Patent Publication Number: US-2007097222-A1

Title: Information processing apparatus and control method thereof

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-313299, filed Oct. 27, 2005, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.  
     BACKGROUND  
      1. Field  
      One embodiment of this invention relates to a video conference system and, more particularly, to an information processing apparatus and a control method thereof, capable of improving a sense of realism in speech of a speaker by emphasizing speech from a loudspeaker on a monitor side on which a speaker is displayed.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      In a video conference system as disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-307869, for example, a main participant, of plural participants, is displayed and emphasized.  
      According to this technique, however, the speaker&#39;s speech is not considered, and it is often difficult to discriminate which speaker has made the speech output from a loudspeaker. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS  
      A general architecture that implements the various feature of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate embodiments of the invention and not to limit the scope of the invention.  
       FIG. 1  shows an illustration of a configuration of a video conference system to which an information processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention is applied;  
       FIG. 2  shows an illustration of displaying image data on a display;  
       FIG. 3  shows an illustration of displaying image data on a display;  
       FIG. 4  shows a flowchart of steps in a control method to which the information processing apparatus of the present invention is applied;  
       FIG. 5  shows an illustration of displaying image data on a display, according to a modified example of the first embodiment;  
       FIG. 6  shows an illustration of displaying image data on a display, according to a modified example of the first embodiment; and  
       FIG. 7  shows an illustration of a configuration of a video conference system to which an information processing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention is applied.  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
      Various embodiments according to the invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. In general, according to one embodiment of the invention, an information processing apparatus comprising communications unit, display unit, a plurality of speech output unit, acquisition unit, and distribution unit. The acquisition unit acquires a plurality of moving image data items and speech data items received via the communications unit. When the plurality of moving image data items acquired by the acquisition unit are displayed by the display unit, the distribution unit appropriately distributes the speech data item corresponding to each of the displayed moving image data items to the plurality of speech output unit and allows the speech output unit to output the speech data item in accordance with a position of the displayed moving image data item.  
      Embodiments of the present invention will be explained below with reference to the accompanying drawings.  
      (First Embodiment)  
       FIG. 1  shows an illustration of a configuration of a video conference system to which an information processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention is applied.  
      The video conference system comprises terminal apparatuses  12   a  to  12   d , a WAN/LAN  11 , and a server  10  which synthesizes data received from the terminal apparatuses  12   a  to  12   d  and distributes the synthesized data to each of the terminal apparatuses  12   a  to  12   d  via the WAN/LAN  11 .  
      The terminal apparatuses  12   a  to  12   d  have the same structure. For example, the terminal apparatus  12   a  comprises a camera  23  which inputs images, a microphone  24  which inputs speech, a data controller  22  which receives data from the camera  23  and the microphone  24  and converts the received data into communications data or processes data received from the server  10 , a display unit  26  which reproduces image data (moving image data and audio data), a loudspeaker  25  which reproduces audio data, and a communications device  21  which receives communications data from the server  10 .  
       FIG. 2  and  FIG. 3  show illustrations of displaying image data items  26   a  to  26   d  on the display unit  26 .  FIG. 4  shows a flowchart of steps in a control method to which the information processing apparatus of the present invention is applied.  
      First, the terminal apparatus  12   a  acquires the image data (moving image data and audio data) received via the communications device  21  and displays the image data  26   a  to  26   d  on the display unit  26 .  
      The terminal apparatus  12   a  discriminates whether or not the speaker is on the left side of the display screen (step S 1 ). Since the display screen  26   a  of the speaker is on the left side (YES of step S 1 ) as shown in  FIG. 2 , the terminal apparatus  12   a  discriminates whether or not the speaker is on the lower side of the display screen (step S 2 ). As the display screen  26   a  of the speaker is on the upper side (NO of step S 2 ), speech of, for example, 90 dB SPL is output from an upper output unit of a left speaker  25   a  and is not output from the other speaker output units (step S 3 ).  
      Next, the terminal apparatus  12   a  discriminates whether or not the speaker has changed (step S 5 ). If the speaker is on the display screen  26   d  as shown in, for example,  FIG. 3 , the terminal apparatus  12   a  discriminates that the speaker has changed (YES of step S 5 ) and the operation returns to step S 1  to output the speech from an appropriate output unit of the loudspeaker.  
      On the other hand, if the terminal apparatus  12   a  discriminates that the speaker has not changed (NO of step S 5 ), the terminal apparatus  12   a  discriminates that speaking has not been further conducted and the video conference is ended (step S 6 ).  
      If it is discriminated at step S 2  that the display screen of the speaker is on the lower side (YES of step S 2 ), speech of, for example, 90 dB SPL is output from a lower output unit of the left speaker  25   a  and is not output from the other speaker output units (step S 4 ).  
      If it is discriminated at step S 1  that the display screen of the speaker is on the right side (NO of step S 1 ), it is discriminated whether or not the speaker is on the lower side of the display screen (step S 7 ). If it is discriminated that the speaker is on the lower side of the display screen (YES of step S 7 ), speech of, for example, 90 dB SPL is output from a lower output unit of a right speaker  25   b  and is not output from the other speaker output units (step S 9 ).  
      On the other hand, if it is discriminated that the speaker is on the upper side of the display screen (NO of step S 7 ), speech of, for example, 90 dB SPL is output from an upper output unit of a right speaker  25   b  and is not output from the other speaker output units (step S 8 ).  
      As for the speech output value distribution of the loudspeaker  25 , an output of, for example, 10 dB SPL that is clearly smaller than the output of 90 dB SPL from the output unit of the main speaker which outputs the speech may be output from the output units of the other speaker.  
      Thus, the video conference system rich in a sense of realism, capable of executing the processing of emphasizing the speech output from the loudspeaker can be executed on the basis of the display position of the speaker, and capable of outputting the speech in accordance with the displayed position of the speaker, can be constructed.  
     MODIFIED EXAMPLE OF THE FIRST EMBODIMENT  
      Next, a modified example of the first embodiment will be described with reference to  FIG. 5  and  FIG. 6 .  
      The modified example of the first embodiment has a characteristic of setting, for example, nine display screens of the speaker on the display unit.  
      The display screens of the speaker synchronize with the speaker output units, similarly to the first embodiment. For example, as shown in  FIG. 5 , if the display screen of the speaker is a display screen  26   g , speech of, for example, 90 dB SPL is output from the lower output unit of the left speaker  25   a  and is not output from the other speaker output units, since the display screen  26   g  is on the lower left side of the display unit  26 .  
      In addition, for example, as shown in  FIG. 6 , if the display screen of the speaker is a display screen  26   f , speech of, for example, 90 dB SPL is output from both the output units of the right speaker  25   b  and is not output from the other speaker output units, since the display screen  26   f  is on the central right side of the display unit  26 .  
      The number of display screens to be displayed on the display unit  26  is not limited to the above-described embodiments if the output speech appropriately synchronizes with the display screens of the speaker.  
      Therefore, even if the number of display screens to be displayed on the display unit is increased, the output speech can appropriately synchronize with the display screens of the speaker.  
      (Second Embodiment)  
       FIG. 7  shows an illustration of display screens in a video conference system to which an information processing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention is applied.  
      In the second embodiment, the speech is also output appropriately in a case where the display screen of the speaker is moved by an input device such as a mouse, remote controller, etc.  
      For example, movement of the display screen  26   a  to the lower right side as shown in  FIG. 7  will be described. It can be understood that the moved display screen  26   a  is moved by β 1  to the right side and by β 2  to the lower side from the initial position.  
      The rate of lateral movement of the display screen  26   a  and the output distribution from the output units of the speakers can be obtained by calculating the balance ratio in the lateral direction.  
      Since the lateral distance between the display screen  26   a  and the display screen  26   b  is, for example, α 1 , the moved display screen  26   a  is located at a position of β 1 : α 1 −β 1  in the lateral direction. The output distribution of the speech output of the left loudspeaker  25   a  and the right loudspeaker  25   b  is thereby set at β 2 : α 1 − 1 .  
      The rate of longitudinal movement of the display screen  26   a  can be obtained by calculating the longitudinal balance ratio. Since the longitudinal distance between the display screen  26   a  and the display screen  26   c  is, for example, α 2 , the moved display screen  26   a  is located at a position of α 2 : α 2 −β 2  in the longitudinal direction. The output distribution of the speech output of the upper and lower output units in each of the loudspeaker  25   a  and the loudspeaker  25   b  is thereby set at β 2 :α 2 −β 2 .  
      Then, the output distribution is determined in the following manner.  
      If the display unit  26  is shaped in a square, α 1 =α 2 . In addition, the numerical values are assumed as follows. 
 
