 based on a simple calculation.

B. Second Embodiment Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, parts corresponding to those in FIGS. 1 and 2 are designated by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. In the figure, the videophone 1 has an infrared detector 30 at a predetermined position.
The handset 2 is provided with infrared generators 34 and 35 on both side surfaces of its receiver. Next, the detailed configuration of the infrared detector 30 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 4, the infrared detector 30 is fixed with infrared detection elements 31 to 33 having a central axis inclined by a predetermined angle from the central axis OO ′. The infrared detection elements 31 and 32 have directivity characteristics indicated by alternate long and short dash lines A and B, respectively, and the infrared detection element 33 also has the same directivity characteristics (not shown).

Next, the electrical configuration of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, reference numerals 36 and 37 denote pulse oscillators, which generate a pulse signal in synchronization with the vertical retrace signal V.SYNC of the camera 18 when supplied. This pulse signal is generated by the infrared generator 34 provided in the handset 2,
An infrared pulse is emitted from these infrared generators 34 and 35. Here, the reason why the pulse signal is synchronized with the vertical retrace signal V.SYNC is to prevent infrared rays from entering the camera 18 and appearing on the screen. The pulse signals output from the pulse oscillators 36 and 37 have different envelopes.

The infrared pulses emitted from the infrared generators 34 and 35 are detected by the infrared detecting elements 31 to 33, and a current corresponding to the level is detected by the infrared detecting elements 31 to 31.
It is output from 33. Reference numerals 38 to 40 denote level detection circuits, which detect the levels of infrared pulses by detecting the current values output from the infrared detection elements 31 to 33, respectively, and output the detected values. Reference numeral 41 denotes a light emitting source discriminating circuit, which detects the envelope of the infrared pulse detected by the infrared detecting element 33, and as a result, discriminates whether the light emitting source is the infrared generator 34 or 35.

Next, 42 is a light emitting source position calculating circuit,
Based on the level detection values output from the level detection circuits 38 to 40, the infrared generator 34 (or 3) serving as a light emission source.
The position of 5) is calculated. That is, the infrared detection element 31
.. to 33 have directional characteristics, the direction of the light emitting source viewed from the infrared detector 30 is obtained by the ratio of these detection values, and the distance between the infrared detector 30 and the light emitting source is obtained based on the detection level. .

Next, the position coordinates calculated by the light emitting source position calculating circuit 42 and the determination result by the light emitting source discriminating circuit 41 are supplied to the approximate center position calculating circuit 16 and, as in the first embodiment, a call is made. The approximate center position of the face of the person 19 is calculated. When this approximate center position is supplied to the camera drive circuit 17, the camera 18 is rotated toward this position, and the focus adjustment and enlargement ratio adjustment of the camera 18 are performed.

According to the above configuration, as long as the caller 19 brings the receiver portion of the handset 2 into close contact with his ears, the center of the face of the caller 19 can be controlled through the light emitting source position calculation circuit 42 and the approximate center position calculation circuit 16. It is calculated as the approximate center position.
Therefore, like the first embodiment, the camera 18 can track the caller 19 based on a simple calculation.

C. Modifications It is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications can be made, for example, as follows. Modification 1 In the first and second embodiments, the camera 18 is driven based on the position information obtained by the approximate center position calculation circuit 16, but this part may be modified as shown in FIG. It is possible.

In FIG. 6, a wide angle lens (not shown) is attached to the camera 18, and an image taken by the camera 18 is temporarily stored in the frame memory 50. Therefore, the image stored in the frame memory 50 is
It covers a wide range around the face of the caller 19. Next, 51 is a zoom circuit, and the approximate center position calculation circuit 1
When the position information is supplied from 6, only the rectangular partial image 50a centering on the position coordinates is extracted from the image information stored in the frame memory 50, and this is output as a transmission image. According to the above configuration, the image around the face of the caller 19 can be transmitted to the other party while the camera 18 is fixed, so that the configuration is further simplified.

Modified Example 2 In the first and second embodiments, the ultrasonic wave speakers 3, 4 or the infrared ray generator 3 are provided in the receiver portion of the handset 2.
Although 4, 35 are provided, they may be provided in the transmitter section of the handset 2. Further, in this case, the speaker discrimination circuit 14 or the light emission source discrimination circuit 41 is omitted,
Ultrasonic speakers 3 and 4 or infrared generators 34 and 35
The position of may be used as it is as the approximate center position.

As described above, according to the caller position detecting device of the present invention, the position of the handset is detected by the signal transmitting means and the handset position detecting means, and the face of the caller is indirectly detected by this. Because it detects the position,
It is possible to detect the position of the caller with a very simple configuration.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a second embodiment.

4A is a side view of the infrared detector 30, FIG.
(b) is the front view.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a main part of a modified example.

[Explanation of symbols]

3, 4 Ultrasonic speaker (signal transmitting means) 8-10 Ultrasonic microphone (handset position detecting means) 15 Speaker position calculating circuit (handset position detecting means)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A handset of a telephone, comprising: a signal transmitting means for transmitting a predetermined signal; and a handset position detecting means for detecting the position of the signal transmitting means by detecting the signal. Caller position detector.