JPH06177987A - Conference communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make progress of a conference efficient by providing a means sending a conference notice to each conference terminal, a means delivering a conference paper material and a means discriminating various materials and delivering them to the system enable so as to advance check of the paper materials. CONSTITUTION:When a conference terminal equipment at a point A invites conference terminal equipments at points B, C for the conference, a controller 10 of the conference terminal equipment at the point A reserves a communication line 3 connecting to a conference communication trunk 1 and informs automatically a conference name and conference participant names to the points B, C. A controller 10 of conference terminal equipments at the points B, C delivers paper materials required for the conference to all the points A to C. Furthermore, the conference terminal equipment 10 at the points A to C discriminates a material offered during the conference automatically and delivers the discriminated material. Thus, it is possible for the conference participant points A to C to check conference materials in advance and the discussion is entered immediately as soon as the conference is held, then the conference is progressed efficiently.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is utilized in advance delivery of materials in conference communication conducted between remote places and discrimination of materials submitted to conferences. The present invention relates to a conference communication system capable of efficiently proceeding with a conference.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of image communication technology and communication network technology, a video conferencing system has been put into practical use, which enables people to have a conversation or a conference while observing face images with each other between remote places. If such a system is used, it is possible to easily communicate with each other and to communicate with each other without gathering all the participants in one conference room.
However, in order to facilitate communication at the meeting, it is essential to present the meeting materials to the other party and explain. For this reason, in the conventional video conference, before the conference is held, the material is sent to the other party by facsimile or mail through a human hand, or a document camera is separately prepared to capture the image and the image is taken in real time with the other party. Have been presented in.

The method of presenting such materials is as follows: (1) When explaining or discussing materials distributed by facsimile or mail, it is not possible to point to a specific part of the materials, The intention cannot be sufficiently communicated, and in order to convey the content written on the material during the conference, the written material needs to be newly transmitted, and communication of the intention cannot be efficiently performed.

(2) When the material is presented to the other party using the document camera, pointing and writing from the transmitting side can be transmitted to the other side in real time, but the information transmission is unidirectional. Yes, it is necessary to secure a separate document camera and its communication path in order to transmit pointing and writing on the explanatory material from the person receiving the explanation to the person explaining the matter, and to communicate easily and effectively. However, there are still problems such as difficulty.

Therefore, in order to solve such a problem, an electronic file created by an editor or the like is used as a material, and video and audio can be input / output by one device, and the material presentation is performed by a communication conference. A multimedia communication conference system linked to control has been proposed (Broadcasting Technical Report, "Multipoint-point multimedia communication system for B-ISDN", IE90-49, 1990).

FIG. 6 shows a sequence of material distribution by this system. The operation will be described below with reference to FIG. In this example, it is assumed that a conference is held between the three points A, B, and C. At points A, B, and C, different conference materials are created at each point in preparation for a specific conference to be held, and the materials are registered as those to be used in the specific conference. In the figure, the point B registers the material a in the conference z,
Point C registers material b in conference z. In order for point A to call the meeting to points B and C with the meeting name as z, call connection with points B and C is made and the meeting name is notified.

When the points B and C announce participation in the conference as a response to the convening, the logical paths of the media of video, audio, and graphics used in the conference are set, and the transmission and reception of each media data are performed. After that, the points B and C transfer the material a and the material b registered in the conference z to the point A which is the convener of the conference. Point A is material a, material b
And decide whether to use each during the meeting,
A number is given as a conference material and the conference material is delivered to points B and C.

[0008] With this, all points possess all the meeting materials, and at the time of holding the meeting, the corresponding materials can be specified only by specifying the material number given from any of the points A, B and C. You can Therefore, the same material can be simultaneously presented in real time in various places, and bidirectional pointing and writing on the material can be performed in real time.

[0009]

Although the problem initially pointed out can be solved by adopting the above-mentioned multimedia communication conference system, since the delivery of materials is performed after the conference is convened, before the conference is held. Since it is not possible to consider the meeting material in advance, it is necessary for the material creator to manually send the material separately to all points scheduled to participate in the meeting in advance, which imposes a heavy burden. There's a problem. Furthermore, since materials are transmitted or materials are delivered during the meeting, if a communication path with a small communication capacity is used, the waiting time until the completion of the materials delivery becomes long and the materials are being transmitted or There is a problem that it is necessary to reduce the transmission speed assigned to the video media during delivery, which may interfere with proceedings.

