JP2006352309A - Telephone - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problems wherein images cannot be transmitted smoothly at the limited communication speed of a current telephone and communication cannot be improved so much in still images although communication with one's party can be improved by transmitting photographed images by a cellular phone unit having a camera. <P>SOLUTION: A basic image (avatar) 22, and a substitution image for changing one portion of the image are stored inside a telephone in advance. When one touches a determined part of the avatar displayed at an indicator 21 having a touch panel, the avatar is partially replaced by the substitution image, thus displaying for example movement operation, such as waving one's hands and nodding. Additionally, it is not necessary to transmit or receive image data themselves and only a signal for indicating the clicked part is transmitted, thus helping communication to be improved even in a slow telephone line. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an improvement of a telephone regardless of whether it is a cellular phone or a fixed telephone, and relates to a telephone that displays an image based on information transmitted from the other party on a screen and talks while watching the image.

  Regardless of whether it is a mobile phone or a landline phone, and regardless of the method of communication such as wireless / wired / IP phone, etc., it has an image display unit and displays an image based on information transmitted from the other party. There is a phone that you can see. In this telephone, the image display is often used for so-called mail communication, but in the case of so-called voice communication, the display is not well known for its useful usage. In view of this, an invention has been made to use the image display more effectively to enhance communication with a communication partner. For example, in Patent Document 1, various images such as a laughing face, an angry face, a crying face, a sad face, etc. are created and stored in advance, depending on the content of the story at that time. By transmitting appropriate images to the other party, the conversation can be promoted more smoothly and the conversation can be enjoyed more. This is similar to, for example, the so-called emoticon (character picture) is widely transmitted and enjoyed in mail communication for transmitting and receiving characters.

The ability to store many such images (hereinafter referred to as avatars) in advance and send the optimal images to the other parties in a timely manner is simply a topic, as was the case with the beginning of mail communication. In addition to doing this, it will also lead to being recognized among friends, so it is thought that it will become increasingly popular.
Conventional avatar transmission / reception has a structure of receiving a portrait, reconstructing a facial image by superimposing the stored facial parts, and outputting from the portrait output unit, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example. Yes.
In the configuration of Patent Document 1 and the emoticons in conventional mail communication, the avatar only sees what is sent from the other party, and even if it moves, it displays only a plurality of still images in a short time even if it moves. As a means of communication, there is a problem that the degree of freedom is low, and only the things that get tired of watching and get interested can be provided.
In addition, taking a picture of the operator's face with a camera phone and talking while looking at each other's faces will certainly help improve communication, but on a slow communication phone line, video is sent and received smoothly. There was a problem that it could not be practically used.
JP2003-209513

  In the conventional configuration, the avatar only sees what is sent from the other party, and as a means of communication, there is a problem that the degree of freedom is low, and only a thing that gets tired of watching and is interested can be provided.

  The present invention is intended to solve the above-described problems and to provide a video phone having an avatar display function having a higher degree of freedom as a means of communication.

The telephone according to the present invention is a telephone having an image display means for displaying an image and making a call with another telephone having the same configuration,
Storage means for storing in advance a first image and a second image to replace a part of the first image;
A touch panel that is mounted on the image display means and outputs an image control signal for selecting the second image corresponding to the touched position when a portion of the displayed image is touched with a predetermined input device;
Image replacement means for displaying a portion of the first image replaced with the second image based on the image control signal;
Communication means for transmitting and receiving the first image, the second image, and the image control signal is provided.

In the telephone according to the present invention, the displayed avatar is appropriately controlled by the other party, so that it has a high degree of freedom as a means of communication and does not get tired of seeing.
In addition, since the avatar can be controlled on the receiving side, the degree of freedom of communication with the other party becomes higher.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 illustrates the configuration of the present invention. For convenience of explanation, the case where the telephone is a portable terminal will be described as an example. The mobile terminal 1 using the present invention is provided with a communication means 2 and performs communication for exchanging images, sounds, and data with another mobile terminal 101 having the same configuration via the base station 200. Various operations of the portable terminal 1 are controlled by the control means 3. Calculation results and various data associated with the control of the portable terminal 1 are stored in the storage unit 4. An image output from the portable terminal 1 is generated by the display unit 5 and displayed on the display 6 (also referred to as an image display unit). A touch panel 7 is provided on a panel (not shown) of the display 6 and detects the contact position and movement of a pen or a finger on the display and transmits them to the control means 3. The touch panel 7 is arranged so as to be superimposed on the display 6 and is configured to transmit and display an image on the display 6.

  Moreover, the camera 8 which can image | photograph the user of the portable terminal 1 may be provided. At least a key 9 for operating the mobile terminal 1 is provided. Avatar image data 10 is stored in the storage means 4. Reference numeral 11 denotes operation data stored in the storage means 4.

