Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Takeshi Takita

Masayuki Kumazawa

Naoki Koga

Yoshimasa Honda

An objective is to prevent occurrence of video loop even in a case where a plurality of video conference apparatuses are connected in cascade. In a cascade mode, that is, in a case where a location of a video conference apparatus is an intermediate location, video and speech selector/combinerselects video data of a location (location where a speech is made) of a maximum sound-volume among connection locations other than the location of the video conference apparatus and a cascade destination. Communication controllertransmits video data of the location of the maximum sound-volume to video conference apparatusof the cascade destination and transmits the video data transmitted from video conference apparatusof the cascade destination to video conference apparatusesin a connection location other than the cascade destination.

Video conference apparatus

A videoconference communication device prevents a screen from being unsightly to a viewer. A communication controller () is connected to respective partner devices (), (), and () through a network () and receives video data transmitted from respective partner devices (), (), and (). A video and voice synthesizer () and a video and voice output controller () causes divided screens divided into a total number of sites in which a videoconference is performed, in display device () to be displayed before video data is received by the communication controller (), and causes each region of the divided screens to sequentially display video data received by the communication controller ().

Videoconference communication device

A videoconference device displays video data from a speech site such that a viewer can easily understand even in a case where the number of sites is large. A communication controller receives each piece of video data and voice data from conference terminal devices of a plurality of other sites. A video and voice synthesizer determines a screen layout depending on the number of sites participating in a videoconference, and generates synthesized video data obtained by synthesizing video data of each site according to the screen layout. At this time, the video and voice synthesizer generates the synthesized video data such that display of the video data of each site where a level of voice data is higher than or equal to a threshold is highlighted more than display of video data of the other sites. A video and voice output controller displays the synthesized video data on a screen of a display device.

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Fukuoka, Japan

Takeshi Takita