JP6660808B2 - Audio output control device, electronic device, and control method for audio output control device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a sound output control device that controls a sound output device to output sound, an electronic device, and a sound system.

  2. Description of the Related Art An audio system in which a server connected to an electronic device via a network supplies audio data to the electronic device and the electronic device that receives the audio data outputs audio is known as a related art.

  For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a server that sets output conditions for audio data. When an output condition set for received audio data is satisfied, the electronic device transmits the audio data. Is output and the utterance is executed. As a result, it is possible to perform audio output from the electronic device with improved user convenience. Further, it is possible to more effectively utilize the audio output from the electronic device according to various situations.

JP-A-2015-163920 (published on September 10, 2015)

  However, in the above-described related art, the output sound may not be transmitted to the user depending on the situation where the user is placed, particularly, depending on the sound environment.

  For example, if the output volume of the electronic device is relatively small with respect to the volume of the operating sound of another electronic device installed in the same room as the electronic device or the volume of the environmental sound of the room, the user can enter the room. Even if there is, there is a possibility that the sound of the electronic device is difficult to hear or cannot be heard at all. Also, if there is no user in the room when the electronic device outputs the sound, the user cannot naturally hear the sound.

  In order to reliably transmit voice to the user, the environment in which the user is located at the time of voice output (for example, where the user is, what kind of sound is sounding where the user is, and the speaker and the user) It is necessary to grasp the positional relationship of the user, etc.), and output the sound to the electronic device in a manner according to the environment of the place where the user is. However, the output condition according to Patent Document 1 is set in advance for audio data. Therefore, it is difficult to control the manner of audio output according to the output conditions according to the user's environment that changes every moment.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to control an electronic device so as to execute audio output according to a situation, so that audio can be more reliably transmitted to a user. It is an object of the present invention to realize a sound output control device and an electronic device that are possible.

  In order to solve the above problem, an audio output control device according to one embodiment of the present invention is an audio output control device that controls a plurality of electronic devices having an audio output function, and is notified from the electronic device. An output device determining unit that determines an audio output device that outputs audio from the plurality of electronic devices based on status information indicating a status of the electronic device, and at least the determined audio output device outputs audio And an operation control unit that instructs each electronic device to perform a quiet operation in which the operation sound is reduced.

  According to one embodiment of the present invention, there is an effect that voice can be more reliably transmitted to a user.

It is a figure showing important parts composition of a cloud server and household appliances concerning each embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure showing the schematic structure of the utterance system concerning each embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of device information stored in a storage unit of the cloud server. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of a device arrangement map stored in a storage unit of the cloud server. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an utterance control process executed by the cloud server according to the first embodiment. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of sound environment information stored in a storage unit of the cloud server. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an utterance control process executed by the cloud server according to the second embodiment. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an utterance control process executed by the cloud server according to the third embodiment. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an utterance control process executed by the cloud server according to the fourth embodiment. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an utterance control process executed by the cloud server according to the fifth embodiment. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an utterance control process executed by a cloud server according to Embodiment 6. FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of device information regarding a communication terminal stored in a storage unit of a cloud server according to a seventh embodiment. 21 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an utterance control process according to a first example, which is executed by the cloud server according to the seventh embodiment. 20 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an utterance control process according to a second example, which is executed by the cloud server according to the seventh embodiment. 20 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of a dialogue control process executed by the cloud server according to the eighth embodiment.

[Embodiment 1]
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

(Overview of the speech system)
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the speech system according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, as an example, the voice system of the present invention is applied to a voice system 100 (voice system) in which an electronic device performs voice to a user. The utterance system 100 includes a cloud server 1 as an audio output control device of the present invention, and a home electronic device (hereinafter, home appliance) 2 as an electronic device of the present invention. At least one, more preferably, a plurality of home appliances 2 (electronic devices) are installed in the user's home.

  The utterance system 100 may further include the communication terminal 3 as a portable voice output device that executes utterance as needed. The communication terminal 3 (portable electronic device) is, for example, a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a mobile phone, or the like, and is carried by a user. The cloud server 1 (sound output control device), the communication terminal 3, and the home appliance 2 are configured to be connected via a wide area communication network 5. Note that the numbers and types of the home appliances 2 and the communication terminals 3 are not limited, and the home appliances 2 and the communication terminals 3 are collectively used when it is not necessary to separately describe them. Further, the number of user homes managed by the cloud server 1 is not limited.

  A home appliance adapter (not shown) is connected to each of the home appliances 2, and the home appliance adapter forms a part of a communication unit, and connects the home appliance 2 to the wide area communication network 5. Thereby, the home appliance 2 can be a so-called network home appliance, and an external device such as the cloud server 1 can control the home appliance 2 via the wide area communication network 5.

  A wireless LAN (Wireless Local Area Network), which is a short-range communication network, is provided at the user's home. The relay station 4 of the wireless LAN is connected to a wide-area communication network 5 including the Internet. The relay station 4 is a communication device such as a Wi-Fi (registered trademark) router or a Wi-Fi (registered trademark) access point. Here, the configuration including the Internet is exemplified as the wide area communication network 5, but a telephone line network, a mobile communication network, a CATV (CAble TeleVision) communication network, a satellite communication network, or the like can also be used.

  Through the wide area communication network 5 and the relay station 4 of the wireless LAN, the cloud server 1 and the home appliance 2 installed in the user's home can communicate. Further, the cloud server 1 and the communication terminal 3 can communicate with each other via the wide area communication network 5. The communication terminal 3 and the Internet in the wide area communication network 5 are connected using 3G (3rd Generation), LTE (Long Term Evolution), a home or public Wi-Fi (registered trademark) access point, or the like. .

  In the utterance system 100, the utterance to the user is realized by transmitting and receiving some information between the cloud server 1 that controls the utterance and the home appliance 2 that executes the utterance according to the control. More specifically, first, the status of the place where the user is located is grasped in the cloud server 1 by analyzing a status report (status information) that is reported from the home appliance 2 to the cloud server 1 at any time in almost real time. You. The status report may be, specifically, an operation log (operation status information) indicating the operation status of the home appliance 2 itself, or a sensor value measured or detected by various sensors provided in the home appliance 2 or the status value. It may be sensing information including an analysis result obtained by analyzing the sensor value. The home appliance 2 may transmit the status report at a timing when the status has changed, may transmit the status report periodically at a predetermined cycle, or may transmit at both timings.

Next, when any event (utterance event) that should cause the home appliance 2 to speak occurs at the user's home, the cloud server 1 analyzes the status report supplied from the home appliance 2 and determines the status where the user is placed. In order to transmit the utterance content to the user, the home appliance 2 is controlled according to the situation. Specifically, the cloud server 1 instructs the home appliance 2 (hereinafter, utterance main device) that executes utterance to execute utterance, and supplies the utterance content. Note that the speech content may include output speech data obtained by converting speech speech into data.
In addition, the cloud server 1 transmits control information to the control target home appliances 2 to control the respective home appliances 2. This control is performed in accordance with the situation where the user is placed (that is, the situation of the home appliance 2 and the surroundings of the home appliance 2) in order to surely transmit the utterance content to the user. The control information includes, for example, but not limited to, an utterance instruction, a silent driving instruction, an environmental sound acquisition instruction, a reverberation sound acquisition instruction, and a movement instruction.

  In the present embodiment, the utterance system 100 acquires a user's utterance (voice input through a microphone or the like), performs voice recognition, and causes the home appliance 2 to execute a utterance responsive to the content. It also functions as an interactive system for realizing correspondence with the user. In this case, the home appliance 2 transmits the user's voice picked up by the microphone of the home appliance 2 to the cloud server 1. The cloud server 1 performs a voice recognition process on the input voice data received from the home appliance 2, and returns output voice data specified as an execution result to the home appliance 2.

  When the microphone is regarded as a kind of sensor, the input voice data is included in the sensing information in a broad sense in the sense of information detected by the sensor. When it is desired to distinguish the sensing information detected by the microphone from the sensing information detected by another sensor, it is referred to as input voice data. The input voice data is classified by the cloud server 1 into user utterance data, environmental sound data, and reverberant sound data according to the content. The user utterance data is the voice of the user's utterance input via the microphone. The environmental sound data and the reverberant sound data will be described in detail in respective embodiments described later.

  In this embodiment, the cloud server 1 registers and manages the home appliance 2 and the communication terminal 3 individually for each client (user home). Therefore, when receiving data, the cloud server 1 can grasp which home appliance 2 or communication terminal 3 is the data transmitted from, and when transmitting data, the cloud server 1 can recognize which home appliance 2 or communication It is possible to specify and send to the terminal 3.

(Composition of home appliances)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of home appliance 2 in utterance system 100. The home appliance 2 includes a control unit 40, a communication unit 41, an operation unit 42, a sensor 43, a microphone 44, a speaker 45, and a function execution unit 46, as shown in FIG. The home appliance 2 is, for example, an air conditioner (hereinafter, an air conditioner), an air purifier, a refrigerator, a washing machine, a cooking appliance such as a microwave oven or a rice cooker, a lighting device, a hot water supply device, a photographing device, a television or a recording / reproducing device. Such as various AV (Audio-Visual) devices, various home robots (for example, self-propelled vacuum cleaners, housekeeping support robots, animal or humanoid robots), and the like.

  The control unit 40 generally controls the operation of each unit of the home appliance 2. The control unit 40 is, for example, a computer device including an arithmetic processing unit such as a CPU and a dedicated processor. The control unit 40 includes a report generation unit 50, a voice control unit 51, and a function control unit 52 as function blocks.

  The report generation unit 50 (status notification unit) generates the above-described status report (status information). For example, when the home appliance 2 (air conditioner) is executing a certain function (strong operation such as cooling), an operation log (power ON / high) indicating that the home appliance 2 is operating and a certain function is being executed. ) As a status report. Alternatively, when a certain state is detected in the home appliance 2 or the environment surrounding the home appliance 2 by the sensor 43 of the home appliance 2, sensing information indicating the detection result is generated as a status report. When the status report is supplied to the cloud server 1, the cloud server 1 can grasp the status where the user is located at any time.

