Abstract:
A display allocation method is disclosed herein. The display allocation method is applied to a display in a conference meeting and comprises the following steps: allocating a first, a second and a third image block on the display, in which sizes of the first and the second image block are larger than size of the third image block; detecting an effective sound of a first candidate video corresponding to the third image block to identify whether the first candidate video is effective; setting one of the first and the second image block as a primary image block, and setting another one of the first and the second image block as a secondary image block, in which the secondary image block includes a secondary video; and allocating the first candidate video and the secondary video to the secondary and the third image block respectively if the first candidate video is effective.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to Taiwanese Application Serial Number 103116413, filed May 8, 2014, which is herein incorporated by reference. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    1. Field of Invention 
         [0003]    The present disclosure relates to a video conference system. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a video conference system with multiple participants and a display allocation method thereof. 
         [0004]    2. Description of Related Art 
         [0005]    Nowadays, companies set their operation offices at different locations and even different countries. Communication between the different offices of the same company or between different companies therefore becomes an increasing demand. With advances in networking and multimedia signal processing, video conference capable of two-way image and audio transmission gradually replaces audio-only conference call as a way to communicate between the offices. 
         [0006]    In a video conference with multiple participants, a user (one of the participants) of the video conference see video frames corresponding to different participants. However, image sizes of the respective video frames are normally too small for the user to tell which of the participants in the videos is speaking, which makes the user even harder to follow the details of the video conference. On the other hand, if default setting is in a mode of one large video frame and multiple small video frames, the user can only manually switch the mode before the video conference starts to select a desired one in large video frame. Once the selection is done, it would be difficult for the user to know which participant is speaking in the small video frames, which makes the user not to clearly catch both of the video and audio information in the video conference. 
         [0007]    Traditionally, voice detection function is adopted in the video conference so as to change the small video frame which is active into the large one. If there is only one participant speaking, this function is capable of allowing the user to clearly see the active video frame which the participant is speaking to precisely follow the information of the participant. 
         [0008]    However, although the mentioned function allows the active video frames to changes size, the frequent size jumping of the video frames is annoying and uncomfortable to the user when the voice detection function detects different voices of different speaking participants from time to time. As such, the constantly size changing video frames may be not so helpful as expected and even achieve the opposite effect. Moreover, fast discussion between different speaking participants makes it impossible to simultaneously change the sizes of the video frames with the speaking participants. Therefore, the participants still have difficulty to follow the detailed discussion in the video conference. 
         [0009]    As a result, in order to make the participants clearly understand the information of the video conference, a more efficient allocation of videos is needed. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0010]    The disclosure provides a display allocation method applied to a display in a conference meeting. The display allocation method includes the following steps: allocating a first image block, a second image block and a third image block on the display, wherein sizes of the first image block and the second image block are larger than size of the third image block; detecting an effective sound of a first candidate video corresponding to the third image block so as to identify whether the first candidate video is effective; setting one of the first image block and the second image block as a primary image block, and setting another one of the first image block and the second image block as a secondary image block, in which the secondary image block includes a secondary video; and allocating the first candidate video to the secondary image block and allocating the secondary video to the third image block if the first candidate video is effective. 
         [0011]    The disclosure provides a video conference system. The video conference system includes a display and a processing unit. The display includes a first image block, a second image block and a third image block, in which sizes of the first image block and the second image block are both greater than size of the third image block. The processing unit includes a detection module, a set module and an allocation module. The detection module is configured to detect a first candidate video of the third image block so as to identify whether the first candidate video has an effective sound. The set module is configured to set one of the first image block and the second image block as a primary image block, and to set another one of the first image block and the second image block as a secondary image block, in which the secondary image block includes a secondary video. The allocation module is configured to allocate the first candidate video to the secondary image block and to allocate the secondary video to the third image block when the first candidate video has the effective sound. 
