JP2002354141A - Videophones and telemedicine devices - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To use a single video / audio codec optimized for a relatively low transmission line speed because a transmission line speed changes in a range of several times depending on the state of an analog telephone line. Under a favorable condition in which a video phone is realized and a transmission line speed higher than an assumed transmission line speed can be obtained, a useless portion which is not used is formed on the transmission line. SOLUTION: When a videophone is performed, a plurality of encoders 100 to 103 optimized in advance to a specific data generation speed according to a transmission path speed at the time of connecting a modem unit 8 are provided.
From among the above, a transmission line is effectively used by selecting an optimized one according to the highest data generation speed within a range not exceeding the transmission line speed, and a good videophone is realized in telemedicine. .

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to receiving medical information from a patient terminal for measuring and recording medical information of a patient at home, displaying the medical information on a doctor terminal, and displaying the medical information between the doctor terminal and the patient terminal according to the medical information. The present invention relates to a telemedicine device that performs telemedicine using a videophone.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, due to the importance of health management at home or the growing elderly population, medical information measured at home by a home patient or the like has been transmitted to a remote doctor via a communication line, and the result has been transmitted to the doctor. Various diagnostic systems have been proposed. Videophones in telemedicine are useful technologies to know the patient's feeling of security, the trust relationship with a doctor, or the state of a patient, and the necessity of videophones in telemedicine has been advocated in the past. Conventional general videophone software that is standardly implemented in commercial operating systems simply selects whether a high-speed transmission line such as a LAN or a low-speed transmission line such as a modem is used when the software is installed. Thus, once a modem is selected, it is limited to a relatively low and fixed transmission line speed thereafter.

[0003]

