Communication method, communication server, communication terminal equipment and communication system

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a highly convenient communication method in a communication network capable of transmitting arbitrary data including moving images, and a communication server device that provides such communication , A communication terminal device that performs this type of communication, and a corresponding communication system.

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of communication technology and various data processing technologies including coding technology, etc., a portable terminal device that can process a large amount of data such as moving images has been developed. It can be considered that when the broadband communication network that is about to appear on the scene begins to be used, communication terminal equipment capable of processing real-time moving images (hereinafter, in some cases, also referred to as "live images") will have a wide range of uses. In addition, when one of these communication terminal devices is widespread, it can be considered to adopt the form of a video phone that has been put into practical use in many systems so far, that is, a portable communication terminal that can transmit live images to each other. equipment.

However, unlike this kind of communication terminal equipment, the attention to the video phone so far has only been on the transmission of live images. In other words, in most cases, it is only a device dedicated to the transmission of live images. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-172611 discloses a technology that can display the image of the WWW browser in a separate window in the video phone monitor when a video phone is used for a multipoint call. It also discloses a technology related to a video telephony system, which includes a video telephony device, a multipoint connection device for controlling multiple connection points of a video teleconference, and a switching device cooperating with a browser, The device notifies the file downloaded by the video phone device from the WWW server as data to other video phone devices through the above-mentioned multipoint connection device. However, the notification data is notified to all other connected video phones with the same content, and the data is not notified after being individually selected.

Therefore, the function of the communication device is not yet sufficient, and effective communication cannot be performed. More specifically, the adaptability is insufficient in the case where, for example, the user does not want to transmit live images, and it is difficult to use.

01112037.1 First, in addition to the transmission of live images, the data processing capabilities that allow real-time transmission of moving images have not been used. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a high value-added communication terminal device that more effectively utilizes this data processing capability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a communication method capable of effective communication by using real-time moving image processing.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a communication service device that enables effective communication of a communication service by using real-time moving image processing, a communication terminal device that uses such a communication service, and a communication that provides such a communication service system.

Therefore, in the communication method of the present invention, the arbitrary data of each user is stored in advance, wherein the pre-stored arbitrary data of each user includes at least the data to be displayed on the display device of the communication terminal device. Data, and the arbitrary data includes one or more items selected from the group of static and dynamic images showing the user, static and dynamic images showing the state of the user, and selected by the user Data of static and dynamic images of arbitrary content, wherein the one or more items selected from the group of images have a form in which voices related to the data are attached or their content is photos, cartoons, animations, and pictures The form of the elephant. Multiple communication terminal devices are connected, In order to allow simultaneous calls, a required image is captured in each communication terminal device as required, and then the captured image data is transmitted to the server device, and in each communication terminal device, according to the relevant communication terminal device The users instruction selects the image data transmitted from the relevant communication terminal equipment or the pre-stored data corresponding to the relevant user, and then transmits the selected data to other connected communication terminal equipment and data related to other connected communication terminal equipment Displayed on each of the above-mentioned connected communication terminal devices. Preferably, each time a communication terminal device is connected to other communication terminal devices that allow simultaneous calls, the relevant communication terminal device transmits a selection signal for selecting data to the server device, and selects from the server device according to the transmitted selection signal. The image data transmitted by the relevant communication terminal device or the pre-stored data corresponding to the relevant user.

Preferably, the communication terminal device transmits instruction data for selecting data in the server device to the server device in advance, and then the transmitted instruction data is stored in the server device, and when the communication terminal device starts communication, by referring to the stored The instruction data selects the image data transmitted from the related communication terminal device or the pre-stored data corresponding to the related user in the server device.

Preferably, the instruction data is used to specify the data to be selected and transmitted to each other connected user

01112037.1 The first data, and, preferably, the instruction data is data for specifying the data selected and transmitted according to the connection conditions.

More specifically, the instruction data is data for specifying data selected and transmitted according to the connection time.

More specifically, arbitrary data of each user is stored in the server device, and arbitrary data of each user is stored in the communication terminal device of the relevant user.

