Patent Application
20080036849
The above and other aspects of the present invention will become more apparent by the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:
The present invention will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown.
Referring to
Also, the screen 322 of the face of user A on the monitor 320 of user B may be covered by the video screen 323B. This situation may be one that the chairperson user A does not want to happen, and in this case, user A needs to be able to control the situation properly. According to the present invention, in a video conference, remote control by user A is enabled. A structure of an image display apparatus for this will now be explained.
Referring to
The image display apparatus 400 may be an ordinary personal computer monitor, and may also include a display apparatus capable of processing a video signal in a multimedia device, such as a personal data assistant (PDA), a notebook computer, and a portable multimedia player (PMP). Hereinafter, the image display apparatus 400 will be referred to as a “monitor”.
An external input source 410 is a resource which provides an input signal from outside the monitor 400, and may include 15 pin D-sub capabilities, DVI-D capabilities, CVBS capabilities, S-VIDEO capabilities, SCART Component capabilities, and RF Tuner capabilities.
The processor 420 may be an integrated circuit (IC) chip embedded in the monitor 400 for a variety of control functions, and is also referred to as a “micom”. The processor 420 receives the external input signal and participates in control of image processing, such as analog-to-digital (AD) conversion and decoding, required to display the signal.
The signal processing unit 460 processes signal generation according to a message or voice/video data stream flowing in through the VoIP from an external communication network, such as a session initiation protocol (SIP) packet 450, a real time transport protocol (RTP) or user datagram protocol (UDP) packet. Accordingly, the signal processing unit 460 may have therein an embedded central processing unit (CPU) and its own codec chip and memory. For example, the signal processing unit 460 may receive a voice and/or video data stream through the VoIP, decode the data stream with its own codec, and display the data stream as a PIP screen on the monitor. Here, the voice and/or video data stream may be transferred as an RTP or UDP packet. Since the relation between a PIP screen from the external input source 410 generated by the processor 420 and the PIP screen of the signal processing unit 460 should be controlled, the signal processing unit 460 communicates with the processor 420. The communication between the signal processing unit 460 and the processor 420 will now be explained in more detail with reference to
Referring to
Transmission, by a transmitting side, of information regarding combinations of a plurality of video signals that can be displayed simultaneously by the monitor 400 will be explained.
The combination information processing unit 510 processes combination information regarding combinations of a plurality of video signals that can be displayed simultaneously by the monitor 400, and may further include a combination information storage unit 511 and a processor control unit 512. The signal processing unit 460 may further include a network unit 461 and a message control unit 461-1.
The combination information storage unit 511 reads the information regarding the combinations of a plurality of video signals that can be displayed simultaneously by the monitor 400, described above, from the processor 420 and stores the information. The stored combination information is transmitted to the other side of a VoIP connection as a message through the external communication network through the message control unit 461-1 in the network unit 461 disposed in the signal processing unit 460. Also, if a new external input signal is sensed by the processor 420 and an event occurs, new combination information for the event is updated and stored in the combination information storage unit 511.
The network unit 461 provides an interface with an external communication network, including IP based data networks, such as LAN, WAN, and VPN.
Through the network unit 461, communication with another monitor is enabled.
The message control unit 461-1 is disposed in the network unit 461, and processes the combination information received from the combination information storage unit 511, into a message to be transmitted through the external communication network. The message complies with a session initiation protocol (SIP) and a session description protocol (SDP). Also, the message control unit 461-1 may receive a control message by an authorized person at the other end of the VoIP connection. At this time, the message control unit 461-1 extracts a control source code included in the message and transfers the code to the processor control unit 512 in the combination information processing unit 510.
According to the contents of the control source code of the message received from the signal processing unit 460, the processor control unit 512 controls the processor 420 of the monitor 400, and adjusts the position and transparency of the PIP screen. The position of the PIP screen may be limited to specific regions including top left, bottom left, top right, bottom right, and none. Also, the position can be determined by X, Y coordinates, height, and width. The transparency of the PIP screen may be determined according to several gradations, such as opaque, high, medium, and low, or in more detailed gradations of 0˜100%.
Reception of the information regarding the combinations of a plurality of video signals that can be displayed simultaneously by the monitor, transmitted by the monitor at the other end of the VoIP connection will now be explained. The combination information included in the message is extracted in the message control unit 461-1 in the network unit 461, and transferred to the combination information processing unit 510, and stored in the combination information storage unit 511. By using the stored combination information, the processor 420 sends a control command for the position and transparency of the PIP screen of the monitor at the other end. According to the command of the processor 420, the processor control unit 512 performs processing of AD conversion and encoding in order to control the plurality of video signals that can be displayed simultaneously by the monitor at the other end. At this time, the message control unit 461-1 processes the control command into a message in order to transmit the control command through the external communication network.
