Videotelephone apparatus for transmitting high and low resolution video signals over telephone exchange lines

A videotelephone apparatus comprising:

• image pickup means for generating first and second high frame rate video signals representative of moving objects and objects which are standing still, respectively;
• first conversion means for converting said first high frame rate video signal to a multiframe low resolution display signal and converting the second high frame rate video signal to a multiframe high resolution display signal, each frame of said low resolution display signal having n.times.m pixels and each frame of said high resolution display signal having N.times.M pixels, where N and M are respectively greater than n and m;
• second conversion means for converting said low resolution display signal to a low frame rate low resolution signal having a lower frame rate than the frame rate of said first video signal and converting said high resolution display signal to a single frame high resolution signal;
• transmit means for transmitting said low frame rate low resolution signal and said single frame high resolution signal via a transmission medium to a destination apparatus;
• receive means including a memory for receiving low frame rate low resolution signal and a single frame high resolution signal from said destination apparatus and for storing the received high resolution signal into said memory and repeatedly retrieving it from said memory;
• display means;
• manually operated command entry means for generating a plurality of mode select signals in response to manual command inputs;
• and
• switching means responsive to said mode select signals for selectively coupling said low and high resolution display signals from said first conversion means to said display means and to said second conversion means and coupling output signals of said receive means to said display means.

A videotelephone apparatus comprising:

• image pickup means for generating first and second video output signals representative of moving objects and objects which are standing still, respectively;
• data compression means for converting said first video output signal of said image pickup means to a low resolution multiframe signal according to a data compression algorithm and converting the second video output signal of said image pickup means to a high resolution single frame signal according to said data compression algorithm;
• transmit means for transmitting said low resolution multiframe signal and said high resolution single frame signal via a transmission medium to a destination apparatus;
• receive means including a memory for receiving a low resolution multiframe signal and a single frame high resolution signal from said destination apparatus, and for storing said single frame high resolution signal into said memory and repeatedly retrieving it from the memory;
• data decompression means for respectively converting the received low resolution multiframe signal and the received high resolution single frame signal to signals identical in format to said first and second video output signals generated by said image pickup means according to a data expansion algorithm inverse to said data compression algorithm;
• display means;
• manually operated command entry means for generating a plurality of mode select signals in response to manual command inputs;
• and
• switching means responsive to said mode select signals for selectively coupling said first and second video output signals from said image pickup means, coupling said low and high resolution multiframe signals from said data compression means to said display means and said transmit means, and coupling said signals converted by said data expansion means to said display means.