Facsimile and static presentation processing – Facsimile – Picture signal generator
Reexamination Certificate
1996-10-24
2001-09-04
Grant, II, Jerome (Department: 2624)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Facsimile
Picture signal generator
C348S014090, C348S014160
Reexamination Certificate
active
06285471
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a telecommunications system for transmitting images according to the preamble of patent claim
1
.
In communication systems having a message transmission link between a message source and a message receiver, transmitting and receiving devices are used for message processing and transmission. The message produced by the message source is transmitted from the transmitting device via a communication channel to the receiving device, which subsequently delivers the received message to the message receiver. The message processing and transmission may in this case take place in a preferred direction of transmission or in both directions of transmission (duplex operation).
“Message” is a generic term which stands both for the meaningful content (information) and for the physical representation (signal). In spite of the same meaningful content of a message—that is to say the same information—different signal forms may occur. For example, a message concerning one subject may be transmitted
(1) in the form of an image,
(2) as a spoken word,
(3) as a written word,
(4) as an encoded word or image.
The type of transmission according to (1) . . . (3) is in this case normally characterized by continuous (analog) signals, while in the case of the type of transmission according to (4) usually discontinuous signals (for example pulses, digital signals) are produced. The present invention relates primarily to the transmission of visual messages (for example images, personal recordings (videos), diagrams, lettering etc) and, to complement this, it relates to a combination of the transmission of visual messages and acoustic messages (for example image/sound transmission etc), the respective signal form generally being a mixture of continuous signals and discontinuous signals. Depending on this message type, on which the invention is based, for the communication system (telecommunications system) defined above there are required in each case message-type-specific telecommunication devices for the functions of “transmitting” and “receiving”. The question as to which telecommunications devices are ultimately used depends, inter alia, also on which communication channel is taken as a basis in the communication system. For the present invention, the communication channel is of only secondary significance, because the principle of the invention can be applied to wired and/or wireless telecommunications channels.
With respect to the already mentioned directions of transmission within the communication system, for the present invention unidirectional message transmission is the primary form. However, this in turn does not mean that it cannot also be used for duplex operation.
In the transmission of images according to the above definition, a distinction is made between moving image transmission and individual image transmission. The most widespread application of image transmission is television engineering, in which both individual images and moving images are transmitted via wired and wireless communication channels. On this basis, there were initial attempts in the 70s to develop video telephones which transmit images over the existing telephone network from a transmitter (A subscriber) to a receiver (B subscriber). The first video telephones primarily comprised three individual device elements, namely a telephone, a camera and a monitor. The innovative development of microelectronics and communication transmission technology means that today there are already integrated video telephones, in which these device elements are combined in a single telephone. The development of such video telephones, working in duplex operation, has come very much to the forefront in recent years from the aspect of moving image transmission in accordance with CCITT Standard H.261 for video communication. Published patent applications which document this development trend are, for example, EP-A1-0 506 544, EP-A2-0 523 618, EP-A2-0 524 623 and EP-A2-0 523 617. However, apart from the fact that the image transmission is quite slow, expensive and not mobile, the realization of such moving image telephones has the disadvantage that the application is limited by standard incompatibility, because the telephone device and video device are inseparably connected in one device and therefore video telecommunication can take place only among those communication subscribers which have the same video telephone. This can in particular have the result—in the case of such fixed forms of transmission—that there are restrictions for the transmission systems, such as the ISDN system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object on which the invention is based consists in setting up a telecommunications system for transmitting images, in particular black-and-white individual images, which makes possible transmission which is much simpler and can be used universally.
In general terms the present invention is a mobile transmission device for transmitting images having: first means for optically capturing a transmission image motif and producing an image message from the transmission image motif; second means for processing appropriately for transmission the image message produced; third means for transmitting the image message, which can be connected via a telecommunications channel to a reception device for receiving the image message; and fourth means for controlling the functional sequences in the transmission device, in particular the first to third means. The first to fourth means are designed and connected in such a way that, when a telecommunications connection is set up between the transmission device and the reception device by the transmission of voice or control data initiating the image transmission, the image message is transmitted on the telecommunications channel time-shifted with respect to the transmitted voice or control data and independently of the type of telecommunications channel.
Advantageous developments of the present invention are as follows.
The third means are connected directly to the telecommunications channel.
The third means are connected via an acoustic coupling with a telephone set to the telecommunications channel.
The first to fourth means are contained in a mobile part of a wireless telephone.
The first means and fourth means are designed in such a way that the image information contained in the image message is composed of 100 Pt 100 image pixels having 16 shades of gray which can be represented by 4 bits per image pixel.
The first to fourth means are designed in such a way that, of the data bits defining the image pixels of the image information, initially only the most-significant bit is transmitted and, in the image build-phases which follow, the respectively next-most-significant bit is transmitted.
The first means and fourth means are designed in such a way that, beginning from the center point of the transmission image motif, pixels of the transmission image motif arranged toward the outside are composed spirally to form image information of the image message.
The first to fourth means are designed in such a way that the image message is transmitted together with an error detection code.
On the transmission side, an image, for example a black-and-white individual image, is picked up and stored on request by a simple camera, for example with a wide-angle lens and optical viewfinder (for example by pressing a button or by remote control). The image data of the image message (image signal plus image information) are suitably compressed (for example according to the technical method disclosed in the published international application WO 92/17981 entitled “Method for the compression of image data”, for example in the patent claims and the abstract) and are subsequently coded with a telecommunications-channel-specific code, for example a line code, and transmitted, preferably unidirectionally, indirectly, for example via an acoustic coupler (loudspeaker), or directly, for example via an electrical connection (telecom plug connection or modem), to a telecommunicatio
Grant II Jerome
Schiff & Hardin & Waite
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
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