The present invention solves such a problem, and the materials necessary for conducting a communication conference can be automatically distributed before the conference is held, and the participants can be held without hindering the proceedings of the proceedings. It is an object of the present invention to provide a conference communication method capable of efficiently communicating with each other.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a conference communication trunk for relaying conference information, a means for transmitting and receiving the conference information, which is connected to the conference communication trunk via a communication line and a network. In a conference communication system including a plurality of conference terminals having control means for controlling transmission / reception, each of the control means of the conference terminals has a conference name for each conference terminal scheduled to participate in the conference before the conference is held. And a means of notifying the names of meeting participants,
When it receives the notification, it includes means for delivering the materials required for the conference to all conference terminals participating in the conference, and means for discriminating and delivering the various materials submitted at the time of holding the conference. Characterize.

It is preferable that the control means includes means for delivering the material to a specific conference terminal to which the discriminated material has not been delivered. The means for transmitting / receiving the conference information of the conference terminal is preferably: It can be composed of a workstation, a television, a microphone, a speaker, and a facsimile.

[0013]

[Operation] The conference name and the conference participant names are automatically notified to the spot where the conference host needs to participate before the conference is held. Each point that receives the notification delivers the materials required for the meeting to all the points that participate in the meeting.
Also, at each point, the materials submitted during the conference will be automatically discriminated.

As a result, the conference material can be examined in advance at each conference participation point, and the discussion can be immediately started at the same time as the conference is held, so that the conference can be efficiently advanced.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a conference terminal in the embodiment of the present invention.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the conference communication trunk 1 for relaying the conference information, the means for transmitting and receiving the conference information connected to the conference communication trunk 1 via the communication line 3 and the network 2, and the conference information A conference terminal arranged at a plurality of points A, B, and C having control means 10 for controlling transmission / reception, and each of the control means 10 of the conference terminal is scheduled to participate in the conference prior to the holding of the conference. Means for notifying each conference terminal of the conference name and the name of the participants of the conference, and means for delivering the materials required for the conference to all conference terminals participating in the conference when the notice is received And means for discriminating and delivering various materials submitted at the time of holding the conference, and means for delivering the materials to a specific conference terminal to which the discriminated materials have not been delivered.

The means for transmitting and receiving the conference information of the conference terminal is a workstation 11, a television 12, a microphone 13, a speaker 14, and a facsimile 1.
It is composed of 5.

When the workstation 11 receives an instruction input for proceeding with the conference, it sends the instruction to the control means 10 via the terminal interface 16, and the control means 10 automatically conducts the conference proceeding according to a preset control procedure. To do it. The progress is displayed on the CRT. Images of the conference participants at each point are displayed on the television 12 during the dialogue. Also, sound is sent from the microphone 13 and sound from each point is sent from the speaker 14. The facsimile 15 sends and receives the information described in the document.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention thus constructed will be described.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the flow of the conference operation in the first embodiment of the present invention. This example shows the case where the point A calls a meeting for the points B and C.

The point A creates a conference notification prior to holding the conference, makes a call connection with the points B and C, secures a communication path, and transmits the conference notification to the points B and C. The information transmitted in the conference notification includes the conference name, the conference participant name list, and the date and time of the conference, which are minimum required for the preparation work of the participants. After sending this notification, the call is disconnected and the communication path is closed.

Based on the above-mentioned notification, the points B and C create the materials to be used in the conference, and the respective materials are registered to the conference name notified of the holding. In Figure 3, data a at point B
Is registered and the material b is registered at the point C, but it does not matter if a plurality of materials are registered at the same time or they are individually registered. With this material registration as a trigger, a call connection is made with the conference participants described in the conference notification, the registered material is transmitted, and the call is disconnected after the material is transmitted. In this example, the point B describes the case where the material a is registered,
If you register multiple materials, that many materials will be sent. As a result, the materials are automatically transmitted to all the conference participants before the conference is held, and the materials can be considered in advance.

