Communication system with system components for ascertaining the authorship of a communication contribution

The invention relates to a communication system with system components for ascertaining the authorship of a communication contribution ( 40, 41 ) put in into a communication end device through evaluation of a video signal by pattern recognition, and/or speaker identification through evaluation of an audio signal, and/or determination of a relative position of the author ( 50 ) among communication participants registered as participants ( 50, 61 to 66 ) using said communication end device. In addition to the authorship of a contribution ( 40, 41 ), the mood of the author ( 30, 31, 50 ) may also be determined. The communication system is constructed such that it represents a contribution ( 40, 41 ) in a manner which characterizes the author ( 30, 31, 50 ) of the contribution ( 40, 41 ) and/or his/her mood.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a communication system according to the invention. An end device present in a location at the participant's side comprising the components 1 to 7 is connected via a network 10 to further participant end devices 20 and, in this embodiment, to a central device 15 of the communication system. The network 10 may here be the public telephone network, a mobile telephone network, the Internet, a company network, or the like. The central device 15 in this embodiment is designed for receiving the communication contributions from the end devices, for ascertaining their authorship, and for displaying the contributions with corresponding indicators as to their authorship on the end devices. A participant end device may then comprise the components 1 to 7 . A writing pad 1 , a keyboard 2 , a microphone 3 , and a camera 4 are components for the input of communication contributions and/or for obtaining information used by the communication system for ascertaining the authorship of a contribution. A loudspeaker 5 and a display 6 serve for an acoustical and/or optical display of the contributions and for characterizing their authors. The components 1 to 6 are connected to a processing unit 7 at the participants' end, which controls the data flow to and from the components 1 to 6 and establishes the connection with the network 10 . In this embodiment, the processing unit 7 passes on the data coming in from the input components 1 to 4 , via the network 10 to the central device 15 , and it passes on data coming from the central device 15 to the respective output components 5 and 6 . In principle, the processing of the data might also be shared between the processing unit 7 at the participants' end and the central device 15 . In an extreme case, the central device 15 may be fully absent, and the entire data processing could be taken over by the processing unit 7 at the participants' end. The data quantity to be transported over the network 10 could be reduced in that case. The embodiment shown in FIG. 1 with a central device 15 , which looks after the determination of the authorship, the formatting of the characterization, and the display of the contributions, however, offers the advantage that the processing intelligence necessary for this can be readily made available, maintained, and expanded in a central location. FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of a display of the communication contributions characterizing the originators in a communication system according to the invention. A display of the communication contributions in the form of text is shown, for example on a display 6 . The contributions may originally be directly entered in text form, for example through the keyboard 2 , or an intermediate pattern recognition system may have been used for converting handwriting put in via the writing pad 1 or speech put in via the microphone 3 into written text. The text is continuously represented, for example in time sequence, as is known from chatting systems. FIG. 2 shows the two text contributions 40 “let's now discuss the design&excl;” and 41 “I'll show you my proposal.”. Different letter types are used in the display of the text contributions for distinguishing them from one another. The text contribution 40 is printed in larger type and bold, for example for emphasizing the importance of its author, who may be, for example, the leader of the discussion. The originators of the contributions, however, are also identified by the origin indicators 30 and 31 preceding the texts. The example used here is a sketch of a female profile 30 known from clip art pictures, and on the other hand the Christian name 31 “Paul” of the originator. Alternative origin indicators are conceivable such as, for example, pictures of the participants in the communication, possibly in stylized form, or company logos, if the communication takes place between different companies. Finally, the text contribution 41 is provided with a so-termed emoticon 35 , a smiley in this case, i.e. a picture of a smiling face. Such aids may be used, for example, for indicating the mood of a communication participant to the other participants. Such moods may be either put in explicitly by an originator of a contribution or be determined by a pattern recognition system. The mood recognition may be carried out, as can the authorship of a contribution, both in a component 7 at the participants' side and in a central device 15 of the communication system from the incoming data flow of the contribution, as required. FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a characterization of the author of the current communication contribution in a communication system according to the invention. The participants 50 and 61 to 66 in a discussion are shown in the form of sketches, for example so-termed avatars, on a display 6 . The display of the avatars may be static in the simplest case. It is alternatively possible, however, to use video information recorded by cameras 4 for animating the avatars, indicating at least approximately the actual movements of the participants. A frame 55 is used in FIG. 3 for indicating the author of the currently displayed contribution. A possible scenario is, therefore, that the participant 50 is speaking at this moment and his spoken contribution recorded by a microphone at his communication location is communicated to the other communication locations through the loudspeakers 5 . The central device 15 then uses speaker identification through evaluation of the audio signal so as to ascertain who is the originator of the spoken contribution and transmits to all end devices the information that this is the participant referenced 50 . Said end devices then mark the speaker 50 with the frame 55 and display the picture of the conference on the displays 6 . A communication system according to the invention is then designed such that the manner of representing contributions from the participants at the display side can be influenced. The participants may thus introduce their own personal preferences and, for example, characterize text contributions with the name or with a picture of the authors. FIG. 4 diagrammatically shows the sequence of a communication in a communication system according to the invention in the form of a flowchart. The communication system according to the invention is switched on in the start block 101 , and the communication link between the participant locations is established. Then the communication participants make themselves known to the system in process block 102 , and the system stores their identification data in block 103 and starts the tracking of the participants. Depending on the technique and knowledge of the system used, it may be that the system requires further data, which is tested in decision block 104 . A speaker identification system for ascertaining authorship requires, for example, a certain quantity of spoken material from each speaker so as to distinguish the speakers from one another. If, for example, new speakers unknown to the system participate in the communication, the system will require and obtain additional information from the participants in block 105 , which is stored again in block 103 . Another possibility is, for example, that speakers taking part in the communication have voices which are too similar, so that they cannot be reliably distinguished from one another in a larger quantity of voice material. In this case, the system may have recourse to further identification facilities available to it such as, for example, image recognition and/or localization by means of microphone arrays or transponders. If the system does not have these alternative possibilities, some other error treatment not discussed here is to be used. Once the test in block 104 has ascertained that the system contains sufficient information for identification of the participants, possibly after traversing the steps 103 and 105 several times, the control is passed on to block 106 where one or several participants provide their communication contribution(s). In block 107 , the system identifies the authors of the received contributions and/or their moods and utilizes this information in block 108 for transfer and for a display of the contributions in all communication locations. If the participants are moving, it may be useful for identification here if the system also follows the movements of the participants so as to safeguard an unequivocal interrelationship between the location of a participant and his or her identity. The implementation of the steps 106 to 108 should overlap in time, in particular in the case of longer contributions, for obtaining a smooth representation of the contributions, their authors, and their moods. It is finally tested in block 109 whether further communication contributions are to be transmitted. If so, the control returns to block 106 . If not, the communication system is de-activated and switched off in end block 110 . The communication links between the locations are cut off in a defined manner, and a protocol of the communication sitting, i.e. a copy of the communication contributions, their authors, and their moods may be permanently stored, for example for documentation purposes, if so desired.