Moreover, the arbitrary data of each user is stored by distributing the data in the server device, the communication terminal equipment of the relevant user, and any other communication terminal equipment that may be connected to the relevant communication terminal equipment.

More specifically, the desired image is captured in each communication terminal device, and the captured image data is transmitted to the server device and other communication terminal devices that may be connected to the relevant communication terminal device as required, and serves as the relevant communication terminal device. Arbitrary data of users of communication terminal equipment is stored in one or more server devices, related communication terminal equipment or other communication terminal equipment.

Preferably, a plurality of display data are pre-stored in the server device, and arbitrary data for display is selected from these pre-stored display data, and the arbitrary data as the user of the communication terminal device is stored in the selection from the server device group. One or more items, related communication terminal equipment or other communication terminal equipment.

Preferably, the server device determines the data to be transmitted to each communication terminal device according to the channel state between a plurality of connected communication terminal devices regardless of the user's instruction, and transmits it.

Preferably, arbitrary data including desired image data is input in the communication terminal device, the input data is transmitted to the server device, and the transmitted data is stored in the server device as arbitrary data corresponding to the user of the communication terminal device, And the stored data is transmitted to the required communication terminal device according to the request of the user of the relevant communication terminal device.

The communication service device of the present invention includes: selection means for selecting image data transmitted from the related communication terminal device or related communication terminal according to the instruction of each communication terminal device (the communication terminal devices are connected so as to be able to talk at the same time) Pre-stored display data corresponding to the user of the equipment; and a transmission device for transmitting the selected data to other communication terminal equipment connected to the relevant communication terminal equipment so as to be able to talk at the same time.

The communication terminal equipment of the present invention is connected to each other through the communication service system to realize mutual conversation, and includes: a communication device for realizing a conversation with other connected communication terminal equipment; a receiving device for receiving transmissions from the communication service system The predetermined data of other users; display device,

01112037.1 The first is used to display predetermined data about the called party user when the above call is in progress; the shooting device is used to shoot the required image; the image transmission device is used to transmit the image data obtained by the above shooting to the communication A service system; and a data indicating device for selecting and indicating image data to be transmitted or any display data prepared in advance as the data transmitted to the communication terminal equipment of the called party when the call is in progress.

The communication system of the present invention includes: a plurality of communication terminal devices; a storage device for storing required data corresponding to users of the relevant communication system; and a communication service system for connecting any communication terminal devices in a manner capable of communicating with each other, And according to the request of the communication terminal equipment, the stored required data corresponding to the user of the relevant communication terminal equipment is transmitted to the required communication terminal equipment in a required form.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS By describing the preferred embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, the above and other objectives, characteristics and advantages of the present invention will become more clear. Among them: Figure 1 shows the communication system of an embodiment of the present invention Structural block diagram; Fig. 2 shows a structural block diagram of the user terminal device in the communication system shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 shows an example of screen display on the display of the user terminal device shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 shows Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of the structure of a service provider in the communication system; Fig. 5 shows data recorded in the user database of the service provider shown in Fig. 4; Fig. 6 shows the service provider shown in Fig. 4 The record of the image data in the image database;

Fig. 7 illustrates the operation of the communication system shown in Fig. 1; Figs. 8A, 8E and 8C show the display on the display of the user terminal device of each user in the communication system shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 9 shows the present invention Fig. 10 shows a structural block diagram of another embodiment of the communication system of the present invention; Fig. 11 shows another form of use of the communication system shown in Fig. 1; and

FIG. 12 illustrates another specific example of the user database shown in FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7 and FIGS. 8A to 8C. This one

01112037.1 The first embodiment relates to a communication system in the form of a video phone, through which callers can transmit real-time moving images to each other. The present invention is described in particular by explaining a communication system called a "party line", which is capable of communicating between multiple callers at the same time.

First, the structure of the communication system will be described by referring to FIGS. 1 to 6.

FIG. 1 shows the basic structure of the communication system 11.

As described, as its basic structure, the communication system 11 includes a plurality of user terminal devices 100, an access provider system 200, and a service provider system 300.