When point A calls a conference with the name of the conference already notified, and points B and C participate in this conference, the logical paths of the media of video, audio, and graphics used in the conference are set, and It becomes possible to send and receive media data. After that, point B and point C notify the point A at which the meeting was convened of the name of the conference material they own. The participant at the point A selects a material to be actually used in the conference, assigns the material number, and transmits only the correspondence table between the material number and the conference material name to the points B and C.

Thereafter, the same writing such as simultaneous presentation of materials, display page instruction, and simultaneous pointing instruction is performed using this material number. Thus, "state 2" shown in FIG.
Since the materials have not been sent after the meeting is convened and have already been completed in “State 1”, the user will not be aware of any hindrance to the proceedings of the meeting, and the materials will be immediately transferred from “State 3” immediately after the meeting is convened. It is possible to exchange opinions using, and to communicate easily and effectively.

FIG. 4 concretely shows the processing contents of the points B and C on the side receiving the conference notification in the "state 1" shown in FIG. When the conference communication is received, the conference name and the participant name are generated in the conference notification table in the own device.
When there is a conference name already listed in the table, it is referenced when registering the material, and when the material is sent, the participant name is referenced, and based on this, the call connection with other participants is performed and the material is actually the conference name. Sent with.

As described above, since the material is automatically transmitted to all the participants in the conference before the communication conference is held, the material can be examined in advance and the conventional method causes a problem. It is possible to eliminate the obstacles in the proceedings of proceedings.

In the present embodiment, the case where the conference notification creation point and the meeting convening point are the same has been described for the sake of simplicity. However, at the point A as well, the meeting notification shown in FIG. By creating a table, the same effect can be obtained even when a point other than the point A is convened in a meeting. Further, although the present embodiment describes the case where the communication conference is held at three points, each communication sequence shown in FIG. 3 can be performed with other points not shown in the figure.
The same effect can be obtained.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the flow of the conference operation according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

The second embodiment shows an example that can be dealt with in the case where a meeting is convened including a point where the meeting notification is not transmitted. That is, when the point A notifies the point B only of the meeting, the point B transmits the material only to the point A according to the notification. As a result, the point A can consider the conference material in advance. Next, when the point A calls the meeting, the point C is decided to join the meeting, and when the points B and C both join the meeting, the logical paths of video, audio, and graphics are set. , The possessed material name is notified to the point A where the meeting was convened.
At this time, since the notification that there is no material is transmitted from the point C, the point A assigns a number to the material a and then transmits the material a to the point C.

In this way, even for a specific conference participant whose material has not been delivered in advance, after the conference is started, the material is transmitted as shown in "state 3" of FIG. It is possible to communicate with each other, and because the materials have already been examined at the already transmitted points, it is possible to carry out efficient proceedings of communication conferences.

In this embodiment, the conference at three points has been described. However, if a similar conference proceeding sequence is carried out with another point outside the figure, a communication conference with an arbitrary point can be conducted. .

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to automatically deliver the material to the conference participation point before the communication conference is held, whereby the conference material is preliminarily stored at each conference participation point. It is possible to discuss the matter in advance, and it is possible to start the discussion immediately after the meeting is held, which has the effect of allowing the meeting to proceed efficiently.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conference terminal in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of a conference operation in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the processing contents on the side receiving a conference notification in the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flow of a conference operation in the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a flow of a conference operation in a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Conference Trunk 2 Network 3 Communication Line 11 Workstation 12 Television 13 Microphone 14 Speaker 15 Facsimile 16 Terminal Interface

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Shigeki Masaki 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A conference communication trunk for relaying conference information, a conference communication trunk connected to the conference communication trunk via a communication line and a network, and a control means for controlling the transmission / reception of the conference information. In a conference communication system including a plurality of conference terminals, each of the control means of the conference terminals is notified of the conference name and the conference participant name to each conference terminal scheduled to participate in the conference prior to the holding of the conference. Means, a means for delivering the materials required for the conference to all the conference terminals participating in the conference when the notification is received, and a means for discriminating and delivering the various materials submitted at the time of holding the conference. A conference communication method characterized in that it includes. 2. The conference communication system according to claim 1, wherein the control means includes means for delivering the material to a specific conference terminal to which the discriminated material has not been delivered. 3. The conference communication system according to claim 1, wherein the means for transmitting and receiving the conference information of the conference terminal comprises a workstation, a television, a microphone, a speaker, and a facsimile.