In recent years, broadband networks such as CATV networks and XDSL have become widespread, but the areas where they can be introduced are limited.
In particular, many elderly homes that require telemedicine do not have a broadband network or even an ISDN line, and old analog telephone lines are the mainstream. With such a combination of a conventional analog telephone line and a modem, a videophone cannot always have a sufficient transmission line speed. In addition, since the transmission line speed of the modem varies several times depending on the state of the analog telephone line, a videophone must be realized using a video and audio codec optimized for an assumed considerably low data generation speed. In an analog telephone line under favorable conditions in which a transmission line speed higher than the assumed data generation speed can be obtained, a useless portion not used for the videophone is formed on the transmission line.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems. A home patient or the like transmits medical information measured at home to a remote physician through a communication line, and the doctor diagnoses the result. In a medical device, a video and audio device is provided in a patient terminal and a doctor terminal, and when a videophone is performed using a video and audio codec, a transmission path speed at the time of connection of the videophone is detected by a modem unit, and the data generation is performed. From one or more encoders or encoding parameters optimized in advance to a specific data generation speed according to the speed, an encoder or encoding optimized according to the highest data generation speed within a range not exceeding the transmission line speed Efficient use of the transmission line by selecting parameters, and the best audio and video at the obtained transmission line speed Transmitted between the patient terminal and the doctor terminal,
A good videophone can be realized.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS According to a first aspect of the present invention, a terminal comprising a video / audio input section, a video / audio output section, and a modem section is connected via a transmission line, and a videophone is provided using a video / audio codec. When the connection is established, the transmission line speed at the time of establishing the connection is detected by the modem unit, and one or more encoders or encoding parameters optimized in advance to a specific data generation speed in accordance with the transmission line speed are used. To select an encoder or encoding parameter optimized for the highest data generation rate within a range not exceeding the transmission path speed, so that the transmission path is effectively used and the best videophone at the obtained transmission path speed is selected. Can be realized.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a video / audio input unit,
When a terminal composed of a video / audio output unit and a modem unit is connected via a transmission line and a videophone is connected between a patient and a physician in telemedicine using a video / audio codec, at which point the videophone is connected The transmission line speed is detected by the modem unit, and one or more encoders or encoding parameters optimized in advance to a specific data generation speed in accordance with the transmission line speed, a range not exceeding the transmission line speed. In order to select an encoder or an encoding parameter optimized according to the highest data generation speed, the transmission path is used effectively, and the best audio and video at the obtained transmission path speed are obtained by the patient terminal and the doctor terminal. Telemedicine devices that transmit between and provide a good videophone can be provided.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a patient terminal disposed at a patient's house and a medical device for collecting medical information of the patient.
It is composed of a doctor terminal arranged in a medical institution and a recording device for recording medical information of a patient, and the patient terminal is fetched into the patient terminal through the medical information collected by using the medical device, and then through a modem unit. Telemedicine support having a function of transmitting to a transmission path, wherein the doctor terminal has a function of storing the medical information received from the transmission path via a modem unit in the recording device and displaying the medical information on a screen by an operation of a doctor or the like. In the device, when providing a video / audio input unit and a video / audio output unit in the patient terminal and the doctor terminal, respectively, and performing a videophone using a video / audio codec, the transmission line speed at the time of connecting the videophone is determined by the modem. And at least one encoder or encoding parameter optimized in advance to a specific data generation speed in accordance with the transmission path speed. From among the above, since an encoder or an encoding parameter optimized according to the highest data generation rate within a range not exceeding the transmission path speed is selected, not only the patient medical information is transmitted, but also the same transmission path is used. Providing a telemedicine device that performs a videophone, uses the transmission line effectively, transmits the best voice and video at the obtained transmission line speed between the patient terminal and the doctor terminal, and realizes a good videophone it can.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the transmission line speed at the time of connecting the videophone is detected by the modem unit, and when the transmission line speed is less than a specific transmission line speed, only the audio is encoded without encoding the video. Therefore, it is possible to supply a video phone that gives priority to an audio signal so that only a minimum voice conversation can be performed between a doctor and a patient.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the patient terminal and the doctor terminal are provided with a video / audio input unit and a video / audio output unit, respectively, and when a videophone is performed using a video / audio codec, the patient terminal and the doctor terminal are collected in advance. Since the medical information is displayed simultaneously with the videophone, the doctor can make a diagnosis while viewing the state of the patient and the medical information at the same time, thereby enabling more reliable remote diagnosis.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 shows an overall view of a remote medical device. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a patient terminal which is installed in a patient's home, collects and outputs medical information of a patient to a transmission line, and performs a videophone. 2 denotes an analog telephone line which transmits medical information and video / audio information of the videophone. Reference numeral 3 denotes a doctor terminal which is installed in a medical institution such as a hospital and allows a medical staff such as a doctor to check the medical information of the patient and to make a videophone call with the patient for remote diagnosis.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the patient terminal. In the figure, reference numeral 4 denotes a video / audio input unit for use in a videophone, which is specifically constituted by a camera and a device such as a microphone. Reference numeral 10 denotes a video / audio codec, specifically, a video encoder for compressing a video,
It comprises an audio encoder for compressing audio, a video decoder for expanding compressed video, and an audio decoder for expanding compressed audio.

When a videophone is performed, the video and audio information from the video and audio input 4 is converted into a video and audio information compressed by the video and audio encoder in the video and audio codec unit 10 via an analog telephone via the modem unit 8. Transmitted to line 2. Modem 8 from analog telephone line 2
Compressed video and audio information transmitted from the external device is decompressed by a video and audio decoder in the video and audio codec 10 and output as video and audio to a patient or the like from the video and audio output unit 5. Is done. In addition,
The video / audio output unit 5 is specifically configured by devices such as a display and a speaker. Numeral 6 denotes one or more medical devices which measure the medical information of the patient, which are corrected and added by the arithmetic unit 7 and temporarily recorded in the recording unit 9. The recorded medical information of the patient is transmitted to the outside via the modem unit 8 and the analog telephone line 2. The medical information of a patient is numerical information such as body temperature, weight, blood pressure, electrocardiogram, heart rate, blood sugar level, blood oxygen concentration, and auscultation sound, and voice information.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the doctor terminal. In FIG. 3, the medical information of the patient received via the analog telephone line 2 and the modem unit 8 is converted into information which can be easily handled by a doctor by the conversion unit 11, for example, conversion from binary to ASCII characters, or numerical information into graph display information. After being converted and once recorded in the recording unit 12, audio information such as character display, graph display, or auscultation sound is output to the audio-video output unit 5 as audio. The videophone performs the same operation as the patient terminal.
The same reference numerals in the figure denote the same operations as those in FIG. 2 and therefore will not be described in detail.