The user terminal device 100 is a communication terminal device with functions such as voice communication, image display, and user image shooting, so that users can communicate with each other through voice and image methods.

01112037.1 First, the user terminal device 100 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 3.

The user terminal device 100 includes a camera 103, an image encoding unit 104, an image decoding unit 106, a display 108, a microphone 110, a speech encoding unit 112, a speech decoding unit 114, a speaker 116, a key input unit 118, a memory 120, and a communication interface. F (Interface> interface) 122 and CPU (Central Processing Unit> central processing unit) 124.

The camera 103 is a miniature CCD (Charge-Coupled Device, charge coupled device) camera set in a position where it can take pictures of part of the user's face when the user uses the user terminal device 100 under normal conditions. When the user terminal device 100 is used, the camera 103 photographs the user and outputs the obtained image signal to the image encoding unit 104.

The image encoding unit 104 encodes the image signal input from the camera 103 in a predetermined pattern, and then outputs it to the communication I/F 122.

The image decoding unit 106 decodes each coded image data of each called party received and input at the communication I/F 122, and applies it to the display 108 after being converted to a signal that can be displayed on the display 108. The display 108 displays it. The image data of each called party input from the image decoding unit 106. For example, when a user has a three-party call (including himself) at the same time, three frames 109" to 10% corresponding to each caller are displayed on the display 108 as shown in Figure 3, and the displayed content is the real-time information of each caller. Moving images (hereafter also referred to as "live images" in some cases) or specific image data or information designated by each party.

In addition, although not displayed, the display 108 also displays information about the use state or operation of the user terminal device 100 according to the control of the CPU 124.

The microphone 110 collects external sounds (including the user's voice during a call), generates a voice signal, and outputs the voice signal to the voice encoding unit 112.

The voice encoding unit 112 encodes the voice signal input from the microphone 110 in a predetermined pattern, and then outputs it to the communication VF 122. The voice decoding unit H4 decodes the encoded voice data received and input at the communication I/F 122, and then decodes it. It is converted to a signal that can be output from the speaker 116 and applied to the speaker 116.

The speaker 116 outputs the voice signal input from the voice decoding unit 114 in the form of voice.

The key input unit 118 is an operating unit in which the user can dial the called party, set various functions of the user terminal device, and set or request various services of the service provider system 300. The setting of the service provider system 300 is to specify image data and the like to be displayed on the terminal device of the called party.

01112037.1 The second memory 120 stores various data, including not only the processing program executed by the CPU 124 to control the entire user terminal device and the data for setting the functions and operations of the user terminal device 100, but also the intermediate data during the operation of the CPU 124 Data, data transferred between each component unit, and intermediate data during the operation of each component unit.

Since the data is particularly related to the present invention, the called party information, communication conditions, or specific image data to be displayed by the operation on the display 108 of the user terminal device 100 used by the called party, and the communication with the user terminal device The specific image data to be displayed on the display 108 according to the instruction of the called party 100 that is related and possibly communicated is stored in the memory 120.

The communication I/F 122 performs modulation, demodulation, and protocol control, and actually communicates with external devices. The voice data input to the microphone 110 and encoded by the voice encoding unit 112, and the image data picked up by the camera 103 and encoded by the image encoding unit 104 are transmitted from the communication I/F 122 to the service through the access provider system 200 Provider system 300. Furthermore, the data transmitted from the service provider system 300 through the access provider system 200 is received by the communication VF 122 and input to the image decoding unit 106, the speech decoding unit 114, the CPU 124, or the like.

The CPU 124 operates in accordance with the program stored in the memory 120 and controls each unit of the user terminal device 100 so that the user terminal device 100 can perform required operations. Therefore, it can be understood that the memory 120 is composed of a ROM (readonly memory) that stores the above-mentioned programs and a RAM (random access memory) that stores and reads image data and the like.

In the user terminal device 100 structured as above, the communication I/F 122 starts communication with the external device under the control of the CPU 124 by a user operation of the key input unit 118, for example.