         [0012]    It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are by examples, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0013]    The disclosure can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the embodiment, with reference made to the accompanying drawings as follows: 
           [0014]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating a video conference system according to one embodiment of this disclosure; 
           [0015]      FIG. 2  is a flow diagram illustrating how to set a video conference according to one embodiment of this disclosure; 
           [0016]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram illustrating switching of videos in a fixed main speaker mode according to one embodiment of this disclosure; 
           [0017]      FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating a fixed main speaker mode according to one embodiment of this disclosure; 
           [0018]      FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram illustrating switching of videos in a non-fixed main speaker mode according to one embodiment of this disclosure; and 
           [0019]      FIG. 6  is a flow diagram illustrating a non-fixed main speaker mode according to one embodiment of this disclosure. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0020]    Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts. 
         [0021]    It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, third etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another element, component, region, layer or section. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the present disclosure. 
         [0022]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , a schematic diagram of a video conference system  10  according to one embodiment of this disclosure is presented. The video conference system  10  includes a display  100 , a processing unit  120  and a network unit  140 . 
         [0023]    The display  100  includes a first image block  101 , a second image block  102 , a third image block  103 , a fourth image block  104 , a fifth image block  105  and a sixth image block  106 . The image blocks  101 - 106  includes videos  111 - 116  respectively, in which sizes of the first image block  101  and the second image block  102  are greater than sizes of the third image block  103 , the fourth image block  104 , the fifth image block  105  and the sixth image block  106 . 
         [0024]    In some embodiments, the size of the first image block  101  is the same as the size of the second image block  102 . 
         [0025]    The processing unit  120  includes a reception module  121 , a detection module  122 , a set module  123  and an allocation module  124 . The reception module  121  is electrically coupled to the detection module  122 . The detection module  122  is electrically coupled to the set module  123 . The set module  123  is electrically coupled to the allocation module  124 . 
         [0026]    The reception module  121  receives selection commands from users so as to set the operating modes of the video conference system  10 . 
         [0027]    In some embodiments, the users can input the commands through a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen, voice recognition, image recognition or video recognition. 
         [0028]    The detection module  122  is configured to detect whether the videos  111 - 116  have effective sounds. In some embodiment, a frequency range of the effective sound is from 100 hz to 8000 hz. For example, if a first sound of one of the videos  111 - 116  is in the frequency range of the effective sound, the first sound is viewed as the effective sound, the a second sound of one of the videos  111 - 116  is out of the frequency range of the effective sound, the second sound is viewed as an ineffective sound. 
         [0029]    In some embodiments, the detection module  122  further identifies whether waveforms of sounds from the videos  111 - 116  are waveforms corresponding to speech. If not, the detection module  122  filters sounds that do not correspond to waveforms of speech by corresponding filters, e.g., band-stop filter. For example, when sound of the video  111  includes a sound of the electric fan, since waveform of the sound of the electric fan has a impulse on a certain frequency and is not the waveform corresponding to the speech from human beings, the detection module  122  uses a certain filter, e.g., a bandstop filter corresponding to the certain frequency, to filter the sound of the electric fan corresponding to the certain frequency. 
         [0030]    In some embodiments, the detection module  122  may filter out the sound that does not correspond to waveforms of speech before identifying whether the sound of the video includes the effective sound. 
         [0031]    In some embodiments, the sound that does not correspond to waveforms of speech may be sounds of the electric fan, cough, or the sounds from other electric device. 
         [0032]    In some embodiments, waveforms sound that does not correspond to waveforms of speech and the corresponding filters may be stored in a memory. 
         [0033]    The set module  123  is configured to identify whether the videos  111 - 116  are effective according to whether time lengths of the effective sounds corresponding to the videos  111 - 116  are longer than a first specific time length. For example, the first specific time length may be 3 seconds. When the effective sound of the video  113  is greater than 3 seconds, video  113  is viewed as an effective video. The set module  123  is further configured to set one of the first image block  101  and the second image block  102  as a primary image block and to set another one of the first image block  101  and the second image block as the secondary image block. The video in the primary image block is the primary video, and the video in the secondary image block is the secondary video. 