  The audio control unit 51 controls input and output of audio in the home appliance 2 via the microphone 44 and the speaker 45 (audio output unit). Specifically, the voice acquired by the microphone 44 is recorded, and the recorded voice is supplied to the cloud server 1 via the communication unit 41 as input voice data. Further, the output audio data supplied by the cloud server 1 is acquired via the communication unit 41, and the acquired audio data is controlled by the speaker 45 and output as audio that can be heard by the user. As a result, the voice uttered by the user is supplied to the cloud server 1 as user utterance data, and the cloud server 1 creates output voice data to cause the device to utter according to the utterance content of the user. The output voice data is supplied to the home appliance 2 and is uttered from the home appliance 2 as a response to the utterance of the user. In this way, in the utterance system 100, a dialog between the user and the home appliance 2 is realized.

  The function control unit 52 is an original function of each of the home appliances 2. The function control unit 52 implements the original functions of the home appliance 2 by driving various components or mechanisms (the function execution unit 46) provided in the home appliance 2 in order to realize the function. Specific examples of this function include a washing function of a washing machine, a cooling function of a refrigerator, a heating function of a microwave oven, a cooling function of an air conditioner, a cleaning function of a self-propelled cleaning robot, and the like. The function control unit 52 acquires the control information supplied from the cloud server 1 via the communication unit 41, and controls the operation of the function execution unit 46 according to the content of the control information. Thus, the cloud server 1 controls the operation / non-operation of each home appliance 2 and the operation content during operation.

  The communication unit 41 includes the home appliance adapter described above, and performs mutual communication with the cloud server 1 via the wide area communication network 5. Although not shown, the home appliance 2 includes a storage unit such as a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), and a hard disk drive (HDD), and stores various data used in the home appliance 2 in the storage unit. Can be stored.

  The operation unit 42 receives an input operation by the user. The operation unit 42 is, for example, a physical button, a touch panel, or the like, and outputs an input signal indicating that an input operation has been received to the report generation unit 50 and the function control unit 52. The report generation unit 50 and the function control unit 52 create a status report and control the operation of the function execution unit 46 according to the input signal. The operation unit 42 may be a remote controller for operating a television, an air conditioner, or the like, or may be a door or a lid that is opened and closed in a refrigerator, a washing machine, a microwave oven, a rice cooker, or the like.

  The sensor 43 detects the state of the home appliance 2 or the state of the surrounding environment surrounding the home appliance 2. The result detected by the sensor 43 is processed by the report generation unit 50 as sensing information. The sensor 43 includes, for example, a human sensor, a temperature sensor, an illuminance sensor, an opening / closing sensor such as a door or a lid, and a displacement sensor. The operation unit 42 is included in the sensor 43 in a broad sense in that it detects the presence or absence of a user operation. The microphone 44 is included in the sensor 43 in a broad sense in that it detects a sound generated around the home appliance 2.

  The microphone 44 acquires a voice input to the control unit 40 by the user. The voice acquired by the microphone 44 is processed by the voice control unit 51 as input voice data. The speaker 45 outputs the output audio data processed by the audio control unit 51 of the control unit 40 as audio to be heard by the user.

(Cloud server configuration)
FIG. 1 also shows a main configuration of the cloud server 1 in the utterance system 100. The cloud server 1 is a server that manages and controls each home appliance 2 for each user's home, and includes a control unit 10, a communication unit 11, and a storage unit 12, as shown in FIG. The control unit 10 includes, for example, a computer device including an arithmetic processing unit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a dedicated processor, and generally controls the operation of each unit of the cloud server 1. The control unit 10 includes, as functional blocks, an information management unit 20, a voice analysis unit 21, an utterance control unit 22, and an operation control unit 23. The communication unit 11 performs mutual communication with the home appliance 2 and the communication terminal 3 via the wide area communication network 5. The storage unit 12 stores various data used in the cloud server 1. The storage unit 12 stores, for example, device information 30 and utterance data 31. Further, the storage unit 12 may store the sound environment information 32 and the device arrangement map 33 as necessary. The utterance data 31 stores a plurality of contents to be uttered by the home appliance 2 in the form of text data or voice data, and the utterance control unit 22 creates output voice data by combining one or more of these utterance data. I do. That is, the utterance data 31 is a material of the output audio data. Each utterance data 31 may have associated information such as importance (including urgency) and utterance conditions. Detailed functions of the above-described functional blocks and specific examples of the device information 30 and the device arrangement map 33 will be described in detail below.

  The information management unit 20 analyzes the contents of the status report supplied from the home appliance 2 to manage and grasp the device information of the home appliance 2. The information management unit 20 updates the device information 30 stored in the storage unit 12 according to the analysis result of the status report, and maintains the device information 30 so as to reflect the latest state of the home appliance 2. Thereby, the control unit 10 can grasp the situation where the user is located by referring to the latest state of each home appliance 2 in each user's house.

  The voice analysis unit 21 analyzes the input voice data supplied from the home appliance 2 and notifies a result of the analysis to a functional block downstream of the control unit 10. For example, when the input voice data is user utterance data, the utterance control unit 22 is notified so as to respond to the utterance of the user. Alternatively, when the input voice data is environmental sound data and reverberant sound data, the analysis result is stored in the storage unit 12 as the sound environment information 32, or the analysis result is notified to the operation control unit 23. I do.

  The utterance control unit 22 (output device determination unit) creates output audio data including the content to be uttered by the home appliance 2 when an event to be uttered by the home appliance 2 occurs. For example, the utterance control unit 22 refers to the user utterance data converted into text data by the voice analysis unit 21 and creates output voice data to cause the home appliance 2 to utter. In order to realize the dialogue with the user, the output voice data must include contents suitable as a response to the utterance of the user. Therefore, the utterance control unit 22 combines the one or more utterance data 31 stored in the storage unit 12 as the material of the output voice data and the keyword uttered by the user so that a dialog with the user is established. The output audio data including the detailed contents is generated. Existing technology can be used for the technology related to the determination of the utterance content for realizing the dialogue.

  Further, the utterance control unit 22 outputs the output voice data created as described above, that is, determines the home appliance 2 (hereinafter, the utterance main device) that is to perform utterance based on the content of the device information 30. It has a function to do. That is, the utterance control unit 22 determines the preferred utterance subject device (voice output device) in accordance with the situation where the user is located, so that the utterance content is more reliably transmitted to the user. The method of determining the uttering subject device will be described later in detail.

  The operation control unit 23 performs operation control for ensuring that the utterance content is transmitted to the user with respect to each of the utterance main device determined by the utterance control unit 22 and the other household appliances 2. Do. As an example, the operation control unit 23 executes the silent control on the household appliances 2 other than the utterance main device in the same room as the utterance main device. Silent control is to reduce the degree of the function currently being executed, execute another function, or stop executing the function so that the operating sound of the currently operated home appliance 2 becomes smaller. Is transmitted to the respective home appliances 2. According to this control information, the home appliances 2 (hereinafter, non-speaking devices) other than the main device that is the utterer can make the operating sound generated by the own device smaller than before. This makes it easier for the user to hear the voice output from the utterance subject device, and the utterance content is more reliably transmitted to the user.

(Equipment information)
FIG. 3 shows a specific example of the device information 30 stored in the storage unit 12. Note that, in FIG. 3, the device information is shown in a data format in a table format, which is an example, and there is no intention to limit the data structure of the device information to a table format. Hereinafter, the same applies to other drawings for describing the data structure.

  The device information 30 is a set of one or more pieces of information about the home appliance 2 installed in the user's home. When the cloud server 1 manages a plurality of user homes, the table of the device information 30 shown in FIG. 3 is created for each user home, and the device information 30 of any user home is determined by a client ID or the like. The cloud server 1 can specify whether or not there is. The device information 30 is roughly classified into three types: (1) basic information, (2) state information, and (3) sensing information.

  The basic information is composed of basic information on the home appliance 2. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, items such as a device ID, a device type, a speaker position (unnecessary in the first embodiment), and an arrangement location correspond to the basic information. These pieces of basic information are initially registered in the cloud server 1 by a user operation (for example, using the communication terminal 3). These pieces of basic information are not automatically updated unless the user performs an update operation as needed.

  The device ID is identification information of the home appliance 2 used to uniquely identify the home appliance 2 in the user's home. The device type is used for the same purpose as the device ID, but is composed of words that are easy for the user to understand. It is sufficient that at least one of the device ID and the device type is included in the basic information. The speaker position indicates how high the speaker 45 of the home appliance 2 is provided from the bottom surface of the main body of the home appliance 2. In the first embodiment, the speaker position may not be included in the basic information. The arrangement place indicates in which room of the user's home the home appliance 2 is installed. It is assumed that the number of rooms constituting the user's home and the identification information of each room are registered in advance in the storage unit 12 of the cloud server 1, and the identification information of the rooms is “living room”, “kitchen” in the drawing. It may be composed of words that can be understood by the user, such as, for example, or may be a simple list of numbers, characters, symbols, and the like, like the device ID. For example, in the present embodiment, the number of rooms constituting the user's house and the identification information of each room may be stored in the storage unit 12 as the device arrangement map 33 as shown in FIG.

  The state information includes information indicating the state of the home appliance 2. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, items such as the presence or absence of utterance and the operation status (operation status information) correspond to the status information. The status information is updated by the information management unit 20 at any time according to the contents of the operation log included in the status report supplied from the home appliance 2.

  The presence or absence of utterance indicates whether or not there is a content to be uttered corresponding to the state of the home appliance 2. The operation status indicates whether or not the home appliance 2 is operating and, when it is operating, what kind of operation is being performed. For example, when the operation log supplied from the washing machine changes in the order of “ON / wash” → “ON / rinse” → “ON / dehydration” → “OFF / −”, the information management unit 20 adjusts accordingly. , Change the cell of the operation status of the washing machine. When the operation log changes from operation (ON) to non-operation (OFF), the utterance control unit 22 reads out the material from the utterance data 31 and generates output audio data “washing finished.” The information management unit 20 determines that the content to be uttered has been created for the washing machine, and updates the item of the utterance of the washing machine from “0 (no utterance content)” to “1 (with utterance content)”. I do. When the information management unit 20 receives, from the uttered home appliance 2, a notification that the output of the output voice data has been completed, the information on the presence or absence of the utterance of the washing machine is changed from “1” to “0”.