When a channel is obtained, the voice uttered by the user is collected by the microphone 110 and converted into a digital coded signal in the voice coding unit 112, and the user's image is captured by the camera 103 and converted in the image coding unit 104 It is a digitally encoded signal. They are all transmitted from the communication I/F 122. The voice signal of the communication party received in the communication IZF 122 is decoded in the voice decoding unit 114 and output from the speaker 116, and the image signal received in the communication I/F 122 is decoded in the image decoding unit 106 and displayed on the display 108 .

Through this process, a video call with any called party can work. In addition, by using the service provided by the service provider system 300 to be described later, simultaneous communication between three or more users can also work.

According to the user's operation of the key input unit 118 or the service provided by the service provider system 300 described below, when such a basic call is made, various forms of calls related to the present invention are all

01112037.1 can work, these calls will be described in detail below.

The access provider system 200 realizes the line connection between any nodes on the communication network including the user terminal device 100 and the service provider system 300 provided by the access provider system 200 according to the request of each node device, and through this communication Network, communication between various devices can work.

As a process related to this embodiment, any user terminal device 100 requests a main connection from the service provider 300, so that the access provider system 200 realizes the line connection between the user terminal device 100 and the service provider system 300 to reply The above request. When the connection request of the user terminal device 100 is to make a call with another user terminal device 100, the access provider system 200 realizes the secondary line connection between the service provider system 300 and the user terminal device 100 used by the called party, To respond to the request of the service provider system 300.

Therefore, the communication environment is provided through the service provider system 300 between the user terminal device 100 that initiated the connection request and the user terminal device 100 of the called party.

Incidentally, the access provider system 200 connects each device through various channels, but finally connects each device through a channel having a sufficient bandwidth capable of transmitting real-time moving images.

The service provider system 300 is a server device that provides various communication services to each user terminal device 100 through the access provider system 200.

Fundamentally, the service provider system 300 provides an intermediary for the connection between a plurality of user terminal devices 100, and provides these user terminal devices 100 with a communication service in the form of a video call including mutual transmission of moving images. In that case, the communication service not only makes it possible to transmit simple real-time images, but also makes it possible to transmit other moving image data, static image data, or arbitrary information as alternative display data in accordance with user requests, specific conditions, etc. .

With reference to Fig. 1 and Figs. 4 to 6, such a service provider system 300 will be described.

FIG. 4 shows the structure of the service provider system 300.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the service provider system 300 includes a server device 310, a user database 320, and an image database 330, and, as shown in FIG. 4, the server device 310 includes a communication I/F 31I, a selection unit 313, and a database I /F315 and control unit 317.

The communication I/F 311 of the server device 310 is connected to the user terminal device 100 through the access provider system 200, and communicates with each user terminal device 100 to provide a predetermined service.

Generally, the line connection between the user terminal device 100 of the calling party that initiates the call connection request and the user terminal device 100 of the called party that is required to connect is completed by accessing the provider system 200 to the communication I/F311. When receiving call voice signals and image signals from these user terminal devices,

01112037.1 The first communication I/F311 outputs these signals to the selection unit 313, and also outputs the call voice signal and image signal input from the selection unit 313 to each user terminal device 100. And, when a control signal for setting the conditions of the service providing luxury system 300 and the like is transmitted from the user terminal device 100, the communication I/F 311 outputs it to the control unit 317.

Regardless of the call situation, when the user terminal device 100 is connected to the communication I/F311 to set the connection conditions for receiving services or the image data to be used, the communication I/F311 outputs the control information received from this user terminal device 100 to Control unit 317. When the control signal of the user terminal device 100 is input from the control unit 317, the communication I/F 311 transmits it to the user terminal device 100. The selection unit 313 selects and controls data according to the control of the control unit 317 before connecting to the service provider system 300 The two or more user terminal devices 100 that are connected to each other communicate with each other.

