Communication apparatus, communication method, and communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9860486-B2
Application number	US-201615218137-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 25, 2016
Priority date	Aug 3, 2015
Publication date	Jan 2, 2018
Grant date	Jan 2, 2018

Abstract

An apparatus includes: an acquirer acquiring an image; a locator that, upon receiving coordinate information of a specified area being a part of a video displayed on an output device connected to the other apparatus, locates coordinates on the image corresponding to the coordinate information based on association information, in which coordinates on the video and coordinates on the image are associated; a cropping part that crops, from the image, an image of an area defined by the coordinates on the image; a controller that controls directionality of a microphone array including a plurality of microphones on the apparatus so that the directionality of one microphone related to the coordinates on the image is focused to a position indicated by the coordinate on the image; and a first transmission controller that controls transmitting output information containing the cropped image and voice captured with the controlled directionality to the other apparatus.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A communication terminal comprising:
a capturer configured to capture an image;
an acquirer configured to acquire the captured image from the capturer;
a locator configured to, upon receiving coordinate information representing coordinates of a specified area from another communication terminal in communication with the communication terminal, the specified area being a part of a displayed video displayed on an output device connected to the other communication terminal, locate coordinates on the image corresponding to the coordinate information based on association information, in which coordinates on the displayed video and coordinates on the image are associated;
a cropping part configured to crop, from the image, a cropped image of the area specified by the coordinates, on the image located by the locator;
a microphone array including a plurality of microphones arranged in a cabinet of the communication terminal along a lateral direction when viewed from the capturer;
a directionality controller configured to control directionality of the microphone array including the plurality of microphones so that the directionality of one microphone, to which the coordinates on the image located by the locator are related, amongst the plurality of microphones, is focused to a position indicated by the coordinates on the image; and
a first transmission controller configured to perform control for transmitting output information containing (i) the cropped image cropped by the cropping part, and (ii) voice captured with the directionality controlled by the directionality controller, to the other communication terminal.

2. The communication terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the association information is information, in which coordinates on the displayed video are associated with coordinates on the image for each of display modes of the output device.

3. The communication terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the directionality controller determines the one microphone, to which the coordinates on the image located by the locator are related, based on positional information indicating relationship between positions of the microphones included in the microphone array and the coordinates on the image.

4. The communication terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the image is a panoramic image created by combining a plurality of images.

5. A communication method to be performed by a communication terminal, the communication method comprising:
(a) acquiring a captured image captured by a capturer of the communication terminal;
(b) locating, upon receiving coordinate information representing coordinates of a specified area from another communication terminal in communication with the communication terminal, the specified area being a part of a displayed video displayed on an output device connected to the other communication terminal, coordinates on the image corresponding to the coordinate information based on association information, in which coordinates on the displayed video and coordinates on the image are associated;
(c) cropping, from the image, a cropped image of an area defined by the coordinates on the image located in (b);
(d) controlling directionality of a microphone array including a plurality of microphones arranged in a cabinet of the communication terminal along a lateral direction when viewed from the capturer so that the directionality of one microphone, to which the coordinates on the image located in (b) are related, of the plurality of microphones, is focused to a position indicated by the coordinates on the image; and
(e) performing control for transmitting output information containing the cropped image cropped in (c), and voice captured with the directionality controlled in (d), to the other communication terminal.

6. A communication system comprising:
a first communication terminal; and
a second communication terminal configured to exchange data with the first communication terminal,
the first communication terminal including
a capturer configured to capture an image,
an acquirer configured to acquire a captured image from the capturer,
a locator configured to, upon receiving coordinate information representing coordinates of a specified area from the second communication terminal, the specified area being a part of a displayed video displayed on an output device connected to the second communication terminal, locate coordinates on the image corresponding to the coordinate information based on association information indicating association relationship between coordinates on the displayed video and the coordinates,
a cropping part configured to crop, from the image, a cropped image of an area defined by the coordinates on the image located by the locator,
a directionality controller configured to control directionality of a microphone array including a plurality of microphones arranged in a cabinet of the first communication terminal along a lateral direction when viewed from the capturer so that the directionality of one microphone, to which the coordinates located on the image by the locator are related, amongst the plurality of microphones, is focused to a position indicated by the coordinates on the image, and
a first transmission controller configured to perform control for transmitting output information containing (i) the cropped image cropped by the cropping part, and (ii) voice captured with the directionality controlled by the directionality controller, to the second communication terminal, and

the second communication terminal including
a second transmission controller configured to perform control for transmitting the coordinate information to the first communication terminal, and
an output controller configured to perform control for outputting the output information received from the first communication terminal.

7. The communication terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the microphone array including the plurality of microphones is arranged in a fixed positional relationship relative to the capturer.

8. The communication terminal according to claim 1 , wherein each microphone amongst the plurality of microphones in the microphone array is an omnidirectional microphone and is arranged in a fixed positional relationship relative to the capturer.

Assignees

• Takahashi Masato
• Uchiyama Hiroaki
• Kuwata Koji
• Igarashi Kiyoto
• Goto Tomoyuki
• Kitazawa Kazuki
• Gingawa Nobumasa
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Takahashi Masato
• Uchiyama Hiroaki
• Kuwata Koji
• Igarashi Kiyoto
• Goto Tomoyuki
• Kitazawa Kazuki
• Gingawa Nobumasa

Classifications

• H04N23/698

  for achieving an enlarged field of view, e.g. panoramic image capture · CPC title

• H04N5/23238

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N5/2628

  Alteration of picture size, shape, position or orientation, e.g. zooming, rotation, rolling, perspective, translation · CPC title

• H04N7/15 Primary

  Conference systems · CPC title

• H04N7/142

  Constructional details of the terminal equipment, e.g. arrangements of the camera and the display · CPC title