  The sensing information includes a detection result detected by the sensor 43 (including the operation unit 42 and the microphone 44 in a broad sense) of the home appliance 2 or information indicating a state of the home appliance 2 determined from the detection result. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, items such as a human sensor, a temperature sensor, an illuminance sensor, a door sensor, a key input, a displacement sensor (not required in the first embodiment), and a voice input correspond to the sensing information. These pieces of sensing information are updated at any time by the information management unit 20 according to the contents of the sensing information included in the status report supplied from the home appliance 2.

  The item “human sensor” indicates whether or not the sensor 43 as the human sensor included in the home appliance 2 detects the presence of a person. “1” means “there is a person (user)”, and “0” means “there is no person”. Note that “−” means that the home appliance 2 does not include the sensor 43 related to the item. The same applies to the following items. The item “temperature sensor” indicates the temperature around the home appliance 2 detected by the sensor 43 as a temperature sensor included in the home appliance 2. The item “illuminance sensor” indicates whether or not the surrounding brightness detected by the sensor 43 as the illuminance sensor included in the home appliance 2 is equal to or greater than a predetermined value. It is preferable that the predetermined value is set to a value such that the brightness when the room is illuminated and the brightness when the room is not illuminated can be clearly distinguished. “1” means “bright or more than a predetermined value (= light is on)”, and “0” means “less than a predetermined value and dark (= no light is on)”. The item “open / close sensor” indicates whether the sensor 43 as the open / close sensor provided in the home appliance 2 detects whether the door (or lid) of the home appliance 2 is open or closed. . “1” means “the door is open”, and “0” means “the door is closed”. The item “key input” indicates whether or not the operation unit 42 included in the home appliance 2 has received any user operation, that is, whether or not the user is operating. “1” means “there is user operation (during user operation)”, and “0” means “no user operation (the user is not operating)”. The item “displacement sensor” indicates a height from the floor of the room on the bottom surface of the main body of the home appliance 2 detected by the sensor 43 as a displacement sensor included in the home appliance 2. The item “voice input” indicates whether or not input voice data, in particular, user utterance data has been acquired via the microphone 44 provided in the home appliance 2. “1” indicates “user utterance”, and “0” indicates “no user utterance”. In the present embodiment, the information management unit 20 sets the item of “voice input” of the home appliance 2 to “1” during a period from the time when the user utterance data is acquired by the home appliance 2 to a lapse of a predetermined time (for example, 30 seconds). Set to. The user is assumed to be in the room for a while (at least about 30 seconds) immediately after talking to the home appliance 2, and can be estimated to be near the home appliance 2 during that period. By setting the item of "voice input" according to such rules according to the actual situation of the user, the situation where the user is located (the environment where the user is located) can be grasped more accurately based on the sensing information. be able to.

  As described above, upon receiving the status report from the home appliance 2, the information management unit 20 updates the device information 30 according to the content of the status report, and reflects the latest status of the home appliance 2 and the surroundings of the home appliance 2. The device information 30 is maintained as described above. Thereby, when the utterance is necessary, the utterance control unit 22 and the driving control unit 23 grasp the situation where the user is placed at that time, and execute the utterance according to the situation. Can be controlled.

(Equipment layout map)
FIG. 4 shows a specific example of the device arrangement map 33 stored in the storage unit 12. For example, the user's home shown in FIG. 2 has six rooms: rooms 1 to 3, a washroom, a kitchen, and a living room, a washing machine in the washroom, a microwave oven and a refrigerator in the kitchen, a self-propelled vacuum cleaner in the living room, Air conditioning and television are provided. In order to determine the state of the home appliance 2 in more detail, the position of the accessory of the home appliance 2 (charging stand of a self-propelled vacuum cleaner) or the position of a sound insulating object (furniture such as a sofa) is registered in the device arrangement map 33 in advance. It may be.

  The cloud server 1 manages the map information as shown in FIG. 4 with respect to the user's home, so that the type, size and number of rooms constituting the user's home, the current position of each home appliance 2 and the home appliance 2 The positional relationship may be grasped. However, the storage unit 12 does not have to store the device arrangement map 33 as an essential component.

(Flow of utterance control processing)
The flow of the speech control process executed by the cloud server 1 will be described with reference to FIG. 5 according to the specific examples shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

  First, the control unit 10 of the cloud server 1 detects that an utterance event has occurred at the user's house (S101). Specifically, when the washing machine as the home appliance 2 completes the dehydration and completes a series of washing, the report generation unit 50 of the washing machine replaces the operation log “ON / dehydration” with “OFF / −”. Is transmitted to the cloud server 1. The information management unit 20 updates the item of the operating status of the washing machine in the device information 30 to “OFF / −”. The utterance control unit 22 detects that the operation state of the washing machine has been updated from “ON / dehydration” to “OFF / −” as an utterance event, and outputs an utterance “washing completed” corresponding to this event. Voice data is created using the material of the utterance data 31. When the preparation for the utterance is completed in this way, the utterance control unit 22 next executes the processing of S102 and thereafter to determine the utterance subject device that executes the utterance.

  First, the utterance control unit 22 acquires sensing information of each home appliance 2 from the device information 30 stored in association with the user's house (S102). Then, it is estimated which room the user is in using the acquired sensing information (S103). The method of estimating the user's whereabouts is not particularly limited. In the present embodiment, for example, the user's whereabouts can be estimated as follows with reference to the sensing information shown in FIG. The location of the home appliance 2 in which the item of “voice input” is “1” is estimated as the location of the user. The location of the home appliance 2 in which the item of “key input” is “1” is estimated as the location of the user. If the location of the home appliance 2 whose “human sensor” item is “1” is specified as one room (for example, a living room), the room is estimated as the user's location. If the number of candidates for the user's location cannot be reduced to one in the above, the location of the user may be estimated by appropriately combining items such as “illuminance sensor”, “open / close sensor”, and “temperature sensor”. For example, when the room is bright and the temperature is appropriate, and the door (lid) of the home appliance 2 is open to one room, there is a high possibility that the user is in that room.

  As described above, when the location of the user is estimated using the sensing information, the utterance control unit 22 next determines the home appliance 2 located at the estimated location as a candidate of the utterance main device, and The operation status item is acquired from the device information 30 (S104). Then, looking at the operation status of each home appliance 2, if there is a non-operation home appliance 2 (hereinafter, non-operation device), that is, if there is a home appliance 2 whose operation status item indicates "OFF" (YES in S105) ), The home appliance 2 is determined as the utterance main device (S106). For example, when the user's location is estimated to be “living room”, the utterance control unit 22 operates the television “ON / volume 30”, the self-propelled cleaner “OFF / charging”, and operates the air conditioner. Acquire the status “ON / strong”. Then, the self-propelled vacuum cleaner, which is a non-operating device, is determined to be the utterance main device.

  If all the home appliances 2 in the room where the user is located are operating (there is only an operating device) (NO in S105), the device with the lowest operating sound is specified among those operating devices, and this is determined by the utterer. The device can be determined (S107). The storage unit 12 of the cloud server 1 stores the type of operation that can be performed and the approximate volume of the operation sound generated by the operation for each household appliance 2 (for example, the air conditioner: strong operation -50 db, usually Operation -42 db, weak operation -30 db, ... etc.). The utterance control unit 22 can specify the device with the smallest current operation sound based on the information on the operation sound and the operation state of each home appliance 2. The operating sound is not limited to the current state, and may be determined from the operating sound after the silent control. In this case, it is desirable to perform silent control on the main utterance device as described later. Alternatively, the utterance control unit 22 estimates the volume of the operation sound of each home appliance 2 based on the operation state of each home appliance 2 and the information of the operation sound, and indicates that the volume of the operation sound is lower than a predetermined value. The utterance subject device may be determined from the household appliances 2. As an example of the predetermined value, a value that can be generally sensed as “quiet” can be 45 dB or a value smaller than 45 dB.

  When the main utterance device is determined as described above, next, the operation control unit 23 performs the silent control on each of the active devices arranged in the same room as the main utterance device (S108). . In the above example, silent control is performed on the television and the air conditioner. For example, the operation control unit 23 transmits control information for instructing the television to reduce the volume from 30 to 15 or transmits control information for instructing the air conditioner to switch from strong operation to normal operation. Or sending it.

  Subsequently, the utterance control unit 22 determines the output voice data created in response to the utterance event in S101 as the main utterance device, supplies the utterance main device to the home appliance 2 (here, a self-propelled cleaner), and Is instructed to speak (S109).

  When the home appliance 2 that has received the output audio data outputs the output audio data and finishes uttering “washing finished.”, The report generation unit 50 of the home appliance 2 notifies the end of the utterance. The utterance completion notice is created and returned to the cloud server 1. When the information management unit 20 receives the utterance completion notification (YES in S110), the operation control unit 23 instructs each operating device that has instructed the silent operation to return to the operation before the silent operation. Send This cancels the silent control (S111).

  According to the above method, when the cloud server 1 determines that the utterance is to be output to the user, the utterance control unit 22 of the cloud server 1 firstly sets the utterance subject device that executes the utterance to the estimated user. Is determined based on the location of the home appliance and the operating status of the home appliance 2. Next, the operation control unit 23 executes the silent control on the operating device arranged in the same room as the main subject device (that is, the user's location). Thereafter, the utterance control unit 22 instructs the utterance subject device to execute utterance.

  Thereby, it is possible to cause the home appliance 2 located at the user's location and not emitting the operation sound or causing the home appliance 2 with a low operation sound to execute the utterance, and the home appliance 2 executes the utterance. When doing so, it is possible to reduce the operating sound of the other home appliances 2 arranged in the same room. Therefore, the user can operate the home appliance 2 in the same room under the situation in which the operation sound of the home appliance 2 in the room where the user is located is suppressed and becomes quieter than before, and the home appliance 2 itself does not emit the operation sound. Can hear the utterance.

  From the above, even if the home appliance 2 utters, the user cannot hear the utterance because the user is absent, or even if the home appliance 2 utters, a sound other than the utterance is sounding around the user. Inconvenience such as difficulty can be solved. As a result, it is possible to realize an utterance system capable of more reliably transmitting utterance contents to a user.