For each connection including a plurality of user terminal devices 100 that are talking with each other, the voice data and image data transmitted from the user terminal device 100 are input from the communication I/F 311 to the selection unit 313. For voice data, in order to transmit it to all connected user terminal devices 100, the selection unit 313 outputs the received voice data to the communication I/F 311 as transmission data to be sent to all related user terminal devices 100. On the other hand, for Image data, the selection unit 313 selects the received image data or stores it in accordance with the control of the control unit 317 through the combination of the user terminal device 100 that initiates the image data transmission and the user terminal device 100 that receives the transmitted image data The other image data of the image database 330 is output to the communication I/F 31L to transmit the selected image data to the user terminal device 100 of the transferee.

As will be described later, the control unit 317 controls the selection of such image data by referring to the information about the transmission condition of each user's image data stored in the user database 320. Therefore, through this process, it is possible to transmit arbitrary static images or moving images to a specific party according to the needs of the user> and, compared to simply transmitting live images between the user terminal devices 100, it is used to allow real-time transmission Image communication systems in the form of such video phones have become easier.

The database I/F 315 reads out the necessary image data from the image database 330 according to the control of the control unit 317, and outputs it to the selection unit 313 from a predetermined channel. From the database I/F315 to the selection unit 313, there are multiple input-output channels capable of outputting image data simultaneously and in parallel, and the database I/F315 reads multiple image data in an actual simultaneous manner and passes through a predetermined channel Output to selection unit 313.

According to the connection conditions input from the communication I/F311, directly from the user terminal through the communication I/F311

01112037.1 The control signal input by the first device 100 and the transmission condition information of each user's image data recorded in the user database 320, the control unit 317 determines the image data to be transmitted to each user terminal device 100 that has established a connection, And control the selection unit 313 so that the determined image data can be sufficiently transmitted to each user terminal device 100. In that case, the control unit 317 controls the database I/F 315 to read out the required image data from the image database 330 and output to the selection unit 313.

When the transmission condition information of the new image data is input from the user terminal device 100 through the communication I/F 311, the control unit 317 updates the user database 320 accordingly.

Also, when new image data or display data is input from the user terminal device 100 through the communication I/F 311, the control unit 317 stores them in the image database 330 through the database I/F 315.

The user database 320 is a database that records display data used when communicating with other users for each user.

An example of a specific data sample recorded in the user database 320 is shown in FIG. 5.

In the example shown in FIG. 5, when user A communicates with user B, the settings are as follows: the image data transmitted to user B, that is, the image data displayed on user B's user terminal device 100.B uses The live image is the data captured and transmitted on the user terminal device 100.A of the user A during the call.

When user A talks with C, the setting is as follows: user A selects the first registered image data registered in the image database 330 of the service provider system 300 in advance. When the user talks with D and E, he selects the second fixed format image data prepared and stored in advance by the service provider system 300.

For other users who have not made settings (default), the settings are as follows: User A selects the first fixed format image data prepared and stored in advance by the service provider system 300.

For user B, the settings are as follows: when he talks with A and C, the live image is transmitted from the initiator, when he talks with F, G, and H, the second registered image registered in the image database 330 in advance is used Data, and by default, the first registered image data registered in the image database 330 in advance is used.

And, for user C, the settings are as follows: the live image is transmitted to any one of users A, B or E, and by default, the live image is also transmitted.

The image database 330 is a database that records image data to be transmitted to each user terminal device 100.

FIG. 6 shows the recording of data in the image database 330.

01112037.1 First, in the image database 330, fixed format image data, image data for control, and registered image data are recorded in the arrangement shown in FIG. 6, for example.

The fixed format image data is the image data prepared in advance by the service provider system 300 and used as a substitute for the user in the case that, for example, the user does not want to transmit live images to the called party. In this embodiment, the registered static image data are cartoon images with different facial expressions such as normal expressions, angry expressions, happy expressions, etc., or simple landscape pictures.

In addition, the data used for control is the data that is transmitted as a substitute when the required image data cannot be transmitted due to some influence caused by the communication channel, the processing capacity of the service provider system 300, etc. In the embodiment, it refers to simple pattern image data with a small amount of data.

Moreover, the registered image data is the image data registered by each user to replace the live image, and can be any image, such as a static image of the user, a simple dynamic image with a specific behavior including a big laugh. , Describe the users cartoon images, images of things the user is interested in, etc.

