JPH10234024A - Electronics - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily confirm the operation state of an equipment by displaying icons designed corresponding to operating states of the electronic equipment on a prescribed position of a screen of a television monitor depending on the operating state. SOLUTION: A CPU 1 controls the entire video conference system, signals from a camera 2 and a microphone 7 are converted into digital signals through A/D converters 3, 8 respectively and given to a VIDEO/AUDIO signal processor 4. A superimposing controller 12 superimposingly displays characters and icons on a video signal and a VRAM 13 stores superimposing image data. Furthermore, a video encoder 14 mixes the video signal and the superimposed signal and converts the resulting signal into a digital video signal and the video signal is displayed on a monitor 16 via a D/A converter 15. The icons denoting operation and function setting states are displayed on an icon display area to allow the user to grasp the operating state.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A TV conference system will be described as an example of electronic equipment. The conventional TV conference system uses a TV camera and a microphone as input devices, a TV monitor and a speaker as output devices, and exchanges image and sound information via a communication line between speakers. The purpose is. For transmission and reception of audio information, an ordinary handset, that is, a telephone may be used instead of the microphone and the speaker. In this way, since the signal to be handled is an image / audio signal,
Setting of image quality, setting of sound quality, communication means, transmission / reception of signals, control of input device, control of output device, and setting of many functions such as control of storage device of answering machine data when answering machine function is provided. It has been demanded. For this reason, in order to set all these multi-function settings by using switches or buttons of the apparatus main body or the remote controller, the operation is complicated and the usability is poor, so a method of displaying a menu screen is widely used. Now, an operation for setting lip sync in the TV conference system will be described. The lip sync is a mode for synchronizing these two signals when outputting an image signal and an audio signal. Now, it is assumed that a video image during the meeting is displayed on the monitor. FIG. 6 shows an example of the operation remote controller 60. When the menu key 61 is pressed in FIG. 6, the menu screen of FIG. 7 is superimposed on the monitor. First, the directional keys 62 and 63 of the operation remote controller 60 are pressed to select a selection item “setting”. Which item is selected is indicated by a cursor 71 on the menu. When the enter key 64 is pressed after the selection item is selected, a submenu of the item is displayed. When the enter key 64 is pressed in a display in which the cursor 71 is placed on the selection item “setting”, a submenu of FIG. 8 is displayed. When the selection item "other settings" is selected in the display of FIG. 8 and the enter key 64 is pressed, a submenu of FIG. 9 is displayed. After using the direction keys 62 and 63 of the operation remote control 60 to move the cursor 91 to “Lip Sync ON / OFF”, use the direction keys 65 and 66 to select “Lip Sync ON” and press the enter key 64 And setting is completed. When the menu key 61 is pressed thereafter, the sub-menu and the menu screen disappear, and only the video image is displayed on the monitor. When the menu key 61 is pressed again, the menu screen of FIG. 7 is displayed in a superimposed manner. Normally, in a video conference, the menu is not displayed, so that, for example, when it is desired to confirm the presence or absence of lip sync during the conference, the sub-menu image in FIG. 9 must be displayed by the above operation.

[0003]

As described above, the conventional T
Make settings in the hierarchical menu like a V conference system,
In order to check the current setting of the function of the device, the operation had to be repeated up to the level at which the function was displayed.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve these problems, and an electronic device in which a plurality of icons are displayed on a television monitor is designed in accordance with the operation state of the electronic device. The present invention provides an electronic device in which a desired icon is displayed at a predetermined position on the television monitor according to an operation state of the icon.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a TV conference system according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1
Is a CPU for controlling the entire system, 2 is a camera for inputting a transmission video image signal, 3 is an A / D converter for converting an analog signal from the camera into a digital signal, 4 is a digital video signal and audio signal in a TV conference system A VIDEO / AUDIO signal processor for converting to a signal form to be used, 5 a communication controller for communicating with a partner terminal, 6
Is an ISDN interface which is an interface between the present system and an ISDN line network, 7 is a microphone for inputting a transmission audio signal, 8 is an A / D converter for converting an analog signal from the microphone into a digital signal, and 9 is a reception or transmission audio signal. Speaker, and 10 is VIDEO /
A D / A converter for converting a digital audio signal from an AUDIO signal processor into an analog signal; 11, a hard disk drive (HDD) for accessing a CPU;
Is a superimpose controller for superimposing and displaying characters and icons on a video signal, 13 is a VRAM for storing superimposed screen data, and 14 is a VRAM.
A video encoder for synthesizing the video signal and the superimposed signal from the IDEO / AUDIO signal processor and converting the superimposed signal into a digital video signal; 15 a D / A converter for converting a digital video signal into an analog signal;
A monitor 16 outputs a video signal. In this system, a handset (not shown) is prepared for the input signal line from the microphone 7 and the output signal line of the speaker 9, and input / output of an audio signal from the handset is possible by simultaneously switching both signal lines to the handset. It is.

[0006]

Next, a method of operating the TV conference apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be described. FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a monitor used in the TV conference system of the present invention. In FIG. 2, a monitor screen 20 includes a selection menu display area 21 and an icon display area 22 indicating a setting state of a function. Nine icons are arranged in the icon display area 22. For each icon display position, an icon display position 201 displays an icon indicating that the main body control device identifies the handset or the operation pad, an icon display position 202 displays an icon indicating call control information, and an icon display position 203 indicates an answer phone An icon indicating presence / absence of a mode is displayed, an icon display position 204 displays an icon indicating presence / absence of lip sync, an icon display position 205 displays an icon indicating transmission image quality, and an icon display position 206 indicates remote operation during communication. An icon indicating a mode is displayed, and an icon display position 207 displays an icon indicating an input source of the terminal itself.
In the icon, an icon indicating a moving image or a still image is displayed on the display screen, and icons indicating a mute state in which only the sound is turned off are arranged in the icon display position 209. FIG.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the design of icons displayed at each icon display position. There are two states for the identification of the main controller, and one of the operation pad 301 and the handset 302 is selectively displayed. There are seven states as call control information. Each of them has a line cable disconnection state 303, a non-communication state 304, and communication at 64 kbps.
5, 306 communicating at 2 × 64 kbps, 307 communicating at 56 kbps, 308 communicating at 2 × 56 kbps, and one of 309 communicating as a voice call are displayed.
There are two modes in the answering machine mode, and one of the answering machine setting on 310 and the answering machine setting off 311 is selectively displayed. There are two lip sync states, 312 with lip sync and 3 without lip sync.
13 is selectively displayed. There are four transmission image quality states: a motion priority mode 314, a standard mode 315, an image quality priority mode 316, and a high image quality mode 3 respectively.
One of 17 is selectively displayed. There are two states of the remote control mode, and one of the remote control mode 318 and the non-remote control mode 319 is selectively displayed. There are three states as its own terminal input source, input 320 from the first port, input 321 from the second port,
One of the inputs 322 from the third port is selectively displayed. There are three video / still image identification states.
One of the non-still image state 323, the still image state 324 of the own screen transmission image only, and the still image state 325 of the other screen transmission image only is selectively displayed. There are four mute states, the own terminal microphone cable disconnection state 326, the non-mute state (standard state) 327 for each of the own terminal partner terminals,
One of the own terminal mute partner terminal non-mute state 328 and the own terminal non-mute partner terminal mute state 329 is selectively displayed. Now, in this TV conference apparatus, when the operation pad is used as the main body control apparatus, the icon 301 in FIG. 3 is placed at the icon display position 201 in FIG. Furthermore, when the call control information is in a non-communication state, the icon 304 in FIG.
Is in the icon display position 202 in FIG. 2, when the answering machine mode is set to the answering machine mode, the icon 311 in FIG. 3 is in the icon display position 203 in FIG. 2, and when the lip sync state is no lip sync, the icon 313 in FIG. When the transmission image quality state is the standard mode, the icon 315 in FIG. 3 is in the icon display position 204 in FIG. 2 and the icon 319 in FIG. Icon display position 2
06, the icon 320 in FIG. 3 is in the icon display position 207 in FIG. 2 when the input is from the first port as the own terminal input source, and the icon 323 in FIG. 3 is in the non-still image state as the moving image / still image identification state. Icon display position 2 in FIG.
At 08, when both the own terminal and the partner terminal are in the non-mute state (standard state) as the mute state, the icon 327 of FIG. 3 is placed at the icon display position 209 of FIG. 2. FIG. 4 shows this state as an icon. This TV conference system is controlled by the operation pad shown in FIG. 5, but when the status key 501 is pressed, the icon display as shown in FIG. 4 is superimposed at any time. If the status key 501 is pressed in the superimposed display state, the icon display disappears.

[0007]

As described above, according to the present invention, an icon corresponding to the operation state of the electronic device is displayed at a predetermined position on the screen of the television monitor in accordance with the operation state, so that the icon is displayed on the screen of the electronic device. The operating state can be grasped at a glance simply by checking the state of the icon.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an electronic device according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration of a monitor used in the electronic apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a design of an icon displayed at each icon display position.

FIG. 4 is a menu diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation pad.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a conventional operation remote controller.

FIG. 7 is a conventional menu diagram.

FIG. 8 is a conventional menu diagram.

FIG. 9 is a conventional menu diagram.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 CPU 2 Camera 3 A / D converter 4 Video / audio signal processor 5 Communication controller 6 ISDN interface 7 Microphone 8 A / D converter 9 Speaker 10 D / A converter 11 Hard disk drive 12 Superimpose controller

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An electronic device in which a plurality of icons are displayed on a television monitor, wherein an icon designed corresponding to an operation state of the electronic device is displayed at a predetermined position on the television monitor in accordance with the operation state. Electronic equipment characterized by being performed.