FIG. 4 is a detailed block diagram showing the internal arrangement of the video / audio codec unit 10. As shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, a video / audio codec 10 includes a single video decoder and an audio decoder, a plurality of video encoders and audio encoders 100 to 103 optimized according to a data generation speed, and a modem unit 8.
An encoder selection unit 104 that selects one of the video encoder and the audio encoder 100 to 103 according to the transmission path speed notification from the CPU, and outputs only the output of the video encoder and the audio encoder selected by the encoder selection unit 104 to the modem unit 8. It consists of a switch that switches to enable output. Since the decoder has the ability to completely decode the video and audio data received via the modem unit 8 irrespective of the transmission line speed, it is not necessary to prepare a separate decoder for each data generation speed of the encoder. The modem unit 8 notifies the encoder selection unit 104 in the video / audio codec 10 of the transmission path speed at the time of connection with the other party through the analog telephone line 2.

Note that a plurality of video encoders and audio encoders 100 to 103 optimized according to the data generation speed
There are a method of creating a plurality of video encoders and a plurality of audio encoders, and a method of preparing a plurality of encoding parameters to be given to the encoder by using only one video encoder and the audio encoder.

The connection between the modem units 8 of the patient terminal 1 and the doctor terminal 3 through the analog telephone line 2 is often affected by the distance between each other, the state of telephone wiring, ambient noise, etc. It is well known that the transmission path speed greatly changes depending on the connection location. On the other hand, in the video / audio codec 10, a video encoder or an audio encoder that changes the number of screens displayed per second according to the data generation speed, or only the audio without sending the video when the transmission speed is less than the specified transmission speed. Optimize the speech encoder that sends the message.

As an example, when the transmission line speed is 5 Kbps or less, a video encoder and an audio encoder 100 that transmit only audio without transmitting video are used. When a transmission line speed of 20 Kbps or more is obtained, the transmission line speed is increased. Any one of a video encoder and an audio encoder 101 to 103 whose data generation speed is optimized within a range not exceeding the speed is used. If the video frame rate is, for example, 20Kbps or more, QC
1-2 frames per second at IF size, 3 seconds per second at 25Kbps or more
Video encoders and audio encoders 101 to 103 whose data generation speeds are optimized in advance are prepared so as to transmit 7 to 8 frames per second at ４4 frames or 30 Kbps or more.
Assuming that the state of the analog line 2 is poor and the transmission path speed obtained when the modem unit 8 establishes communication with the other party through the analog telephone line 2 is only 8 Kbps, the data generation speed is 5 Kbps by the above-described mechanism. The optimized video encoder and audio encoder 100 are selected,
It is a voice-only call without sending video. When the analog line 2 is in a good condition and the modem 8 establishes 32 Kbps as the transmission path speed when establishing communication with the other party through the analog telephone line 2, the data generation speed is reduced to 30 Kbps by the above-described mechanism. The optimized video encoder and audio encoder 103 are selected, and audio and video of 7 to 8 frames are transmitted per second, so that a good videophone can be realized.

Here, the description is given of a combination of an analog telephone line and a modem. However, after initially using the analog line, ISDN, CATV network, XDS
Even when a connection is made to a higher-speed broadband network such as L, the transmission path speed can be used effectively by a similar mechanism.

FIG. 5 shows a screen in which a video phone and patient medical information are simultaneously displayed on the display of the video / audio output unit 5. When a doctor or the like diagnoses a patient with the videophone by connecting the videophone, medical information of the patient can be viewed on the same screen, so that more accurate diagnosis can be performed.