  Note that the utterance control unit 22 may also perform silent control on the utterance main device. In this case, when the utterance main device executes the utterance, the operation sound of the utterance main device is also reduced, so that the utterance content can be more reliably transmitted to the user.

  In addition, it may be possible to specify whether to allow or prohibit the silent operation for each household appliance 2. For example, when the microwave oven is operating, it is considered that cooking is being performed, and if silent operation is performed during cooking, cooking may be failed. Further, there is a possibility that the user may feel uncomfortable that the volume is increased or decreased while watching the television. Therefore, if it is possible to set whether or not to allow silent control during utterance for each home appliance 2, it is possible to prevent the utterance from impairing the function of the home appliance 2.

[Embodiment 2]
Another embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. For convenience of explanation, members having the same functions as the members described in the above-described embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. The same applies to the following embodiments.

  In the present embodiment, when the volume of the environmental sound in the room in which the main utterance device is arranged is large, the volume or sound quality of the sound output by the main utterance device is further changed so that the user can listen to the sound. Make it easier.

(Cloud server configuration)
In the second embodiment, sound environment information 32 is stored in the storage unit 12 of the cloud server 1 as an essential configuration. FIG. 6 shows a specific example of the sound environment information 32. Note that the sound environment information 32 is described in a table different from the device information 30 shown in FIG. 3, but the columns of “environment sound level” and “reverberation sound” in the sound environment information 32 are added to the device information 30. By adding, the device information 30 and the sound environment information 32 may be managed in one table. In the second embodiment, the sound environment information 32 includes at least an item of “environmental sound level”. The item of “reverberation” is not essential in the second embodiment.

  Upon receiving the input voice data from the home appliance 2, the voice analysis unit 21 analyzes the input voice data and determines whether the input voice data includes the user utterance data, the environmental sound data, or both. To analyze. When the input speech data includes the user speech data, the speech analysis unit 21 performs a speech recognition process on the user speech data, and supplies the execution result to the speech control unit 22. On the other hand, when the input sound data includes the environmental sound data, the sound analysis unit 21 specifies the volume of the environmental sound data, and determines the sound volume in the “environment” of the home appliance 2 of the transmission source in the sound environment information 32. Sound level ”. If the volume is already stored, the volume is updated to the latest volume.

  Note that the microphone 44 of the home appliance 2 can pick up the output sound of the television including the utterance of a person as the environmental sound. Even in this case, the voice analysis unit 21 can distinguish between user utterance data and environmental sound data (TV sound). For example, even when the voice analysis unit 21 analyzes that the input voice data received from the home appliance 2 is user utterance data, the sensor 43 (a human sensor, a camera, or the like) of the home appliance 2 detects the presence of a person. If no detection is made, the analysis result can be corrected if the sound considered to be the user utterance data is the environmental sound output from a television or a radio.

  When the utterance main unit is determined by the utterance control unit 22, the operation control unit 23 acquires the volume of the environmental sound from the sound environment information 32 for the home appliance 2 arranged in the same room as the utterance main unit. Then, if at least one of the acquired volume levels of the environmental sound is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold (that is, if the environmental sound of the room is too loud), the driving control unit 23 transmits an utterance to the utterance main device. The user instructs the user to change the output volume and / or sound quality when performing the operation so that the user can easily hear the sound. For example, the driving control unit 23 may instruct the user to increase the output volume of the speaker 45 of the home appliance 2, or change the sound level of the specific sound range in the output audio data, in order to make the user more audible. And instructing to change the sound quality of the output audio data.

(Flow of utterance control processing)
The flow of an utterance control process executed by the cloud server 1 according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, when the cloud server 1 detects the occurrence of a speech event at the user's house (S101), the voice analysis unit 21 waits for a voice input after the occurrence of the speech event (S201). Here, the operation control unit 23 may instruct the home appliance 2 to acquire the environmental sound. When the input voice data is supplied from the voice control unit 51 of the home appliance 2 (YES in S201), the voice analysis unit 21 determines whether the input voice data includes the user utterance data, Is determined (S202). Here, if the input voice data is not supplied after the occurrence of the utterance event, or if the supplied input voice data does not include the environmental sound data (NO in S201 or NO in S202), the utterance control unit 22 and The operation control unit 23 executes S102 to S111 of the utterance control process illustrated in FIG. 5, as in the first embodiment. In addition, in S202, when the voice analysis unit 21 determines that the user voice data is included in the input voice data, the voice analysis unit 21 performs a voice recognition process on the user voice data (S203). In this case, the utterance control unit 22 creates the content to be uttered by the home appliance 2 according to the result of the voice recognition processing.

  On the other hand, when the sound analysis unit 21 determines that the input sound data includes the environmental sound data, the sound analysis unit 21 specifies the volume of the environmental sound in the environmental sound data, and The sound volume is stored in association with the home appliance 2 that is the data supply source (S204). Then, the control unit 10 executes S102 to S108 of the utterance control process as in the first embodiment.

  After that, in the present embodiment, the operation control unit 23 refers to the volume of the environmental sound of the home appliance 2 in the same room as the utterance main device determined in S106 or S107. If at least one of the environmental sounds in the room is equal to or greater than the threshold (YES in S205), the driving control unit 23 makes it easier for the user to hear the volume and / or sound quality of the utterance main device. (S206). Then, the control unit 10 executes the remaining utterance control processing (S109 to S111). If the volume of the environmental sound is less than the threshold value (NO in S205), it means that the environmental sound in the room is not loud, and the control unit 10 performs the same processing as in the first embodiment without executing S206. Then, the remaining utterance control processing (S109 to S111) may be executed.

  In S202, if both the user utterance data and the environmental sound data are included in the input voice data, the processing of S203 is performed on the user utterance data, and then the processing of S204 to S206 is performed on the environmental sound data. Is performed.

  According to the above method, when the user's location is estimated and the uttering main device is determined, the volume of the environmental sound in the room where the uttering main device is located (where the user is located) is measured. When the volume of the environmental sound is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, that is, when the room is noisy, the driving control unit 23 transmits a message to the utterance main device so that the user can easily hear the utterance. Instructs to increase the sound output level or change the sound quality (increase the level of high-frequency sound). The home appliance 2 executes the utterance instructed by the utterance control unit 22 after changing the voice or the sound quality in accordance with the instruction from the operation control unit 23.

  As a result, the difficulty of hearing the sound caused by the ambient sound in the room is eliminated, and the user can easily hear the utterance contents. As a result, it is possible to realize an utterance system capable of more reliably transmitting utterance contents to a user.

[Embodiment 3]
The following will describe another embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, the degree of silent control is changed according to the importance of the utterance content. In other words, silent control is performed such that the higher the importance of the utterance, the lower the operating sound of each home appliance 2 when it is output.

(Cloud server configuration)
In the present embodiment, the utterance data 31 stored in the storage unit 12 is associated with additional information of importance according to the importance of the content. For example, an important utterance is assumed to be a danger warning, a highly urgent notification, or the like. The importance value may be set arbitrarily, and in the present embodiment, as an example, importance values “high”, “medium”, and “low” are set in descending order of importance.

  The utterance control unit 22 uses the utterance data 31 to generate output voice data to cause the home appliance 2 to utter according to the generated utterance event. The utterance control unit 22 notifies the operation control unit 23 of the importance associated with the utterance data 31 used as the importance of the generated output voice data.

  The operation control unit 23 determines the degree of silent control for each operating device according to the importance of the output audio data. For example, when the importance is “high”, it is conceivable that the cleaning is stopped even when the self-propelled cleaner is cleaning, and when the importance is “medium” or less, the cleaning is not stopped. Alternatively, when the importance is “high”, the operation of the air conditioner is stopped, when the importance is “medium”, the strong operation and the normal operation are switched to the weak operation, and when the importance is “low”, the strong operation is performed. Switching to normal operation may be considered.

(Flow of utterance control processing)
The flow of the speech control process executed by the cloud server 1 of the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, the cloud server 1 executes S101 to S107 in the speech control processing, as in the first embodiment. In this way, the utterance control unit 22 creates the output voice data, and determines the utterance subject device.

  Subsequently, the operation control unit 23 determines the degree of silent control for each operating device, as described above, according to the importance of the output voice data notified from the utterance control unit 22 (S301). Then, the operation control unit 23 executes the remaining utterance control processing (S108 to S111) based on the determined degree of the silent control. In addition, if the operating sound of the current operation is smaller or equal to that of the current operation as compared with the silent control based on the determined degree, the operation controller 23 sets the operating device to May be omitted from transmitting the control information.

  According to the above method, when the output voice data is created and the utterance main device is determined, the operation control unit 23 is arranged in the same room as the utterance main device according to the importance of the output voice data. First, the degree of silent control is determined for each operating device. Specifically, the content of the silent control is determined such that the higher the importance of the utterance, the greater the silent control level (the smaller the operating sound).

  Thus, when the utterance main device executes the utterance, the surrounding home appliances 2 operate with a lower operating sound or stop operating as the utterance content is more important. Therefore, the user is more likely to hear the utterance as the importance (urgency) of the utterance content is higher. As a result, it is possible to realize a speech system capable of preventing a user from overlooking a speech with high importance.

[Embodiment 4]
The following will describe another embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, the utterance subject device is determined by giving priority to the home appliance 2 in which the speaker 45 is installed near the height where the human ear is usually located. That is, the utterance is controlled so that the utterance is output from the speaker 45 installed at a position as close as possible to the human ear, so that the utterance can be more easily heard.

(Configuration of cloud server and home appliances)
In the present embodiment, in the device information 30 stored in the storage unit 12, an item of “speaker position” as basic information and an item of “displacement sensor” as sensing information are essential.

  Therefore, the home appliance 2 of the present embodiment includes a displacement sensor as the sensor 43, and reports to the cloud server 1 as a status report the height of the main body of the home appliance from the floor of the room. .