Referring to
Referring to
In operation 710, the initial input state of the plurality of video signals is recognized or a change in a preset input state is recognized. That is, by examining whether or not a signal of an external input source connected to the monitor is generated, the state is recognized or a changed ON or OFF state of the already generated signal is recognized.
In operation 720, the combination information on the combinations of the plurality of video signals that can be displayed simultaneously by the monitor is read through a processor, and stored. The stored combination information includes information regarding combinations of a plurality of video signals that can be simultaneously displayed by the monitor in itself, and information on possible combinations based on the actually generated input video signals.
In operation 730, the stored combination information is transmitted in the form of a message. The representative protocols that can be used include the SIP protocol and the SDP protocol. This will be explained in more detail later with reference to
Referring to
In operation 740, the combination information on the combinations of the plurality of video signals that can be displayed simultaneously by the monitor at the other end is received.
In operation 750, the received combination information is stored. This will be explained in more detail later with reference to
In operation 760, by using the stored combination information, the plurality of video signals of the monitor at the transmission side is controlled. That is, since the monitor at the reception side can know the external input sources, connection states, and the current state of PIP screens of the monitor at the other end, the monitor at the reception side adjusts the display positions or transparencies of the main video signal and sub video signal of the monitor at the transmission side, based on the combination information. Here, a confirmation procedure for confirming a control right (authority) should precede for the controlling.
In the case of transmission of the message, when PIP combination information based on external input sources that are recognized by system A by examining a connection state, is transmitted to system B, the combination information is added to the body of an SIP/SDP message or a uniform resource identifier (URI), allowing the combination information to be referred to later, in operation 820. The SIP protocol is a signaling protocol of an application layer that specifies a procedure in which intelligent terminals that want to communicate with each other on the Internet, recognize each other, find the position of each other, and establish, terminate, and change a multimedia communication session. The SIP protocol has a request and response structure for controlling establishment, modification, and termination of a multimedia service session, such as an Internet-based video conference, telephone, voice mail, event notification, and instant messaging (short message server, SMS).
The SIP protocol can be used for both TCP and UDP. The SIP protocol uses an SIP URI similar to an email address in order to distinguish each user, and thus allows users to receive services without being dependent on an IP address. As a general example, information regarding a session is provided to a group of interest, by using a session advertise protocol (SAP), and through an SIP, a party desired to communicate with is invited to a session. Through an SDP, information on a media type desired to be used is exchanged. Also, by using an RTP described in the SDP, real time multimedia service is provided.
In the case of reception of the message, the combination information of the received SIP/SDP message is stored, or if a URI allowing the information to be referred to later is included, the URI is stored in operation 830. In the case of the URI, when CallLeg is generated later, the combination information can be fetched using the URI and stored. Also, when an approval message (2000K message, i.e. acknowledgment message) is transmitted, the combination information of the monitor at the reception side can be transmitted together selectively in operation 840.
When the attempt to establish an initial connection from system A to system B is made, CallLegHdr and SDP MsgHdr add information regarding current possible combinations of a plurality of video signals, i.e., PIP combination information, to an SDP body, by using an INVITE method of an SIP. Then, an SIP/SDP message is transferred to system B. A source code added to the SDP body is illustrated in
An example of the case where an event occurs and an SIP INFO message is transmitted is a case in which when the position of a PIP screen through a VoIP codec is changed, the contents of a source code as illustrated below are added to the message body and informed to the other end through an SIP INFO method:
Operation 1330 will be explained later with reference to
According to the image display apparatus for displaying an image based on a plurality of video signals and the control method thereof according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention as described above, a chairperson of a video conference through the VoIP can remote control the PIP screen of another side during the conference. In this way, the chairperson can provide optimum screens to participants of the video conference while presiding over the conference. Other participants of the video conference can view the screens including the PIP screens appropriately adjusted by the chairperson, i.e., the optimum screens. Also, by using SIP messages, it is possible to avoid a procedure of separately establishing a communication line for control. Furthermore, when an SIP INVITE message is processed, most of PIP combination information is exchanged and later only necessary information is exchanged partially using an SIP INFO message, thereby saving a network bandwidth.
The method of controlling the image display apparatus displaying an image based on a plurality of video signals according to the exemplary embodiments of present invention can also be embodied as computer readable codes on a computer readable recording medium. The computer readable recording medium is any data storage device that can store data which can be thereafter read by a computer system. Examples of computer readable recording media include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks, optical data storage devices, and carrier waves (such as data transmission through the Internet). The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims. The exemplary embodiments should be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. Therefore, the scope of the invention is defined not by the detailed description of the invention but by the appended claims, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2006-0075869 | Aug 2006 | KR | national |