In this image database 330, image data designated by the user terminal device 100 to which the connection has been established is read out at high speed through the database I/F315. In addition, the image data newly registered by the user is appropriately recorded in the database VF315.

Next, referring to Fig. 7 and Figs. 8A to 8C, the operation of this communication system 11 will be described.

FIG. 7 describes the operation of the communication system 11, and FIGS. 8A to 8C show the state of the display 108 of the user terminal device 100 of each user.

As shown in Figure 7, the following description intends to use the following situation: in an environment where the user terminal devices 100_a, 100_b, and 100-c of three users A, B, and C are connected, and each user can talk simultaneously call.

Initially, the user A operates the key input unit 118 to talk to the users B and C, and according to this operation, the access provider system 200 establishes a line connection between the user terminal device 100_a of the user A and the service provider system 300.

The request to establish a connection with the users B and C from the user terminal device 100_a is input to the control unit 317 through the communication I/F 311 of the service provider system 300. According to the control of the control unit 317, the service provider system 300 requests the access provider system 200 to establish line connections to the user terminal devices 100-B and 100_c of the users B and C, respectively.

In addition, in response to this request, the access provider system 200 connects to the user terminal devices 100_B and 100q, and users B and C put their respective user terminal devices 100_b and 100.C into a communication state,

01112037.1 In this way, a line connection between the service provider 300 and each user terminal device 100_b and 100_c is established.

At the same time, the control unit 317 of the service provider system 300 checks each setting of the image data transmitted between the users A, B, and C by referring to the user database 320. For example, when the settings of the user database 320 are the same as shown in FIG. 5, each live image is transmitted from user A to user B, from user B to users A and C, and from user C to users A and B, and only In the case of user A to user C, the first image data registered in advance by user A is transmitted instead of the live image.

Therefore, the control unit 317 instructs the database I/F 315 to read the first registered image data of the user A from the image database 330, and the database I/F 315 reads the first registered image of the user A from the image database 330 according to the instruction. Image data, and output to the selection unit 313.

As described above, the connection is established between the service provider system 300 and each user terminal device 100._A, 100_b and 100_b, the voice signal and image signal are transmitted from each user terminal device 100a, 100a, and 100_c to the selection unit 313 through the communication I/F3U. For the voice signal, the selection unit 313 selects from The input signal of each user terminal device 100, 100, 100_c is transmitted to all user terminal devices 100-A, 100_b, and 100_c and output to the communication I/F 311. For the image signal, the selection unit 313 responds to the user A And B's user terminal device 100._A, 100-β performs signal selection to transmit the signals input from the respective user terminal devices 100_a, 100_b, and 100_c as they are. In addition, the selection unit 313 of the user terminal device 100 of the user C transmits the image signals from the user terminal devices 100-b, 100_c of the users B and C as they are, but does not transmit the image of the user terminal device 100_a of the user A. Image signal, and the first registered image data of user A input from the database I/F 315 is transmitted as the image signal of user A.

8A to 8C respectively show images displayed on the displays 108 of the respective user terminal devices 100_a, 100_b, and 100.c when each image signal is transmitted as described above.

FIG. 8A shows the display IO&a of the user terminal device 100_a of the user A, and FIG. 8B shows the display IO&b of the user terminal device 100_b of the user B. Figure 8C shows the display 108 of the user terminal device 100 of user C._c.

As shown in Figures 8A to 8C, on the displays 10&a"0&b of the user terminal devices 100_a and 100 books of users A and B, the three live images of the three users are displayed as three frames of screens 109" to 109.3 = However, On the display 108_c of the user terminal device 100_c of the user C, in the frame 109 where the live image of the user A should be displayed, -h displays a static image, but does not display the current image of the user A.