  The utterance control unit 22 determines whether the height of the speaker 45 from the floor of the room (hereinafter referred to as “installation altitude”) is human, when there are a plurality of candidates for the utterance main device, whether it is an inactive device or an active device. The home appliance 2 having a height as close as possible to the ear (for example, 100 to 170 cm) is preferentially determined as the utterance main device. In the present embodiment, as an example, as in the first embodiment, the utterance control unit 22 first gives priority to the non-operating device over the operating device, and if there are a plurality of candidates, the installation altitude of the speaker 45 is 100 to 100. The home appliance 2 within the range of 170 cm is prioritized to determine the utterance main device. The installation altitude of the speaker 45 is the height from the floor on the bottom surface of the home appliance 2 shown in the item of “displacement sensor” in the sensing information, and the main body of the home appliance 2 shown in the item of “speaker position” in the basic information. It is obtained by adding the height of the speaker 45 from the bottom surface.

  The range of the setting altitude to be prioritized was set to 100 to 170 cm. However, the example of the above range takes into consideration the average height of an adult and the place where the user spends mainly sitting and standing in this room. It was done. The range of the installation altitude is not limited to the above, and an arbitrary numerical value can be set in accordance with the height and lifestyle of the resident of the room.

(Flow of utterance control processing)
The flow of the speech control process executed by the cloud server 1 according to the fourth embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, similarly to the first embodiment, the cloud server 1 executes S101 to S104 in the speech control processing. Subsequently, the utterance control unit 22 refers to the operating status acquired from the device information 30 in S104, and if there is a non-operating device in the room where the user is estimated to be (YES in S105), the non-operating device is determined. Determined as the uttering subject device. Here, when there are a plurality of non-operating devices, among the plurality of non-operating devices, the non-operating device in which the installation altitude of the speaker 45 is in the range of 100 to 170 cm is determined as the utterance main device (S401). When there is only one non-operating device, the utterance control unit 22 omits S401 and determines that one device is the main utterance device as in the first embodiment (S106). On the other hand, if there is no non-operating device in the room (NO in S105), among the operating devices in the room, the operating device in which the installation altitude of the speaker 45 is in the range of 100 to 170 cm is determined as the main subject device (S402). .

  Although not shown, it is also assumed that in S401 or S402, the number of speaking main devices cannot be reduced to one (the case where there is no or a plurality of home appliances 2 in which the installation height of the speaker 45 is in the range of 100 to 170 cm). In this case, the utterance control unit 22 may determine the home appliance 2 in which the installation height of the speaker 45 is closest to 135 cm as the main utterance device.

  When the utterance main device is determined by the utterance control unit 22 as described above, the utterance control unit 22 and the operation control unit 23 execute the remaining utterance control processing (S108 to S111) as in the first embodiment.

  According to the above method, the priority of the home appliance 2 having the speaker 45 installed at a height that is difficult for the user to hear, such as near the ceiling or the floor, is lowered, and the speaker 45 is set around the ear height of the user. Home appliance 2 is preferentially determined as the uttering main device. This makes it easier for the user to hear the utterance content, and as a result, it is possible to realize an utterance system capable of more reliably transmitting the utterance content to the user.

  In the above-described embodiment, the utterance control unit 22 has a configuration in which importance is given to giving priority to the non-operating device over the operating device. However, the utterance control unit 22 does not matter whether the device is the operating device or the non-operating device. First, the configuration may be such that the home appliance 2 in which the installation altitude of the speaker 45 is in the range of 100 to 170 cm is prioritized, or the home appliance 2 in which the installation altitude of the speaker 45 is closest to 135 cm is determined as the main speaker device.

[Embodiment 5]
The following will describe another embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, the priority of the home appliance 2 located in an open space that is not surrounded by the sound insulation is increased. As a result, the inconvenience that the home appliance 2 located in a place surrounded by the sound insulation object is determined as the main utterance device and uttered, but the sound is muffled and hard to reach the user's ear is solved.

(Configuration of cloud server and home appliances)
In the present embodiment, in the sound environment information 32 (FIG. 6) stored in the storage unit 12 of the cloud server 1, the item of "environmental sound level" is not essential, but the item of "reverberation sound" is essential. . The item of “reverberation” stores information indicating whether or not the reverberation has attenuated to a predetermined ratio from a time when a test sound is output to a predetermined time.

  In the present embodiment, the operation control unit 23 periodically (for example, once a day, or with respect to the home appliance 2 whose position changes frequently such as a self-propelled vacuum cleaner) for each home appliance 2 in the user's house. Once every hour), control information for instructing to output reverberation is transmitted.

  The home appliance 2 outputs a test sound from the speaker 45 according to the control information, and acquires a reverberation sound at that time from the microphone 44 for a predetermined period. The report generation unit 50 records the reverberation sound obtained from the microphone 44 and returns the reverberation sound data to the cloud server 1 as a status report.

  Upon acquiring the reverberation sound data from the home appliance 2, the voice analysis unit 21 of the cloud server 1 determines whether or not the volume including the reverberation sound of the test voice has attenuated at a predetermined rate from the time of outputting the test voice to a predetermined time. Is determined. When the reverberation sound has not attenuated to a predetermined ratio by the elapse of the predetermined time from the test sound output time point (that is, when the home appliance 2 is in a wide space), the sound analysis unit 21 indicates “1” indicating this. The value is stored in the item of “reverberation sound” in association with the home appliance 2 that is the transmission source of the reverberation sound data. On the other hand, when the reverberation sound has attenuated to a predetermined ratio by the elapse of the predetermined time from the test sound output time point (that is, when the home appliance 2 is surrounded by the sound insulation material), the sound analysis unit 21 indicates that fact. The value “0” is stored in the item “Reverberation”.

  When determining the utterance subject device, the utterance control unit 22 lowers the priority of the home appliance 2 in which the item of “reverberation” is “0”. When the item of “reverberation” is “0”, it means that the reverberation sound of the sound output from the home appliance 2 is immediately reduced and disappears, and the home appliance 2 is located in a narrow space (a sound insulation material). Enclosed). Therefore, the priority of the home appliances 2 is lowered so that the home appliances 2 located in a place where it is difficult for the person to listen to are not selected as the utterance main devices.

(Flow of utterance control processing)
The flow of the speech control process executed by the cloud server 1 of the fifth embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, similarly to the first embodiment, the cloud server 1 executes S101 to S104 in the speech control processing. Subsequently, the utterance control unit 22 refers to the operating status acquired from the device information 30 in S104, and if there is a non-operating device in the room where the user is estimated to be (YES in S105), the non-operating device is determined. Determined as the uttering subject device. Here, when there are a plurality of non-operating devices, among the non-operating devices, the item of “reverberation sound” in the sound environment information 32 is “1 (= the reverberation sound level is not low and is in a large space)”. A certain non-operating device is determined as the utterance main device (S501). When there is only one non-operating device, the utterance control unit 22 omits S501 and determines one device as the main utterance device as in the first embodiment (S106). On the other hand, if there is no non-operating device in the room (NO in S105), among the operating devices in the room, the operating device in which the item of “reverberation sound” is “1” is determined as the utterance main device (S502).

  Although not shown, a case where it is not possible to narrow down the number of utterance subject devices to one in S501 or S502 (a case where there is no home appliance 2 in which the item of “reverberation” is “1” or a case where there are a plurality of home appliances) is also assumed. In this case, the utterance control unit 22 inquires of the voice analysis unit 21 about the analysis result, specifies the home appliance 2 in which the rate of attenuation of the reverberation sound is the smallest (the reverberation sound remains the longest), and uses this as the utterance main device. You may decide.

  When the utterance main device is determined by the utterance control unit 22 as described above, the utterance control unit 22 and the operation control unit 23 execute the remaining utterance control processing (S108 to S111) as in the first embodiment.

  According to the above method, the priority of the household appliances 2 placed in a place that is difficult for the user to hear, such as being placed under a sofa or being surrounded by furniture, walls, or the like, is reduced in priority, and a nearby sound insulation is not provided. The home appliance 2 which is arranged in a large space without priority is preferentially determined as the uttering main device. This makes it easier for the user to hear the utterance content, and as a result, it is possible to realize an utterance system capable of more reliably transmitting the utterance content to the user.

  In the above-described embodiment, the utterance control unit 22 has a configuration in which importance is given to giving priority to the non-operating device over the operating device. However, the utterance control unit 22 does not matter whether the device is the operating device or the non-operating device. First, the configuration may be such that the home appliance 2 in which the item of “reverberation sound” is “1” is prioritized, or the home appliance 2 in which the reverberation sound remains the longest is determined as the main device for speech.

  Alternatively, the home appliance 2 may be configured to include an infrared sensor as the sensor 43, detect that the own device is surrounded by a sound insulating object, and transmit the fact to the cloud server 1 as a status report. In this case, the information management unit 20 receives the status report and updates the item “Reverberation” of the sound environment information 32 to “0” instead of the voice analysis unit 21.

[Embodiment 6]
Another embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, when the main utterance device is a self-propelled device capable of moving its own position, the main utterance device is controlled to move to a position where the user can more easily hear.

  In the present embodiment, when the utterance main device determined by the utterance control unit 22 is a self-propelled device (for example, a self-propelled cleaner), the operation control unit 23 sets the position of the self-propelled device to: Check if the position is difficult for the listener to hear the voice. When the current position of the self-propelled device is a position where it is difficult for the listener to hear the voice, the operation control unit 23 controls the self-propelled device to move to a position where it is easy to hear. The state in which the self-propelled device is in a position where it is difficult for the listener to hear the sound means that the self-propelled device approaches an object having a predetermined area or more (an object that may block sound) to a distance less than a predetermined distance. Refers to the state in which When an object (a wall, furniture, a curtain, or the like) having a predetermined area or more exists below a predetermined distance of the self-propelled device, the operation control unit 23 performs utterance after separating from the object by a predetermined distance or more. Sends an instruction to the self-propelled device.

  The operation control unit 23 determines whether or not the home appliance 2 is a self-propelled device based on the basic information of the device information 30. The operation control unit 23 may make the above determination based on the item of the device type, or further provide an item for storing a flag indicating whether or not the device is a self-propelled device in the device information 30, and This may be performed based on a flag.