Note that all or a part of the videophone and the remote medical device of the present invention may be realized by an information processing device such as a computer by a computer program. By using a program, it can be easily realized by a general-purpose computer. In addition, by using a recording medium on which a program is recorded, an operation of installing software on a computer can be easily performed.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a videophone is performed using a video / audio codec, the transmission line speed at the time when the videophone is connected is detected by the modem unit, and the transmission line speed is detected. From one or more encoders or encoding parameters optimized in advance to a specific data generation speed according to the speed, an encoder or encoding optimized according to the highest data generation speed within a range not exceeding the transmission line speed By selecting parameters, the transmission path can be used effectively, and the best audio and video at the obtained transmission path speed can be transmitted between the patient terminal and the doctor terminal, and a good videophone can be realized. Become.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view of a telemedicine device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of a patient terminal according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a doctor terminal according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an internal detailed block diagram of a codec according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a screen in which a videophone and patient medical information are simultaneously displayed on a display according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 1 patient terminal 2 analog telephone line 3 doctor terminal 4 video / audio input unit 5 video / audio output unit 6 medical equipment 7 arithmetic unit 8 modem unit 9 recording unit 10 video / audio codec unit 11 conversion unit 12 recording unit 100 Optimized at 5 Kbps Video encoder, audio encoder 101 Video encoder optimized at 20 Kbps, audio encoder 102 Video encoder optimized at 25 Kbps, audio encoder 103 Video encoder optimized at 30 Kbps, audio encoder 104 Encoder selector

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5C064 AA01 AC04 AC06 AD01 AD07 AD08 AD09 5K034 AA01 CC02 CC05 DD03 FF05 HH16 MM08 5K101 KK19 MM05 NN06 NN18 QQ07 QQ11

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A terminal comprising a video / audio input unit, a video / audio output unit, and a modem unit are connected via a transmission line.
When performing a videophone using the video / audio codec,
The transmission line speed at the time of establishing the connection is detected by the modem unit, and the transmission line speed is selected from one or more encoders or encoding parameters that have been optimized in advance to a specific data generation speed in accordance with the transmission line speed. A videophone for selecting an encoder or encoding parameter optimized for the highest data generation speed within a range not exceeding the speed. 2. A terminal comprising a video / audio input unit, a video / audio output unit, and a modem unit are connected via a transmission line,
When a videophone is used between a patient and a physician in telemedicine using a video / audio codec, the transmission line speed at the time of connection of the videophone is detected by the modem unit and specified in advance according to the transmission line speed. From one or more encoders or encoding parameters optimized for the data generation speed, select an encoder or encoding parameter optimized according to the highest data generation speed within a range not exceeding the transmission path speed. Characterized telemedicine device. 3. A patient terminal arranged at a patient's home, a medical device for collecting medical information of a patient, a doctor terminal arranged at a medical institution, and a recording device for recording medical information of a patient, wherein the patient terminal is The medical device has a function of transmitting the medical information collected using the medical device to a transmission line via a modem unit after capturing the medical information in the patient terminal, and the doctor terminal receives the medical information from the transmission line via a modem unit. In a remote medical assistance apparatus having a function of storing medical information in the recording device and displaying the information on a screen by an operation of a doctor or the like, the patient terminal and the doctor terminal are provided with a video / audio input unit and a video / audio output unit, respectively. When a videophone is performed using a codec, the transmission line speed at the time of connecting the videophone is detected by the modem unit, and specified in advance according to the transmission line speed. From one or more encoders or encoding parameters optimized for the data generation speed, select an encoder or encoding parameter optimized according to the highest data generation speed within a range not exceeding the transmission path speed. Features a telemedicine device. 4. A transmission line speed at the time when a videophone is connected is detected by the modem unit, and when the speed is less than a specific data generation speed, only audio is encoded without encoding video. The telemedicine device according to claim 2. 5. A patient terminal and a physician terminal are provided with a video / audio input unit and a video / audio output unit, respectively, and when a videophone is performed using a video / audio codec, medical information of a patient collected in advance is displayed simultaneously with the videophone. 4. The telemedicine device according to claim 3, wherein: