Workstation for interfacing with a video conferencing network

摘要

A workstation (10) for interfacing with a video conferencing network comprises a display (12) which has an internal camera (32) associated therewith. The camera (32) and various auxiliary devices such as a VCR (28) are input to a video switch (52) for selecting a video output. The video output is input to either a monitor (12) and/or to the network through an interface circuit (51). In addition, video can be received from a local processor (42). The monitor (12) operates at two video rates and can be switched therebetween by a CPU (48). The local processor (42) operates at a separate rate from the NTSC video of the monitor (12). A viewfinder (14) having a viewing surface smaller than the monitor (12) is provided as another output on the video switch (52) such that two displays can be received by the user at a given time. A microphone (34) and a speaker (64) are provided and controlled by an audio switch (54 ). This allows a full duplex audio path to exist between the network and the workstation (10).