  The operation control unit 23 may determine whether or not the self-propelled cleaner is at a position where it is difficult to hear the sound based on the configuration described in the fifth embodiment. That is, when the item of “reverberation” of the self-propelled cleaner is “0”, it is determined that the self-propelled cleaner is at a position where it is difficult to hear the sound. Alternatively, the operation control unit 23 determines whether or not the self-propelled cleaner is at a position where it is difficult to hear the sound based on the item of “operation status” of the device information 30 and the device arrangement map 33 illustrated in FIG. You may decide. In other words, based on the operating state of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner being “charging” and the fact that the position of the charging stand of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner is below the sofa in the device layout map 33, the operation control unit 23 may determine that the self-propelled cleaner is currently under the sofa and is in a position where it is difficult to hear the sound. Alternatively, the operation control unit 23 sets the item of “illuminance sensor” of the self-propelled vacuum cleaner to “1 (bright)” even though the item of “illuminance sensor” of the other home appliance 2 in the same room is “1 (bright)”. In the case of “0 (dark)”, it may be determined that the self-propelled cleaner is surrounded by a shield and is located at a position where it is difficult to hear the sound.

(Flow of utterance control processing)
The flow of the speech control process executed by the cloud server 1 of the sixth embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, the cloud server 1 executes S101 to S107 in the speech control processing, as in the first embodiment. In this way, the utterance control unit 22 creates the output voice data, and determines the utterance subject device. For example, it is presumed that the user is in the living room, and among the television (ON / volume 30), air conditioner (ON / high), and self-propelled cleaner (OFF / charging) arranged in the ring, self-propelled cleaning It is assumed that the device is determined as the uttering main device.

  The operation control unit 23 determines whether or not the determined utterance subject device is the self-propelled home appliance 2 (S601). If the utterance subject device is a self-propelled device (YES in S601), the operation control unit 23 determines whether the self-propelled device is at a position where it is difficult to hear a voice (S602).

  If the operation control unit 23 determines that the self-propelled device is at a position where it is difficult to hear (YES in S602), the operation control unit 23 controls the self-propelled device so that the self-propelled device moves to a position where it is easy to hear. (S603). For example, when the operation control unit 23 determines that the self-propelled vacuum cleaner is under the sofa and is in a position where it is difficult to hear the sound, the operation control unit 23 exits the self-propelled vacuum cleaner from under the sofa. Is transmitted.

  Thereafter, the utterance control unit 22 and the operation control unit 23 execute the remaining utterance control processing (S108 to S111). If it is determined that the main utterance device is not a self-propelled device (NO in S601) or the self-propelled device, which is the main utterance device, is not at a position where it is difficult to hear sound (NO in S602). The execution of S603 by the operation control unit 23 is omitted.

  According to the above method, when the output voice data is created and the utterance main device is determined, the operation control unit 23 controls the utterance main device as follows. In other words, when the utterance main device is a self-propelled device and the self-propelled device is located at a position where it is difficult to hear the sound, the operation control unit 23 makes the self-propelled device easy to hear the sound. Move to the position and then speak.

  Thus, when the main utterance device executes the utterance, the main utterance device has completed the movement from the position where it is difficult to hear the voice to the position where it is easy to hear the voice. Therefore, the user can hear the utterance content output as voice from a position that is easy to hear. As a result, it is possible to realize an utterance system capable of eliminating the difficulty of hearing the voice and more reliably transmitting the utterance content to the user.

[Embodiment 7]
Another embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In the present embodiment, a portable electronic device that does not belong to any room and is carried by the user instead of or in addition to the home appliance 2 arranged in the room of the user's house is determined as the utterance main device.

(Composition of communication terminal and cloud server)
In the present embodiment, the portable device is, for example, the communication terminal 3 realized by a smartphone or the like. The communication terminal 3 has the same functional configuration (shown in FIG. 1) as the home appliance 2 in each of the above-described embodiments, in addition to the basic functions as the communication terminal, and includes at least an operation log or sensing information. The report is transmitted to the cloud server 1. In addition, it has a function of executing an utterance according to the control information transmitted from the cloud server 1.

  In the present embodiment, the storage unit 12 of the cloud server 1 further stores device information 30 of the communication terminal 3. The device information 30 of the communication terminal 3 may be managed in the same table as the other home appliances 2 located in the user's home, or may be managed in a table different from the other home appliances 2 as shown in FIG. Is also good. When managed by the same table, information that allows each unit of the control unit 10 to determine that the communication terminal 3 is a portable device that does not belong to any room unlike the other home appliances 2 is added. It is preferred that For example, the control unit 10 may determine that a device in which the items of “speaker position” and “placement location” are “none” is a portable device, or that the device type is “smartphone”, “mobile phone” , A device such as a “tablet terminal” may be determined to be a portable device.

  In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 12, the device information 30 of the communication terminal 3 includes basic information, status information, and sensing information, like the device information 30 of the other home appliances 2. The device information 30 of the communication terminal 3 differs from the other home appliances 2 in that the location is not associated with any room in the user's home.

  The utterance control unit 22 can determine the portable device managed by the device information 30 as the utterance main device according to the situation. In the present embodiment, as a first example, when it is estimated that the user is not in any room, the utterance control unit 22 determines the portable device as the utterance main device. As a second example, the utterance control unit 22 first determines one of the home appliances 2 arranged in the room as the utterance main device in the same manner as in each of the above-described embodiments. The type device is determined as the main subject device.

(Flow of utterance control processing-(1))
The flow of the utterance control process according to the first example, which is executed by the cloud server 1 of the seventh embodiment, will be described with reference to FIG. First, the cloud server 1 executes S101 to S103 in the speech control processing, as in the first embodiment. Subsequently, in S103, when the utterance control unit 22 can estimate that the user's location is any room (YES in S701), the control unit 10 executes the remaining utterance control processing as in the first embodiment. Is executed (S104 to S111). On the other hand, if the utterance control unit 22 cannot specify the location of the user in S103, that is, if it is estimated that there is no user in any room where the home appliance 2 is located (NO in S701), the utterance The control unit 22 refers to the device information 30 and determines the portable device (the communication terminal 3) as the utterance main device (S702). The operation control unit 23 transmits the output voice data and control information for instructing the determined communication terminal 3 to make a speech based on the data (S703). The communication terminal 3 that has received the output voice data and the control information executes the utterance as instructed by the operation control unit 23.

  According to the above method, when it is estimated that the user is not in any room, the utterance control unit 22 determines the communication terminal 3 as the utterance main device. Thus, even when the user is absent, the user speaks from the communication terminal 3 carried by the user. Therefore, even if the home appliance 2 arranged in the room utters, the inconvenience that the utterance content is not transmitted to the user because there is no user is solved.

  The case where the user is assumed not to be in any room is the case where the user is out (nowhere in the user's house), the user is somewhere in the user's house, but managed by the cloud server 1. It is conceivable that the user is in a room in which no home appliances 2 are placed or in a place where the home appliances 2 cannot be detected by the sensor 43 (for example, a veranda in FIG. 4, rooms 1 to 3 and a hallway). In such a case, by causing the communication terminal 3 carried by the user to speak, it is possible to more reliably transmit the contents of the speech to the user.

(Flow of utterance control process-(2))
The flow of the utterance control process according to the second example, which is executed by the cloud server 1 of the seventh embodiment, will be described with reference to FIG. First, the cloud server 1 executes S101 to S103 in the speech control processing, as in the first embodiment. Subsequently, when the utterance control unit 22 can estimate that the user's location is any room in S103 (YES in S701), similarly to the first embodiment, the control unit 10 first executes S104 to S104. The speech control process of S110 is executed, and then the processes of S711 and S712 are executed prior to S111. That is, after the utterance by the home appliance 2 in the room is completed in S110, and before the silent control performed in S108 is released, the utterance control unit 22 determines the communication terminal 3 as the utterance main device (S711). The operation control unit 23 causes the communication terminal 3 to execute the utterance of the same content (S712). On the other hand, when the location of the user cannot be specified in S103 (NO in S701), the utterance control unit 22 executes the processing of S702 and S703 as in the first example.

  According to the above method, even when the user is estimated to be in any room, after the home appliance 2 in that room has performed an utterance during the silent control, before the silent control is released, The same utterance is executed from the communication terminal 3. Thereby, in addition to being uttered from the communication terminal 3 carried by the user when the user is absent, when the user is in the room, the same content continues from both the home appliance 2 and the communication terminal 3 in the room. Be uttered. Therefore, the user can hear the same utterance again from the communication terminal 3 even if the user cannot hear the utterance by the home appliance 2 arranged in the room. Therefore, it is possible to realize an utterance system capable of more reliably transmitting the utterance content to the user.

  In each of the above-described examples, it is assumed that the communication terminal 3 is not carried and the user is absent (for example, the user leaves the communication terminal 3 in the living room and dries laundry on the veranda). Etc.). Even in such a case, the communication terminal 3 and the cloud server 1 may be configured as follows in order to reliably transmit the utterance content to the user.

  When the sensor 43 (acceleration sensor) does not detect the movement for a certain period or more, the operation unit 42 does not detect the user operation, the microphone 44 does not detect the user's voice input, or the communication terminal 3 is charging, When the control information instructing execution of the utterance is received from the operation control unit 23 of the cloud server 1, in addition to executing the utterance, the output voice data related to the utterance is stored without being erased. Then, when various sensors such as the operation unit 42, the sensor 43, and the microphone 44 detect a state in which the user is using the communication terminal 3, the voice control unit 51 of the communication terminal 3 outputs the stored output. The voice data is output from the speaker 45 and the same utterance is executed again. According to the above configuration, even when the utterance is made while the user is absent because the communication terminal 3 is not carried, the utterance is executed again at the timing when the user uses the communication terminal 3. It can be reliably transmitted to the user.

[Embodiment 8]
The following will describe another embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, when speech recognition of a user's utterance is performed, silent operation control is performed on an operating device disposed in the same room as the home appliance 2 that acquires user utterance data, thereby improving speech recognition accuracy.

(Configuration of home appliances and cloud server)
In the present embodiment, when the microphone 44 detects voice related to the utterance of the user in the household appliance 2, the report generation unit 50 generates a status report indicating that voice input has been started and transmits the status report to the cloud server 1. . When the user's voice input ends, the voice control unit 51 transmits input voice data obtained by recording the voice to the cloud server 1. Thereafter, the report generation unit 50 generates a status report indicating that the voice input has been completed.