01112037.1 The first field image.

Also, in this case, when any user wants to change the condition of transmitting the image, a predetermined operation from the key input unit 118 of the user network terminal device 100 is performed. Therefore, the control signal corresponding to this operation is input to the control unit 317 through the access provider system 200 and the communication I/F 311, and the selection unit 313 and the database I/F 315 are controlled by the control unit 317, so that the conditions for transmitting image data are Can be changed <For example, in the case where the user A finds that there is no problem in transmitting the live image to the user C, when the user A is in the user terminal device 100._AWhen a predetermined operation is performed in the system, a signal corresponding to the operation is input to the control unit 317 of the service provider system 300, and the control unit 317 instructs the selection unit 313 to also transmit the live image from the user terminal device 100_a of the user A as it is To user C's user terminal device 100γ. Therefore, on the display 108-c of the user terminal device 100.C of the user C, the live image of the user A is also displayed. At this time, the control unit 317 also instructs the database I/F 315 to stop reading the registered image data of the user A from the user database 330.

Conversely, for any user who has transmitted live images to the called party, in the case where he does not want the called party to watch the live images, by letting the relevant user instruct the terminal device 100 and perform the operation for specifying the substitute image, and The signals corresponding to these instructions are input to the control unit 317 of the service provider system 300, and the control unit 317 instructs the selection unit 313 to transmit a designated image instead of the live image from the relevant user to each connected party. Therefore, on the displays 108 of the user terminal devices 100 of all the connected parties, the live images of the relevant users are not displayed, but the substitute images are displayed.

In addition, in the case of continuous calls under such conditions, when image data cannot be transmitted in real time and sufficiently due to reasons such as the deterioration of the line state of the access provider system 200, the communication of the service provider system /F311 detects this situation and informs the control unit 317 accordingly.

Based on this information, the control unit 317 instructs the database I/F 315 to read out the image data for the empty system, and instructs the selection unit 313 to transmit the control image data to all the user terminal devices 100. In this way, although the live image cannot be seen, it can prevent the image from appearing incomplete in the middle or transmitting the image with poor quality. Naturally, if the state of the line can be maintained in a good state by transmitting such control image data to only a part of user terminal devices 100, the function of transmitting moving images to other user terminal devices 100 can be maintained by performing such an operation.

As described above, according to the communication system 11 of the present embodiment, simultaneous communication between three or more users can be carried out in an environment in the form of a video phone capable of transmitting real-time images, and communication between multiple users Communication can be carried out efficiently.

01112037.1 In this case, each user can control the image data to be transmitted to each called party. Therefore, when the user's on-site image is not necessarily always transmitted, the user can also use a communication system 11 in the form of a video phone. Through this communication system 11, various convenient communication forms are available.

For example, when an unknown party requests communication, the user can display images such as landscape paintings on the screen of the unknown party to avoid revealing his identity and thus ensure his privacy. Moreover, the user can also transmit pre-registered static images such as photos or cartoons to his acquaintances, but not close ones.

Therefore, the user can select the image displayed to the called party according to the degree of intimacy, thereby allowing a more diversified communication environment.

When communicating with high anonymity, the communication can be carried out by deliberately transmitting pictures or images that are not on-site. Moreover, it is also possible to effectively express feeling expressions by appropriately switching the registration image, on-site image, etc. for transmission.

Moreover, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various arbitrary changes and changes are possible.

For example, the service providing system including the access provider system 200 and the service provider system 300 is not limited to the form proposed in the preferred embodiment described herein, and any form is acceptable.

For example, a form in which an access provider provides such services at the same time can be accepted, that is, a service system that integrates the access provider system 200 and the service provider system 300.

Figure 9 shows an example of this form with a simpler system.

The communication system 12 shown in FIG. 9 includes a plurality of user terminal devices 100, an access provider system 400, and a user database 320.

The access provider system 400 is a switching system that allows voice and image communication between arbitrary user terminal devices 100 in accordance with a request from the user terminal device 100.

The user database 320 is a database that only records whether each user performs image communication or not.

In the communication system 12 having such a structure, the access provider system 400 establishes a line connection between the user terminal devices 100 according to the request of any user terminal device 100, and thus adopts the form of video telephony to communicate between related user terminal devices. Can work.

In addition, when the line connection is established, the access provider system 400 checks the user database 320 and determines whether the image transmission and reception between the relevant user terminal devices 100 is proceeding.

01112037.1 It is possible to communicate only by voice between user terminal devices 100 that do not have image transmission and reception facilities.

In other words, in such a communication system 12, the user can arbitrarily set whether to perform image transmission and reception, and an effect similar to that of the communication system 11 of the present embodiment can be obtained.

Therefore, the present invention can be implemented in the form of the communication system 12.

In the embodiments of the present invention described above, the basic structures of the access provider system 200 and the service provider system 300 having a one-to-one correspondence relationship are shown. However, in fact, as shown in FIG. 11, a form of having multiple access provider systems 200 and service provider systems 300 can be considered, so the present invention may also adopt this structure.

In this case, the range of the service target of each system can correspond to each other as shown in the access provider system 200_I, 200_2 and the service provider system 300", 300_2, and is the same as the service provider system 300.3>includes multiple The access provider system 200.3> and 200_4 are acceptable as the structure of the service target range. On the contrary, a structure in which the access provider 200 includes multiple service provider systems 300»300_4 as the service target range is also acceptable.

Moreover, in a structure in which there are multiple such access provider systems and service provider systems, by setting predetermined rules for connection in advance, a connection established through a system different from the access provider system of the original service target, or to The connection of the service provider system of the original service target, etc. can be done in the same way as the system of the original service target.

Such a system is also within the scope of the present invention.

Although the use form of the communication system 11 in the above description always refers to communication between multiple users, it is not limited to this form, and can be implemented in any other form.

For example, by adopting that users can register images in the image database 330 of the service provider system 300, even a single user can use the system as a temporary data storage system.

Such a system is described by referring to FIG. 10.

For example, when user A encounters some scenes that he wants to record outside, user A shoots the scene through the user terminal device 101, and then records it in the service provider system as the registered image data described above by accessing the provider system 200 300 of the image database 330.

For example, after returning home, the user A accesses the service provider system 300 from the terminal device 102 such as a personal computer suitable for image data processing, and reads out the image data as a registered image in the audio-video format.

Therefore, the communication system related to the present invention can be used in the manner described above.

01112037.1 The conditions set by each user in the user database 320 of the first service provider system are not limited to the communicating party as in the embodiment of the present invention, so arbitrary conditions can be set.

For example, as shown in Figure 12, the user can make settings according to the communication time. With this setting, you dont have to worry about the scene image when you sleep or just wake up and transmit it to the communicating party, which makes it more convenient to use this communication system.

Naturally, it is allowed to use the setting of time, communication party or other various conditions in combination.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the data transmitted to the communicating party instead of the live image and the control data used due to the restriction of the channel are set as image data in any case. However, the data of the present invention is not limited to image data, and text data representing arbitrary characters can also be accepted. Moreover, data in the form of voice data or other types of supplementary data attached to such visually recognizable data are also acceptable.

There are no restrictions on the content, type (static image or dynamic image, real-time image, image, photo, cartoon, character, etc.), form, and recording form of the image data.

In addition, according to the present embodiment, the data displayed on the terminal device of the communicating party instead of the live image is recorded in the service provider system 300. However, such data may also be recorded in the user terminal device of the user of the transmitting party, or, if the communication with the same party is frequently performed, it may also be recorded in the user terminal device of the receiving party.

According to this embodiment of the present invention, the operating unit of the user terminal device 100 is a key input unit, but any input device or operating device such as a touch screen, dial, pen input, or voice input can be accepted.

Moreover, any method, type or form can be used for the connection method of the access provider, the type of communication network, the form of data transmission, the form of user terminal equipment, etc., and is not limited to this embodiment of the present invention.

Therefore, by effectively using and processing real-time moving images to improve convenience and ease of use, the present invention can provide a communication method capable of effective communication with richer expressions.

Moreover, the present invention can provide a communication server device that processes real-time moving images through effective use and has higher convenience and ease of use to provide a communication service capable of effective communication with richer expressions, and the present invention also Provided is a communication terminal device that uses such a communication service and a communication system that provides such a communication service.

Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described, the description is provided for the purpose of illustration, and it should be understood that various changes and changes can be made to it without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

01112037.1