Image data communicating apparatus and a communication data quantity adjusting method used in an image data communication system

An image communicating apparatus for transmitting image data in an adjusted quantity to another image data communicating apparatus on the receiving end over a computer network, said image data communicating apparatus on the transmitting end comprising:

• an image data transmitting unit for transmitting said image data to the receiving-end image data communicating apparatus;
• traffic detecting means for detecting end-to-end effective traffic of said network between said image data communicating apparatus on the transmitting end and that on the receiving end;
• a communication data quantity adjusting unit for setting a transmittable number of image frames on the basis of end-to-end effective, traffic detected by said traffic detecting unit adjusting a quantity of the image data, which is to be transmitted by said data transmitting unit, in accordance with said set number of frames;
• a first image data compressing unit for compressing image data to be transmitted;
• a compression parameter variably controlling unit for variably controlling a compression parameter by said first image data compressing unit to bring a current number of frames close to said number of frames initially set by said communication data quantity adjusting unit on the basis of said end-to-end effective traffic detected by said traffic detecting unit;
• a drawing size reducing unit for reducing a drawing size of image data;
• a drawing size control unit for controlling to reduce the drawing size in said drawing size reducing unit so as to bring the number of frames close to said number of frames initially set by said communication data quantity adjusting unit on the basis of said end-to-end effective traffic detected by said traffic detecting unit;
• a second image data compressing unit for compressing image data to be transmitted in a desired compressing method selected among plural compressing methods;
• a compressing method selecting unit for selecting a compressing method by said second image data compressing unit to bring the number of frames close to the number of frames initially set by said communication data quantity adjusting unit on the basis of said end-to-end effective traffic detected by said traffic detecting unit;
• and
• a selection controlling unit for selecting at least one data processing method among plural data processing methods by said communication data quantity adjusting unit, said first image data compressing unit, said drawing size reducing unit, and said second image data compressing unit according to said traffic, and for controlling performance of said at least one selected data processing method.

An image data communicating apparatus for receiving from another image data communicating apparatus on a transmitting end over a computer network image data whose quantity of communication data has been adjusted on the basis of end-to-end effective traffic on said transmitting-end image data communicating apparatus, comprising:

• an image data receiving unit for receiving said image data from said transmitting-end image data communicating apparatus over said network;
• an image data identifying unit for identifying a type of said image data received by said image data receiving unit;
• and
• a display controlling unit for displaying said received image data on a displaying unit if said received image data is identified as image data as the result of identification on the type of said image data by said image data identifying unit.

An image data communicating apparatus for transmitting and receiving image data to and from another image data communicating apparatus over a computer network, comprising:

• transmitting means including
• a data transmitting unit for transmitting said image data to said another image data communicating apparatus over said computer network,
• a traffic detecting unit for detecting end-to-end effective traffic of said network between said image data communicating apparatus on a transmitting end and that on a receiving end,
• a communication data quantity adjusting unit for setting a transmittable number of image frames on the basis of said end-to-end effective traffic detected by said traffic detecting unit adjusting the quantity of the image data which is to be transmitted by said transmitting unit, in accordance with said set transmittable number of image frames;
• and
• a receiving unit including
• a data receiving unit for receiving image data from said another image data communicating apparatus on said transmitting end over said network,
• a data identifying unit for identifying the type of image data received by said data receiving unit, and
• a display control unit for displaying image data on
• a displaying unit if said received image data is identified as said image data by said data identifying unit.

A communication data quantity adjusting method used in an image data communication system having plural image data communicating apparatuses for transmitting image data in an adjusted quantity to another image data communicating apparatus on a receiving end over a computer network said communication data quantity adjusting method comprising the steps of:

• transmitting over said network survey data used to detect end-to-end effective traffic of said network along with said image data from the image data communicating apparatus on a transmitting side to the image data communicating apparatus on a receiving side;
• identifying said image data and said survey data from said image data communicating apparatus on the transmitting side in the image data communicating apparatus on the receiving side, sending back said survey data to said image data communicating apparatus on the transmitting side, while displaying said image data on a displaying unit;
• detecting said traffic of said network on the basis of the survey data from said image data communicating apparatus on the receiving side in said image data communicating apparatus on the transmitting side,
• setting a transmittable number of image data transferring frames on the basis of said detected traffic of said network, a quantity of communication data being automatically controlled.