  The information management unit 20 of the cloud server 1 updates the device information 30 of the transmission source home appliance 2 (that is, the home appliance 2 to which the user has input voice, hereinafter, a voice input device) according to the content of the status report. Specifically, the item of “voice input” of the sensing information is updated from “0” to “1”.

  As described above, the operation control unit 23 sets the device among the other home appliances 2 in the same location as the location of the voice input device in which the item of “voice input” is updated to “1 (= with voice input)”. The operating home appliance 2 is specified with reference to the operating status of the information 30. Then, silent control is performed on each of the specified operating devices. The operation control unit 23 controls each operating device so that each operating device continues the silent operation while the voice input device is inputting sound. Note that the operation control unit 23 can also execute silent control on the voice input device while the voice input device is operating.

  Furthermore, even if the voice input device completes the voice input, the operation control unit 23 immediately generates the voice event (for example, within 30 seconds) using the voice input as a trigger. It is preferable that the silent control of each home appliance 2 be continued until one of the home appliances 2 completes the utterance in response to the control. Thereby, while the dialogue between the home appliance 2 and the user continues, the silent operation of each home appliance 2 in the room is maintained. Therefore, in the utterance system 100, in the step of accepting the utterance of the user, user utterance data with less noise (operation sound of the home appliance 2) is obtained, so that the accuracy of voice recognition is improved while the home appliance 2 is provided to the user. In the uttering step, the utterance by the home appliance 2 is performed in an environment where the operating sound of the room is low, so that the user can easily hear the utterance of the home appliance 2.

(Flow of dialogue control processing)
With reference to FIG. 15, the flow of the dialogue control process executed by the cloud server 1 of the eighth embodiment will be described. First, the cloud server 1 receives, from the home appliance 2, a status report indicating that the user's voice input has started (S801). In this way, when the cloud server 1 recognizes that the home appliance 2 in the user's home has started voice input (YES in S801), the driving control unit 23 refers to the device information 30 and performs the same operation as the home appliance 2 (voice input device). The operating device in the room is specified (S802). Then, the operation control unit 23 performs silent control on each of the specified operating devices. That is, control information for instructing the silent operation is transmitted to each operating device.

  When the cloud server 1 receives a status report indicating that the voice input has been completed from the voice input device (YES in S804), the voice analysis unit 21 analyzes the input voice data acquired from the voice input device. If the home appliance 2 should speak to the user according to the analysis result of the input speech data (YES in S805), the speech control unit 22 creates output speech data including the content. Subsequently, the utterance control unit 22 determines the utterance main device that outputs the output voice data based on the method described in each of the above-described embodiments, and the operation control unit 23 utters the utterance main device determined. (S806).

  When no utterance event occurs in S805 (NO in S805) or when the utterance in S806 is completed (YES in S807), the operation control unit 23 cancels the silent control performed in S803. That is, the operation control unit 23 transmits control information including a silent operation cancel instruction to each operating device so as to return to the operation before the silent operation.

  According to the above method, while the home appliance 2 which is a certain room is acquiring the user's uttered voice, if the home appliance 2 arranged in the room is operating, the cloud server 1 outputs those operating sounds. Each operating device is controlled so that the operation is changed so that is smaller. Therefore, in the utterance system 100, user utterance data with less noise in the room (operation sound of the home appliance 2) is acquired while accepting the utterance of the user, so that the speech recognition accuracy in the speech analysis unit 21 is improved.

(Modification)
In each of the above-described embodiments, an example is described in which the audio system of the present invention is applied to an utterance system, that is, a system in which the home appliance 2 outputs output audio data relating to utterance in response to occurrence of an utterance event. However, the application example of the voice system of the present invention is not limited to the speech system.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The audio system of the present invention is widely applicable to a system that outputs not only an utterance message but also music, BGM, sound effects, alarms, alarms, singing voices and the like to an audio output device.

  In each of the above embodiments, the cloud server 1 estimates the location of the user based on the various types of sensing information in the device information 30 illustrated in FIG. However, it is not limited to these examples. For example, the cloud server 1 may estimate that a user is present when a thermography provided in the home appliance 2 obtains a human-shaped temperature distribution of about 36.5 ° C. Alternatively, when the infrared light receiving unit provided in the home appliance 2 detects the output infrared light of the operated remote controller, it may be estimated that a user is present. Alternatively, the cloud server 1 may estimate the location of the user based on the Wi-Fi (registered trademark) pairing information of the smartphone as the communication terminal 3.

  In each of the above embodiments, when the number of candidates for the utterance subject device cannot be reduced to one (for example, when there are a plurality of non-operating devices in the first embodiment), the utterance control unit 22 sets the utterance control unit 22 according to the following conditions. Alternatively, the utterance subject device may be determined.

  The user selects in advance the home appliance 2 that gives priority to the execution of the utterance, and stores the information in the device information 30. The utterance control unit 22 determines the priority device selected by the user from among the candidates for the utterance subject device as the utterance subject device.

  The value of the maximum output volume of the speaker 45 of each home appliance 2 is stored in the device information 30. The utterance control unit 22 determines, from among the candidates for the utterance main device, the one with the maximum output volume value of the speaker 45 as the utterance main device.

  The report generation unit 50 of the home appliance 2 supplies the cloud server 1 with a sensor value acquired by the human sensor as a status report, in addition to binary information indicating whether the human sensor has detected a human. The utterance control unit 22 determines, as a main utterance device, the home appliance 2 having the highest sensor value acquired by the human sensor of each home appliance 2 (ie, the closest distance between the home appliance 2 and a person) among the main utterance device candidates. decide.

  The information management unit 20 of the cloud server 1 acquires the volume value of the environmental sound acquired by the microphone 44 from all the home appliances 2 in the room where the user is. Then, the utterance control unit 22 determines the home appliance 2 with the smallest volume value of the environmental sound picked up by the microphone 44 as the main utterance device.

  In each embodiment, it is conceivable that all the home appliances 2 in the room where the user is located, including the utterance main device, are operating devices. Therefore, the operation control unit 23 sets the degree of silent control to the highest for the operating apparatus that is the main utterance apparatus, and relatively sets the degree of the silent control for the other operating apparatuses that are the non-speaking apparatuses. May be weaker.

  In the first to seventh embodiments, it is assumed that after the home appliance 2 completes the utterance, the dialogue is continued by the user responding to the utterance. Therefore, after the utterance of the home appliance 2 is completed, the silent control is continued for a predetermined time (for example, one minute). If no utterance event occurs (the user does not speak) until the predetermined time has elapsed, the silent control is performed. It is desirable to have a configuration of canceling. Thus, while the dialogue with the user is continued with the utterance of the home appliance 2 as a trigger, the silent operation of each home appliance in the room is maintained. As a result, the user can interact with the home appliance 2 in a favorable sound environment.

  In the third embodiment, the cloud server 1 is configured to change the degree of silent control on the operating device according to the importance of the utterance output to the home appliance 2. Here, the cloud server 1 may perform the silent control on the operating device whose operating sound volume is equal to or higher than the threshold. Further, it is preferable that the threshold value is set so as to become lower (the condition becomes stricter) as the importance of the utterance becomes higher. As a result, the home appliances 2 are controlled by the cloud server 1 such that the higher the importance of the utterance is, the lower the operating sound that sounds in the room is. The cloud server 1 may receive the volume value of the operation sound of each operating device as a status report from each operating device. Alternatively, the cloud server 1 stores in advance a correspondence table between the type of operation of each home appliance 2 and the volume value of the operation sound at that time, and, based on the operation state of the operating device, reads from the correspondence table The volume value of the operation sound of the device may be estimated.

  In the seventh embodiment, the example in which the communication terminal 3 functions as the main utterance device in the utterance system 100 has been described. On the other hand, the communication terminal 3 can also function as the voice input device of the eighth embodiment. For example, in the user's home shown in FIG. 4, when the user is sitting on a sofa, he wants to talk to a humanoid robot standing against the television. However, there is a little distance from the sofa where the user is sitting to the TV where the humanoid robot is standing, and both the TV and the air conditioner have a large operating sound. In such a case, in this modification, the user may simply speak the humanoid robot to the communication terminal 3 at hand. The communication terminal 3 transmits a status report to the effect that the voice input has been started to the cloud server 1 as in the case of the home appliance 2 of the eighth embodiment. In this case, the operation control unit 23 of the cloud server 1 estimates the location of the user based on the sensing information of each of the home appliances 2 in the user's home, and determines the operating device among the home appliances 2 arranged in the room where the user is located. And silent control can be executed.

[Example of software implementation]
The control blocks of the cloud server 1 (in particular, the information management unit 20, the voice analysis unit 21, the utterance control unit 22, and the operation control unit 23), and the control blocks of the home appliance 2 (in particular, the report generation unit 50, the voice control unit 51, The function control unit 52) may be realized by a logic circuit (hardware) formed in an integrated circuit (IC chip) or the like, or may be realized by software using a CPU (Central Processing Unit).

  In the latter case, the cloud server 1 and the home appliance 2 each include a CPU that executes instructions of a program that is software for realizing each function, and a ROM (a computer (or CPU)) in which the program and various data are recorded so as to be readable by a computer (or CPU). A read only memory) or a storage device (these are referred to as “recording media”), a RAM (Random Access Memory) for expanding the above-described program, and the like. Then, the object of the present invention is achieved when the computer (or CPU) reads the program from the recording medium and executes the program. As the recording medium, a “temporary tangible medium” such as a tape, a disk, a card, a semiconductor memory, or a programmable logic circuit can be used. Further, the program may be supplied to the computer via an arbitrary transmission medium (a communication network, a broadcast wave, or the like) capable of transmitting the program. Note that the present invention can also be realized in the form of a data signal embedded in a carrier wave, in which the program is embodied by electronic transmission.

