Terminal system having video telephone equipment cooperating with computer system

Abstract

A terminal system having a video telephone equipment and a computer system. The video telephone equipment includes a communication unit connected to a line; a telephone unit for communicating with a remote station by speech via the communication unit and the line; and a camera unit for taking pictures and outputting video signals corresponding to the pictures. The video signals are transmitted to the remote station via the communication unit and the line. The video telephone equipment further includes a display unit for displaying images; and a processor for controlling the communication unit, the telephone unit, the camera unit and the display unit. The communication unit, the telephone unit, the camera unit, the display unit and the processor unit are coupled to each other by a first bus. The computer system includes a processor, coupled to an external unit by a second bus, for processing data supplied thereto via the second bus. The terminal system includes an interface circuit, coupled to the first and second buses, for intermediating between the video telephone equipment and the computer system so that data is transmitted from the computer system to the video telephone equipment via the interface means and vice versa.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.