         [0034]    The allocation module  124  is configured to allocate videos  111 - 116  to the image block  101 - 106 . When one of the videos  113 - 116  is effective (the one of the videos  113 - 116  is also called the effective video), the allocation module  124  allocates the effective video to the secondary image block and allocates the secondary video to the original image block corresponding to the effective video. 
         [0035]    The network module  140  is configured to receive videos through a wireless network or a wireless network and to provide the videos to the processing unit  120 . 
         [0036]    Referring to  FIG. 2 , a flow diagram of setting a video conference according to one embodiment of this disclosure is illustrated. In step S 201 , the user starts to set the video conference. In step S 202 , the user inputs the command so as to determine whether the video conference is in a voice detection mechanism. If yes, the process moves to step S 203  so as to determine whether the video conference operates in a fixed main speaker mode or non-fixed main speaker mode. If not, the process moves to step S 204  such that the video conference operates not in the voice detection mechanism, and the allocation of the videos  111 - 116  to the image blocks  101 - 106  is fixed on the display  100 . 
         [0037]    Moreover, in step S 203 , the user needs to input a selection command to let the process moves to step S 205  or to step S 206 . In step S 205 , the video conference operates in a fixed main speaker mode, and in step S 206 , the step S 206  operates in a non-fixed main speaker mode. 
         [0038]    Reference is made to  FIGS. 3-6  so as to illustrate the fixed main speaker mode and the non-fixed main speaker mode in more details.  FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram which illustrates switching of videos in a fixed main speaker mode according to one embodiment of this disclosure. First, on time point  301 , the display  100  has the allocation of the image blocks shown in  FIG. 1 , in which the video  111  of the first image block  101  is manually set as the fixed main speaker by the user. In more details, the set module  123  sets the first image block  101  and the video  111  as the primary image block and the primary video and set the second image block  102  and video  112  as the secondary image block and the secondary video. In the fixed main speaker mode, the primary stream  111  is fixed in the primary image block  101 , and the secondary video  112  may be allocated to one of the other image blocks  102 - 106 . For example, the allocation module  124  allocates the secondary video to the fifth image block  105  if the video  115  in the fifth image block is effective. 
         [0039]    In some embodiments, when the video conference begins, the video  112  in the secondary image block  102  is the earliest video connected to the video conference system  10  other than the video of the main speaker. 
         [0040]    Subsequently, the detection module  122  detects the videos  113 - 116  of the image blocks  103 - 106  so as to identify whether there is a speaker in the participants. In the present embodiment, the detection module  122  detects an effective sound of the video  115  in the fifth image block  105 , and the said effective sound exceeds the first specific time length. Accordingly, the set module  123  identifies that the video  115  is effective. Since the set module  123  already set the primary image block (i.e., the first image block  101 ) and the secondary image block (i.e., the second image block  102 ) when the fixed main speaker mode begins, on the time point  302 , the allocation module  124  allocates the video  115  to the secondary image block  102  and allocates the video  112  to the fifth image block  105  which originally corresponds to the video  115 . 
         [0041]    When the videos  112  and  115  finish in being allocated, the detection module  122  keeps detecting the effective sounds of videos  112 - 114  and  116 , which makes the set module  123  identify whether the videos  112 - 114  and  116  are effective according to the times lengths of the effective sounds. If one of the videos  112 - 114  and  116  is effective, the allocation module  124  switches the one of the effective video (corresponding to the speaker) and the video which is in the second image block  102  into the place of the other. The step of switching can be executed continuously until the fixed main speaker mode is over. 
         [0042]    In some embodiments, if the set module  123  identifies two or more videos to be effective at the same time, the allocation module  124  maintains the two or more videos in the originally corresponding image blocks. For example, if the vide  114  of the fourth image block  104  and the video  115  of the fifth image block  105  are identified to be effective at the same time, the allocation module  124  maintains the video  115  and the video  116  in the original fourth image block  104  and the fifth image block  105 . 
         [0043]      FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating a fixed main speaker mode according to one embodiment of this disclosure. First, in step S 404 , the allocation module  124  allocates the video of the main speaker and the video which is first connected to the video conference system other than the video of the main speaker to the first image block  101  (the primary image block) and the second image block  102  (the secondary image block) respectively, and the allocation module  124  allocates the other videos to the remaining image blocks. In step S 402 , the detection module  122  detects the effective sounds of all the videos  111 - 116 . 
         [0044]    In step S 403 , when an effective sound of the video corresponding to one of the image blocks  103 - 106  lasts longer than a first specific time, the set module  123  sets the video corresponding to one of the image blocks  103 - 106  as the effective video in step S 404 . In step S 405 , the allocation module  124  allocates the effective video to the second image block  102  and allocates the video which is originally in the second image block  102  to the image block corresponding to effective video. When the allocation is finished, the detection module  122  keeps detecting the effective sounds of the image blocks  103 - 106 . 
         [0045]    When none of the effective sounds of videos corresponding to the image blocks  103 - 106  lasts longer than the first specific time length in step S 403 , the process moves to step S 402  such that the detection module  122  keeps detecting the effective sounds of image blocks  103 - 106 . 
         [0046]    On the other hand, reference is made to  FIG. 5  in order to illustrate the non-fixed main speaker mode.  FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram which illustrates switching of videos in a non-fixed main speaker mode according to one embodiment of this disclosure. First, the allocation of the image blocks on the display  100  is the same as the allocation in  FIG. 1 . On a time point  501 , the detection module  122  detects effective sounds of all the videos  111 - 116  corresponding to image blocks  101 - 106 . In more details, the detection module  122  detects the videos  113 - 116  corresponding to the image blocks  103 - 106  with the smaller size such that the set module  123  can identify whether the effective sounds of the videos  113 - 116  last longer than the first specific time length and determine whether the videos  113 - 116  are effective. 
         [0047]    Subsequently, the set module  123  sets one of the first image block  101  and the second image block  102  as the primary image block. In more details, the set module  123  identify which of the videos  111 - 112  has a primary effective sound such that the set module  123  set the video and the image block corresponding to the primary effective sound as the primary video and the primary image block, in which the primary effective sound is the closest to the a time point when effective video is identified to be effective. The primary effective sound is also in the frequency range of the voice corresponding to the human being. 
         [0048]    In addition, the set module  123  further identifies whether the time length of the primary effective sound lasts longer than a second specific time length. If yes, the video and the image block corresponding to the primary effective sound are set as the primary video and the primary image block respectively. On the other hand, if the time length of the primary effective sound does lasts no longer than the second specific time length, the set module  123  counts time lengths of the effective sounds corresponding to the videos of the first image block  101  and the second image block  102  in a time interval, in which the time interval is a third time length, e.g., 3 seconds, before the said time point. If the effective sound corresponding to one of the videos has a longer time length, the set module  123  sets the one of the video and the corresponding image block as the primary video and the primary image block respectively. 
         [0049]    On time point  501 , since the video  112  of the second image block  102  has the primary effective sound lasting longer than the second specific time length, the set module  123  sets the video  112  and the second image block  102  as the primary video and the primary image block respectively and sets the video  111  and the first image block  101  as the secondary video and the secondary image block. Later, the allocation module  124  allocates the effective video  113  to the first image block  101  (secondary image block) and allocates the video  111  to the third image block  103 . 
         [0050]    On time point  502 , since the detection module  122  detects the effective sounds in the video  114  and the video  115  at the same time, the set module  123  and the allocation module  124  do not execute any operation. For example, when participants of the video  114  and of the video  115  are arguing on a certain issue, the set module  123  do not set any video and image block as the primary video and primary image block in order to make sure that the videos are not frequently moved on the display. Accordingly, the allocation module  124  would not further switch the videos of different image blocks. 
         [0051]    On time point  503 , the detection module  122  detects that the video  116  has the effective sound, and the set module  123  identifies that the video  116  is the effective video and that the video  112  has the primary effective sound. However, the primary effective sound does not last longer than the second specific time length. Therefore, the set module  123  counts the effective sounds of the video  112  and the video  113  in a time interval respectively, in which the said time interval is the third specific time length before the time point when the video  116  is identified having the effective sound. In the present embodiment, since the effective sound of the video has a longer time length, the set module  123  sets the first image block  101  and the video  113  as the primary image block and the primary video. The allocation module  123  allocates the video  116  to the second image block  102  and allocates the video  112  to the sixth image block  106 . 
         [0052]    Reference is also made to  FIG. 6 , a flow diagram of a non-fixed main speaker mode according to one embodiment of this disclosure is illustrated. First, in step S 601 , the allocation module  124  allocates the first and the second connected videos to the first image block  101  and the second image block  102 , and the allocation module  124  also allocates the later connected videos to the rest of image blocks. In step S 602 , the detection module  122  detects the effective sounds of the videos  111 - 116 . When none of the effective sounds lasts longer than the first specific time length in step S 603 , the detection module  122  keeps detecting all of the videos in step S 602 . 
         [0053]    When an effective sound of the video corresponding to one of the image blocks  103 - 106  lasts longer than the first specific time length in step S 603 , the set module  123  sets the said video as the effective video (i.e., video of the speaker) and temporarily sets the video corresponding to one of the first image block  101  and the second image block  102  as the primary video in step S 604 , in which the said video has the primary effective sound. 
         [0054]    Hereafter, in step S 605 , the set module  123  identifies whether the primary effective sound lasts longer than the second specific time length. If yes, the set module  123  sets the video and the image block corresponding to the primary effective sound and the primary image block and sets the other as the secondary video and the secondary image block in step S 606 . 
         [0055]    If the primary effective sound lasts no longer than the first specific time length, the process moves to step S 607 . In step S 607 , the set module  123  counts time lengths of the effective sounds corresponding to the videos of first image block  101  and the second image block  102  in a time interval, in which the time interval is the third specific time length before the time point when the effective video is identified being effective. Subsequently, the set module  12  sets the video and image block corresponding to the effective sound with a longer time length as the primary video and the primary image block and sets the other video and image block as the secondary video and the secondary image block. 
         [0056]    In step S 608 , the allocation module  123  allocates the effective video to the secondary image block and allocates the secondary video to the image block which originally corresponds to effective video. After the allocation is finished, the detection module  122  keeps detecting the effective sounds of the videos  111 - 116  in step S 602 . 
         [0057]    Referring back to  FIG. 2 , the user may input command to finish the mode in which the video conference operates in step S 207 . When the mode is finished, the user can reset the mode of the video conference in step S 201 . Therefore, the user can effectively switch to different modes when the video conference is in progress, which makes the present disclosure be implemented with more flexibility. 
         [0058]    In all of the embodiments mentioned above, the processing unit may be a central processing unit (CPU), a control unit, a micro processor or other hardware components capable of executing commands, in which each module of the processing unit may be implemented as programming codes. The programming codes may be stored in a storage device. Accordingly, the processing unit may access and execute the programming codes stored in the storage device so as provide the functions corresponding to the modules. 
         [0059]    According to the embodiments mentioned above, the video conference of the present disclosure can reduce the possibility of frequently moving videos, and thus the quality of the video conference is largely improved. 
         [0060]    Although the present disclosure has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain embodiments thereof, other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the embodiments contained herein. 
         [0061]    It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present disclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of the following claims.