As shown in FIG. 2, it is assumed that the mobile terminal 1 in FIG. 1 communicates with the mobile terminal 101 having the same configuration as the mobile terminal 1 via the base station 200. Hereinafter, although the operation | movement which communicates between the portable terminal 1 and the portable terminal 101 is demonstrated, since presence of the base station 200 is not related to the essence of this invention, description of operation | movement of the base station 200 is abbreviate | omitted. Note that the base station 200 may be a satellite.
Although the portable terminal 1 and the portable terminal 101 perform reception / transmission at the same time, since they have the same operation content, the description will be made with the portable terminal 1 as the transmission side and the portable terminal 101 as the reception side. It is assumed that the mobile terminal 1 and the mobile terminal 101 are connected to each other by the communication means 2.
By operating the key 9 of the mobile terminal 1, the user instructs the mobile terminal 1 to start a videophone call using a proxy response screen using an avatar from now on. Based on the input key, the control means 3 selectively takes out image data 10 (also referred to as a first image) from among a plurality of avatar image data stored in the storage means 4 and sends it to the display means 5. . An avatar image is generated by the display means 5 and displayed on the display 6. On the other hand, the same image is sent to the communication means 2 and sent to the portable terminal 101. In the portable terminal 101, the avatar image data is received by the communication unit 2, and the same image as the avatar image generated by the portable terminal 1 is generated in the display unit 5 and displayed on the display 6.

  Next, when the avatar image displayed on the display 6 on the touch panel 7 of the portable terminal 1 is operated with a predetermined input device such as a dedicated pen or a finger, the control means 3 identifies the operation content from the position and movement ( For example, the arm of the image is moved), the operation data 11 stored in the storage unit 4 is compared, the operation patterns are compared, and the operation content for the avatar is determined. An image (referred to as a second image) that displays an action corresponding to the content is taken out from the avatar image data 10 and sent to the display means 5 to perform communication similar to that described above on the display 6 and the mobile terminal 101. An avatar operation corresponding to the operation is displayed on the display 6. That is, a part of the original first image is replaced by the second image. The second image is also called a replacement image. This replacement is performed by an image replacement means (not shown) in the control means 3.

The contents of the operation on the avatar and the movement of the avatar image corresponding to this operation will be described with reference to FIG. The display device with a touch panel 21 is obtained by arranging the display 6 of FIG. 1 and the touch panel 7 of FIG. An avatar image 22 is displayed on the display device with a touch panel 21.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing only the characteristic part of the image for explaining the display contents of FIG. The displayed avatar image 22 is planned so that a part of the picture can be moved in advance. This movable part is called an operable part. Here, for convenience of explanation, the operable part is defined as the operable part head 31, the right hand of the image as the operable part right hand 32, and the left hand of the image as the operable part left hand 33. The portable terminal 1 will be described as a transmission side and the portable terminal 101 as a reception side. When an operation of pulling the hand by pen input or the like is performed at the position of the left-hand hand 33 that can be operated on the image of the portable terminal 1, the portable terminal 1 compares with the operation data 11 and interprets it as the action of pulling the left hand of the avatar. To do. An image corresponding to the operation of pulling the avatar's left hand is extracted from the image data 10 and the corresponding image data is displayed. At the same time, the same image is also displayed on the image display means of the receiving portable terminal 101 via the communication means. The That is, the image of the present invention can be moved arbitrarily within a range prepared in advance by the operation of the sender.

  Similarly, various associated operations can be defined by respective inputs corresponding to each operable part (also referred to as a replaceable part). For example, the following operation examples can be considered.

  To communicate emotions and intentions that could not be expressed so far, such as advanced communication such as fine emotional expressions and gestures using avatars by the operations illustrated in Table 1 and the movement of images corresponding to the operations. Can do.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
What has been described in the first embodiment is an example in which an image is transmitted from one side to the other party, and the other party only receives. Of course, since the telephones having the same configuration are used, the transmission side and the reception side can be replaced with each other without needing to be described.
On the other hand, the transmission and reception of the first embodiment can be performed simultaneously, and images can be transmitted / received to each other and the other party's image can be viewed simultaneously.
FIG. 5 shows both portable terminals 1 and 101, which use terminals having the same configuration. The panel-equipped display device 21 (image display means) is divided into two or more parts by software. One of the divided parts is an image 22a transmitted by itself, and the other is an image 22b transmitted and received from the other party. Is displayed. That is, the image display means can display a plurality of images.

Then, the sender can control the image 22a being transmitted on the touch panel as described in the first embodiment.
The image 22b received from the other party is controlled by the other party (the image actually displayed is an image synthesized in the own machine as described in the first embodiment, but the synthesized image may be transmitted. Good) Moved.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
In the first embodiment and the second embodiment, the case has been described in which the avatar image is unilaterally transmitted from the transmission side to the reception side, and the operation of this image can be performed only on the transmission side.
However, it is also possible to operate the received image (referred to as the third image) transmitted from the other party on the receiving side. Such an embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. The mobile terminal 1 and the mobile terminal 101 used are the same as those shown in FIGS. Since an image (first image) is transmitted from the portable terminal 1 and displayed on the portable terminal 101 is the same as that of the first embodiment, detailed description thereof is omitted.
In the present embodiment, in addition to the image operation on the transmission side described in the first embodiment, an operation on the same image (the same image is referred to as a third image on the side receiving the first image) is received. It can be done on the side. First, as shown in FIG. 6, operable part information 40 (also referred to as replaceable part information) is transmitted together with image data from the transmission side (referred to as replaceable part information transmitting means). For example, a specific mark, for example, an asterisk, is displayed on the corresponding portion of the image as the manipulatable portion, and this allows the receiving side to know which portion can be manipulated by looking at the screen.

  Next, an example of the operation content is shown in FIG. The specific part of the image data (third image) displayed on the receiving side in FIG. 7 is defined as the operable part transmitted by the replaceable part transmitting unit. Since the same example as that described with reference to FIG. When an operation input (movement to pull a hand) is performed on the left-side hand-operable part 133 on the receiving side, the control means 3 of the receiving-side portable terminal 101 identifies this operation input. It switches from what was displaying the image sent from the portable terminal 1, and the image produced | generated from the image data 10 stored in the portable terminal 101 is displayed. Next, compared with the operation data 11 of the mobile terminal 101, the operation content is transmitted to the mobile terminal 1, and an image corresponding to the operation is taken out from the image data 10, and the display means 6 generates image data, and the display 7 To display.

The portable terminal 1 takes out the corresponding image from the image data 10 according to the received operation content and displays it on the display 7.
In FIG. 7, as an example, when the mobile terminal 101 on the receiving side inputs an action of pulling a hand against the avatar on the other side sent from the transmitting side, the hand is pulled on both the receiving side and the transmitting side. It shows how the action is displayed. With this configuration, the avatars can interfere with each other, and advanced communication can be performed.

Embodiment 4 FIG.
In the third embodiment, the avatar image is unilaterally transmitted from the transmission side to the reception side, and the same image is displayed on both the transmission side screen and the reception side screen.
In the fourth embodiment, the images are transmitted to the other party as the transmitting side, and the images transmitted from the other party as the receiving side are displayed on the screen. Of course, what can be done is a configuration that can be operated on the side that received the image transmitted from the other party.
FIG. 8 shows both portable terminals 1 and 101, which use terminals having the same configuration. The display device with a panel 21 is divided into two in software, and an image 22a transmitted by itself is displayed on one side of the divided display, and an image 22b transmitted and received from the other party is displayed on the other side.

  The sender first selects an image to be operated by the operation image selection switch 99. In accordance with this selection, the image 22a transmitted by the user can be controlled as described in the first embodiment, and the side receiving the image 22b received from the other party can also operate. It goes without saying that the image 22b received from the other party is also moved by the other party's control (the image actually displayed is an image synthesized in the own apparatus as described in the first embodiment). The operation image can also be selected by software from the position on the display on the pressed side of the touch panel.

  The telephone set described in each of the above embodiments is not limited to one that transmits and receives audio. For example, it can also be used for communications performed only with a keyboard and a display (email communications of a general mobile phone).

Since the descriptions of the first to fourth embodiments are similar, in order to prevent misunderstanding, FIG. 9 shows the state of image communication of each embodiment. In FIGS. 9A to 9D, arrows indicate the directions in which images are transmitted. X indicates a screen operation that the operator of the mobile terminal 1 adds to the image of the mobile terminal 1. Y indicates an image operation that the operator of the mobile terminal 101 adds to the image of the mobile terminal 101.
FIG. 9A shows the communication state of the first embodiment, and the image operation is performed only on the portable terminal 1.
FIG. 9B shows a communication state according to the second embodiment. The operation for the A image is performed only on the mobile terminal 1, and the operation for the B image is performed only on the mobile terminal 101.
FIG. 9C shows the communication state of the third embodiment, and the A image operation is performed on both the mobile terminal 1 and the mobile terminal 101.
FIG. 9D shows the communication state of the fourth embodiment, and both the operation of the A image and the operation of the B image are performed on both the portable terminal 1 and the portable terminal 101.

