JP2009141698A - Headset - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a comfortable speech environment for a headset. <P>SOLUTION: A noise canceling circuit 20 superimposes a voice signal S2 collected by a first microphone 16 on a voice signal S1 from an opposite side after phase inversion, and outputs the superimposed signal to a speaker 14. The speaker 14, the first microphone 16, the noise canceling circuit 20 and a second microphone 18 are incorporated within the same case. A headset 100 outputs a voice signal S3 collected by the second microphone 18 to the opposite side. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a headset.

  A headset is used to perform a hands-free call using a mobile phone, a fixed phone, or an IP (Internet Protocol) phone. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a general headset. The headset 300 includes housings 302 a and 302 b that are respectively attached to the left and right ears, and a transmission microphone 306. Speakers 304a and 304b are built in the housings 302a and 302b. Some headsets have only one of the left and right housings.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-294989 JP-T-2004-526375

  In the headset of FIG. 1, if the surrounding noise (environmental sound) is large, it is difficult to hear the voice that he / she utters, so the headset user needs to speak loudly. Moreover, since the microphone for transmission is exposed, the environmental sound is transmitted to the other party, and there is a problem that it is difficult for the other party to hear the voice spoken by the user.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a headset that can be comfortably talked.

  A headset according to an aspect of the present invention includes a first microphone, a second microphone, a speaker, and an audio signal collected by the first microphone that is superimposed on an audio signal from the other party, and superimposed on the speaker. And the output noise canceling circuit are built in the same housing. The headset outputs the audio signal collected by the second microphone to the other party.

  By designing the frequency band that can be sound-insulated by the noise-cancelling circuit and the frequency band that can be sound-insulated by the housing from the frequency band of the human voice, the speaker user and the user of the headset can hear Can be output without canceling. Since the user hears his / her voice from the speaker in a state where the environmental sound is removed, it is not necessary to utter loudly, and a comfortable call is possible.

  The headset may superimpose a signal obtained by inverting the phase of the audio signal from the other party on the audio signal collected by the second microphone and output the signal to the other party.

  Another aspect of the invention also relates to a headset. This headset has a microphone, a speaker, and a noise canceling circuit that superimposes the audio signal collected by the microphone with a phase inversion on the audio signal from the other party and outputs it to the speaker in the same housing. Built in. The headset outputs the audio signal collected by the microphone to the other party.

The headset may further include a filter that removes high-frequency components of the audio signal collected by the microphone, and the output of the filter may be transmitted to the other party.
By removing high-frequency environmental sound with a filter, noise can be removed from the voice transmitted to the other party.

  Note that any combination of the above-described constituent elements and the constituent elements and expressions of the present invention replaced with each other among methods, apparatuses, systems, etc. are also effective as an aspect of the present invention.

  According to the headset of the present invention, a comfortable call can be made.

  The present invention will be described below based on preferred embodiments with reference to the drawings. The same or equivalent components, members, and processes shown in the drawings are denoted by the same reference numerals, and repeated descriptions are omitted as appropriate. The embodiments do not limit the invention but are exemplifications, and all features and combinations thereof described in the embodiments are not necessarily essential to the invention.

  In this specification, “the state in which the member A is connected to the member B” means that the member A and the member B are physically directly connected, or the member A and the member B are in an electrically connected state. It includes the case of being indirectly connected through another member that does not affect the above. Similarly, “the state in which the member C is provided between the member A and the member B” refers to the case where the member A and the member C or the member B and the member C are directly connected, as well as an electrical condition. It includes the case of being indirectly connected through another member that does not affect the connection state.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the headset 100 according to the embodiment. The headset 100 is connected to a communication device 110 such as a mobile phone terminal, an IP phone, or a fixed phone, and is worn on the user's head.

  The headset 100 includes a first housing 10a and a second housing 10b that are attached to the left and right ears, and an arm 8 that connects them. Headset 100 and communication device 110 are connected by cable 6. In the embodiment, it does not matter whether the headset is a stereo type or a monaural type. Moreover, you may be comprised only by the single housing | casing 10a with which only one ear | edge is mounted | worn.

  The speaker 14, the first microphone 16, the second microphone 18, and the noise canceling circuit 20 are built in the first housing 10a. The first microphone 16 is arranged to collect environmental sound toward the outside of the housing.

  The noise canceling circuit 20 inverts and superimposes the audio signal S2 collected by the first microphone 16 on the audio signal (received signal) S1 from the other party, and outputs it to the speaker 14. The headset 100 outputs the audio signal S3 collected by the second microphone 18 to the other party as a transmission signal.

  The second casing 10b has a configuration in which the second microphone 18 is removed from the configuration of the first casing 10a.

  FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing an internal configuration of the first housing 10a. The noise canceling circuit 20 includes a microphone amplifier 22, a phase adjustment circuit 24, and a speaker amplifier 26.

  The first microphone 16 collects environmental sound and converts it into an electrical sound signal (hereinafter referred to as environmental sound signal) S2. The microphone amplifier 22 amplifies the environmental sound signal S2 output from the first microphone 16. The phase adjustment circuit 24 adjusts the phase of the output S4 of the microphone amplifier 22. The speaker amplifier 26 inverts and superimposes the environmental sound signal S <b> 5 whose phase is adjusted on the received signal S <b> 1 to drive the speaker 14.

  The inverting amplifier 30 inverts the received signal S1. The adder 32 superimposes the output * S1 of the inverting amplifier 30 on the audio signal S3 collected by the second microphone 18, and outputs the signal to the communication device 110 as the transmission signal S3 '. It should be noted that the speaker 14 and the second microphone 18 are provided in the same housing.

  The above is the configuration of the headset 100. Next, the operation of the headset 100 will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating sound insulation characteristics of the headset 100 according to the embodiment. The horizontal axis indicates the frequency, and the vertical axis indicates the sound insulation level.

The solid line in FIG. 4 indicates the sound insulation characteristic by the noise canceling circuit 20, and the broken line indicates the sound insulation characteristic by the housing in which the headset 100 is built.
The sound insulation characteristic by the noise canceling circuit 20 means noise canceling performance, and has a high level in a low frequency region, and the sound insulation level decreases as the frequency increases. This is because the phase adjustment by the phase adjustment circuit 24 is satisfactorily performed in the low frequency region, so that the sound signal S2 collected by the first microphone 16 can be output from the speaker 14 with the phase inverted by 180 degrees. Because. However, when the frequency increases, the phase adjustment by the phase adjustment circuit 24 is shifted, so that the phase characteristic of the path from the first microphone 16 to the speaker 14 is shifted from 180 degrees. As a result, noise canceling performance deteriorates.

  FIG. 4 shows the frequency band fv of human voice in addition to the noise canceling characteristics of the noise canceling circuit 20 and the housing 10. Since human voice has a band ranging from several hundred Hz to several kHz, it has the property that it passes through the housing and is less susceptible to noise canceling by the noise canceling circuit 20.

  Now, when the user of the headset 100 speaks, the spoken voice is collected by the first microphone 16 and also collected by the second microphone 18 after passing through the housing 10. On the other hand, paying attention to the surrounding environmental sound, the low frequency component is sound-insulated by the noise canceling circuit, and the high-frequency component is sound-insulated by the housing, so that it sufficiently attenuates before reaching the second microphone 18.

  The headset 100 collects the voice uttered from the user by the second microphone 18, synthesizes it with the reception signal S1 from the other party, and outputs it as the transmission signal S3 '. By arranging the second microphone 18 inside the housing 10, it is possible to transmit the voice uttered by the user to the other party while insulating the high frequency component of the environmental sound.

  The user's ear is covered with a housing. Therefore, the high frequency component of the environmental sound is sound-insulated and sufficiently attenuated before reaching the eardrum. In addition, the low frequency component of the environmental sound is canceled by the sound insulation by the noise canceling circuit 20, and is hardly perceived by the eardrum.

  Focus on the voice spoken by the user. The voice uttered by the user is collected by the first microphone 16. However, as shown in FIG. 4, the frequency band of the sound is located in a region where the sound insulation by the noise canceling circuit 20 is lowered. Accordingly, the user's voice output from the speaker 14 reaches the user's eardrum together with the acoustic signal propagating from the human mouth to the ear without passing through the noise canceling circuit 20 without canceling each other. As a result, the user can listen to his / her speech from the speaker 14.

  In other words, the environmental sound does not reach the user's ear covered by the housing, but the voice spoken by itself arrives. In general, humans tend to utter loudly when it is difficult to hear their own voice, but using headset 100 according to the embodiment eliminates the need to speak loudly.

  FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing a configuration inside the first housing 10a of the headset 100 according to the modification. In the circuit of FIG. 5, the first microphone 16 also functions as the second microphone 18. That is, the second microphone 18, the inverting amplifier 30, and the adder 32 are removed from the circuit of FIG.

Headset 100 according to the present embodiment outputs the audio signal collected by first microphone 16 to the other party as transmission signal S3. Specifically, the high-frequency component of the audio signal S5 whose phase is adjusted by the phase adjustment circuit 24 is removed by the low-pass filter 34 and is output as the transmission signal S3.
By removing the environmental sound other than the sound frequency band by the low-pass filter 34, noise can be removed from the sound transmitted to the other party.

  According to headset 100 according to the present embodiment, a comfortable telephone call environment can be provided as in the embodiment. In addition, since the number of microphones can be reduced, the circuit area and cost can be reduced.

  Although the present invention has been described above based on the embodiments, it should be understood that the embodiments merely illustrate the principles and applications of the present invention, and the embodiments are within the scope of the claims. Needless to say, many modifications and arrangements can be made without departing from the concept of the present invention.

It is a figure which shows the structure of a general headset. It is a figure which shows the structure of the headset which concerns on embodiment. It is a circuit diagram which shows the structure inside a 1st housing | casing. It is a figure which shows the sound insulation characteristic of the headset which concerns on embodiment. It is a circuit diagram which shows the structure inside the 1st housing | casing of the headset which concerns on a modification.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Headphone, 110 ... Communication apparatus, 10a ... 1st housing | casing, 10b ... 2nd housing | casing, 14 ... Speaker, 16 ... 1st microphone, 18 ... 2nd microphone, 20 ... Noise canceling circuit, 22 ... Microphone amplifier , 24 ... phase adjustment circuit, 26 ... speaker amplifier, 30 ... inverting amplifier, 32 ... adder, 34 ... low-pass filter.

Claims (4)

A first microphone;
A second microphone;
Speakers,
A noise canceling circuit that superimposes and superimposes the audio signal collected by the first microphone on the audio signal from the other party, and outputs it to the speaker;
Embedded in the same casing, and outputs a sound signal collected by the second microphone to the other party.   2. The headset according to claim 1, wherein a signal obtained by inverting the phase of an audio signal from the other party is superimposed on the audio signal collected by the second microphone and output to the other party. A microphone,
Speakers,
A noise canceling circuit that superimposes and superimposes the audio signal collected by the microphone on the audio signal from the other party, and outputs it to the speaker;
Embedded in the same housing, and outputs a sound signal collected by the microphone to the other party.   The headset according to claim 3, further comprising a filter that removes a high-frequency component of an audio signal collected by the microphone, and transmitting the output of the filter to the other party.

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