α 1 =α 2 =100 cm 
 
α 1 =40 cm 
 
β 2 =30 cm 
 
      Thus, the distribution of the left and right speech outputs is 
 
β 1 :α 1 −β 1 =40:60 
 
      and the distribution of the upper and lower speech outputs is 
 
β 2 :α 2 −β 2 =30:70 
 
      Therefore, the output distribution of the output units of the loudspeakers is  
      Upper output unit of the right loudspeaker  25   a =about 12 dB SPL  
      Lower output unit of the right loudspeaker  25   a =about 28 dB SPL  
      Upper output unit of the left loudspeaker  25   b =about 18 dB SPL  
      Lower output unit of the left loudspeaker  25   b =about 42 dB SPL  
      In the above-described embodiments, the number of loudspeakers is two and the number of output units in each loudspeaker is two. However, the number of loudspeakers and the number of output units in each loudspeaker are not limited to those if the output speech appropriately synchronizes with the display screen of the speaker.  
      As a result, if the display screen of the speaker is moved on the display unit, the speech can be output in synchronization with the moved display screen.  
      The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above but the constituent elements of the invention can be modified in various manners without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Various aspects of the invention can also be extracted from any appropriate combination of a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the embodiments. For example, some constituent elements may be deleted in all of the constituent elements disclosed in the embodiments. The constituent elements described in different embodiments may be combined arbitrarily.  
      While certain embodiments of the inventions have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systems described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.