Embodiment 5. FIG.
In the description of Embodiments 1 to 4, it has been described that an image is transmitted as image data between portable terminals. However, the communication speed of the telephone line may not always be high enough to transmit a lot of image data, especially moving images one after another. Therefore, dozens of avatars (first images) that are normally used by users of each telephone are unified in advance, and this image data is stored in advance in all telephones. Of course, a large number of images (second images) to be moved by image operations are also stored in advance. For each image, a common code number is set among users, and if only the code number is transmitted without transmitting the image, the related image is extracted and displayed from the image data stored in the terminal. May be. This is similar to, for example, that characters and kanji are encoded and stored, but in the case of the present invention, the image is changed by the image replacement means. It is fundamentally different.
In this way, even if the communication speed of the telephone line is extremely low, the signal to be transmitted / received is only the exchange of the code number, so that smooth display of the image is not hindered.

  The telephone of the present invention can be used for general-purpose wireless communication devices in addition to being used for mobile phones and fixed phones.

It is a block diagram of the telephone set of Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure explaining the telephone call state using the telephone of FIG. It is a figure which shows the display content of the display of the transmission side in the call of a figure, and the receiving side. It is a figure explaining the detail of the avatar of FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing display contents on the display of the telephone according to the second embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating display contents and operation contents on a display in the third embodiment. It is a figure explaining operation of the image displayed on the display of FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing display contents on a display of a telephone according to a fourth embodiment. It is explanatory drawing which put together the outline | summary of operation | movement of Embodiment 1-4.

Explanation of symbols

1 mobile terminal, 2 communication means, 3 control means,
4 storage means, 5 display means, 6 display,
7 Touch panel, 8 Camera, 9 key,
10 avatar image data, 11 operation data,
21 Display device with panel, 22 Avatar image,
31 operable parts of the head, 32 operable parts of the right hand,
33 Operable part of left hand, 101 mobile terminal,
99 Operation image selector switch.

Claims (6)

A telephone having an image display means for displaying an image and making a call with another telephone having the same configuration;
Storage means for storing in advance a first image and a second image to replace a part of the first image;
A touch panel that is mounted on the image display means and outputs an image control signal for selecting the second image corresponding to the touched position when a portion of the displayed image is touched with a predetermined input device;
Image replacement means for displaying a portion of the first image replaced with the second image based on the image control signal;
A telephone set comprising communication means for transmitting and receiving the first image, the second image, and the image control signal. A telephone having an image display means for displaying a plurality of images and having a telephone conversation with another telephone having the same configuration;
Storage means for storing in advance a first image and a second image to replace a part of the first image;
A touch panel that is mounted on the image display means and outputs a first image control signal for selecting the second image corresponding to the touched position when a portion of the displayed image is touched with a predetermined input device;
An image replacement means for displaying a part of the first image with the second image based on the first image control signal when the first image is displayed on the image display means;
A communication means for transmitting the first image, the second image, and the first image control signal, and receiving the image and the second image control signal transmitted from the other telephone;
Control means for causing the image display means to display a third image synthesized based on the received image and the received second image control signal, and communicating with another telephone having the same configuration Phone. A replaceable part transmitting means for transmitting a part that can be replaced with a predetermined second image on the first image together with the transmission of the first image,
Based on the image control signal generated by touching the replaceable part of the third image received and displayed and the image stored in the storage means, a part of the third image is obtained. 3. The telephone according to claim 2, wherein the telephone is replaced and displayed, and the image control signal is transmitted to the other telephone that is a transmission source of the image data. A telephone having an image display means for displaying an image and making a call with another telephone having the same configuration;
Storage means for storing a first image, a code number assigned to the first image, a second image for replacing a part of the first image, and a code number assigned to the second image;
A touch panel that is mounted on the image display means and outputs an image control signal for selecting the second image corresponding to the touched position when a portion of the displayed image is touched with a predetermined input device;
Image replacement means for displaying a portion of the first image replaced with the second image based on the control signal;
A telephone comprising: communication means for transmitting the code number of the first image, the code number of the second image, and the image control signal. A telephone having an image display means for displaying an image and making a call with another telephone having the same configuration;
Storage means for storing a plurality of images assigned with individual code numbers and a plurality of replacement images assigned with individual code numbers for replacing a part of each of the plurality of images;
When one of the plurality of images is mounted on the image display means and displayed on the image display means, a part of the displayed image is touched with a predetermined input device, and a first image control signal corresponding to this part Touch panel to output,
An image replacement means for displaying a part of the displayed image by replacing it with the replacement image based on the first image control signal;
Communication means for transmitting the code number of the displayed image, the code number of the replacement image, and the first image control signal, and receiving the code number and the second image control signal transmitted from another telephone ,
A telephone comprising: control means for causing the image display means to display an image read from the storage means based on the received code number and the received second image control signal. A replaceable part transmitting means for transmitting a predetermined image replaceable part of a part of the image together with the transmission of the code number of the displayed image,
Based on the image control signal generated by touching the replaceable part of the image read and displayed from the storage means based on the received code number and the image data stored in the storage means, 6. The telephone set according to claim 5, wherein a part of an existing image is replaced and displayed, and the image control signal is transmitted to the other telephone set.

Images