[Summary]
An audio output control device (cloud server 1) according to aspect 1 of the present invention is an audio output control device that controls a plurality of electronic devices (home appliances 2) having an audio output function, and is notified from the electronic device. An output device determining unit (speech control) that determines a sound output device (speech subject device) that outputs sound (utterance) from the plurality of electronic devices based on status information (status report) indicating the status of the electronic device. Unit 22) and an operation control unit (23) that instructs each electronic device to perform a silent operation in which operation sound is suppressed at least while the determined sound output device outputs sound. Have.

  According to the above configuration, the output device determination unit grasps the status of each electronic device based on the status information notified from each of the plurality of electronic devices. Then, an audio output device is determined from these electronic devices based on the status of each electronic device. Then, the operation control unit instructs each electronic device to execute the silent operation in which the operation sound is suppressed. In accordance with this instruction, each electronic device executes a silent operation while the audio output device outputs audio. Therefore, at least the operation sound of each electronic device while the sound is being output is lower than before the sound output device outputs the sound.

  Thus, the user can hear the sound output from the electronic device in a situation where the operation sound of the electronic device is suppressed and the electronic device becomes quieter than before. Therefore, even when the electronic device outputs sound, other sounds are sounding around the electronic device, so that it is possible to solve a problem that the user is difficult to hear the sound. As a result, the voice can be more reliably transmitted to the user.

  In the audio output control device according to the second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the status information includes operating status information (operating log, item “operating status”) indicating whether the electronic device of the notification source is operating. ) May be included, and the output device determination unit may determine, as the audio output device, an electronic device in which the operating status information indicates that the operating status is the non-operating status or the operating status is low.

  According to the above configuration, the output device determining unit, when the operating status information notified from each electronic device indicates that the electronic device is not operating or the operating sound is low operating status, Such an electronic device is determined as an audio output device. In accordance with this determination, the non-operating (or the operating condition with a low operating sound) electronic device, that is, the electronic device that does not output the operating sound or has a very low operating sound even if it outputs the sound, The operating electronic device performs a silent operation.

  As a result, the user can suppress the operating sound of the operating electronic device and become quieter than before, even if the non-operating electronic device or the non-operating electronic device that does not output sound other than the output sound is output. Audio can be heard from an electronic device with a very low operating sound in a situation that is easier to hear. Therefore, even if the electronic device outputs the sound, the inconvenience that the user cannot easily hear the sound because the other sounds are sounding on the spot or around the same can be solved. As a result, the voice can be transmitted to the user more reliably.

  In addition, as an example of the operation status of the electronic device with a low operating sound, for example, but not limited to, a situation in which the electronic device is operating with an operation sound smaller than a predetermined value, a case where the electronic device is a candidate for the utterance main device, In which the operating sound is the lowest among the operating sounds, or a situation in which the electronic device is the target of the silent control and the operating sound can be further reduced than the current state.

  In the audio output control device according to the third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the operation control unit may perform the silent operation on an electronic device arranged in the same place (room) as the audio output device. May be instructed.

  According to the above configuration, when the audio output device outputs audio, the other electronic devices in the same place (for example, the arrangement location is the same room) as the audio output device are caused to perform a silent operation, and the operating sounds thereof are output. Can be reduced. This eliminates the inconvenience of making it difficult for the user to hear the voice, and also makes unnecessary silent operation of the electronic device located away from the voice output device (that is, an electronic device that does not affect the difficulty of hearing the voice). Can be avoided.

  In the voice output control device according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first to third aspects, the operation control unit performs the silent operation as the importance associated with the output target sound increases. An instruction may be given to each electronic device.

  According to the above configuration, as the sound output from the sound output device becomes more important, the operation sound is further suppressed by the silent operation performed by the other electronic devices during the sound output. This allows the user to hear the more important voices in a quieter situation, and as a result, the more important voices can be transmitted to the user.

  In the audio output control device according to the fifth aspect of the present invention, in any of the first to fourth aspects, the output device determination unit may be configured such that the installation position of the audio output unit (speaker 45) included in the electronic device is the height (installation) from the floor. An electronic device whose altitude is within a preset range according to the height of the ear of the listener of the sound may be determined as the sound output device.

  According to the above configuration, the position where the audio output unit of the electronic device is installed (the height from the floor of the room) is close to the height at which the listener's ears are almost (for example, about 100 cm to 170 cm). The electronic device is determined as the audio output device. Thereby, since the sound is output from the speaker near the ear position of the listener, the user can more easily hear the sound. As a result, the voice can be more reliably transmitted to the user.

  In the audio output control device according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to fifth aspects, the output device determination unit determines that the reverberation of the test sound is a predetermined time from when the electronic device outputs the test sound until a predetermined time elapses. May be determined as the audio output device.

  According to the above configuration, an electronic device in which the reverberation of the test sound does not attenuate to a predetermined ratio from a point in time when the electronic device outputs the test sound until a predetermined time elapses, that is, an electronic device that is not surrounded by the sound insulation material. , Audio output device. Thus, the sound output from the electronic device does not stay in the room and propagates in a wide space, so that the user can more easily hear the sound. As a result, the voice can be more reliably transmitted to the user.

  In the audio output control device according to the seventh aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to sixth aspects, the electronic device is a self-propelled electronic device, and the operation control unit determines that the object having a predetermined area or more is the audio output device. If the distance is less than the predetermined distance, the audio output device may be controlled so as to move to a position at least a predetermined distance from the object and then output the sound.

  According to the above configuration, the driving control unit outputs the sound from the sound output device after moving the sound output device having the self-propelled function to a position away from the object having a predetermined area or more and to be easy to hear the sound. Can be done. Therefore, even if the electronic device outputs a sound, it is possible to solve a problem that the user has difficulty in hearing the sound because there is an object having a predetermined area or more near the object. As a result, the voice can be more reliably transmitted to the user.

  In the audio output control device according to the eighth aspect of the present invention, in the first to seventh aspects, the operation control unit may be configured such that, when a volume of an environmental sound at a place where the audio output device is arranged is equal to or more than a predetermined threshold, The audio output device may be instructed to increase the volume at which the audio output device outputs audio.

  According to the above configuration, when the volume of the environmental sound at the place where the audio output device is arranged is equal to or higher than the predetermined threshold, the operation control unit increases the volume and outputs the audio to the audio output device. To do so. Therefore, the sound is output from the sound output device in a state where the volume is increased so that the sound can be more easily heard. This makes it easier for the user to hear the sound output from the electronic device, and as a result, even if the environmental sound is loud, the sound can be more reliably transmitted to the user.

  In the audio output control device according to the ninth aspect of the present invention, in any of the first to eighth aspects, the output device determination unit is configured to replace or add to the electronic device arranged at a specific place. (Communication terminal 3) may be determined as the audio output device.

  According to the above configuration, the same sound is output from the portable electronic device carried by the user instead of or in addition to the electronic device arranged at a certain place. Therefore, even if the user does not stay at the place where the audio output device is arranged and misses the audio output from the audio output device, the user can hear the audio output from the portable electronic device being carried. it can. This eliminates the inconvenience of not being able to hear the voice at the timing when the electronic device outputs the voice because the user is absent, and as a result, the voice can be more reliably transmitted to the user. Become.

  In the audio output control device according to aspect 10 of the present invention, in the above aspects 1 to 9, the status information includes a sensor value acquired by a sensor included in the electronic device or sensing information indicating an analysis result of the sensor value. The output device determination unit may estimate a location where a listener is located based on the sensing information, and determine an audio output device from electronic devices arranged at the estimated location.

  According to the above configuration, the output device determination unit grasps information on each electronic device and a situation around the electronic device based on the sensing information notified from each of the plurality of electronic devices. Then, based on these situations, it is estimated which electronic device is located where the user is located. Then, the output device determining unit determines the electronic device arranged at the place where the user is presumed to be, as the audio output device.

  Thus, the sound can be output to the electronic device disposed at the location of the user, and when the electronic device outputs the sound, the operating sound of the operating electronic device can be further reduced. Therefore, the user can hear the sound output from the electronic device near his / her place in a situation where the operation sound of the electronic device is suppressed and the electronic device becomes quieter than before.

  From the above, even if the electronic device outputs sound, it is inaudible because the user is absent, or even if the electronic device outputs sound, sounds other than the sound are sounding around it, It is possible to eliminate the inconvenience that the user cannot easily hear the voice. As a result, the voice can be more reliably transmitted to the user.

  In the audio output control device according to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to tenth aspects, the operation control unit may output the silent sound to each of the plurality of electronic devices while any of the plurality of electronic devices inputs a sound. It may be instructed to execute driving.

  According to the above configuration, in addition to the time when the electronic device as the sound output device outputs the sound, the silent operation of each electronic device is executed while the sound (for example, the uttered voice of the user) is input by the electronic device. Is done. Therefore, the user's voice is input to the electronic device in a clear state without being overwritten by the noise sound (operation sound). Thereby, in addition to transmitting the voice to the user more reliably, it is possible to improve the recognition accuracy of the voice from the user.

  The electronic device according to the twelfth aspect of the present invention includes a status notification unit (report generation unit 50) that notifies status information indicating the status of the own device to the audio output control device that controls the own device; A voice control unit (51) for outputting a voice supplied from the voice output control device in accordance with an instruction, and a function control for executing a silent operation in which operation sound is suppressed for a predetermined period in accordance with the instruction of the voice output control device (52). According to the above configuration, it is possible to construct an audio system that can more reliably transmit audio to the user together with the audio output control device.

  A voice system (utterance system 100) according to aspect 13 of the present invention includes the voice output control device according to aspects 1 to 11, and the electronic device according to aspect 12. According to the above configuration, the same effect as in the first aspect is exerted.

  A method for controlling an audio output control device according to aspect 14 of the present invention is a control method for an audio output control device that controls a plurality of electronic devices having an audio output function, wherein the electronic device is notified from the electronic device. An output device determining step (S104 to S107) for determining an audio output device for outputting an audio from the plurality of electronic devices based on the status information indicating the status of the audio output device; An operation control step (S108) for instructing each electronic device to execute a quiet operation in which the operation sound is suppressed during the output is included. According to the above method, the same effect as in the first aspect is obtained.

  The sound output control device according to each aspect of the present invention may be realized by a computer. In this case, the sound output control device is operated by operating a computer as each unit (software element) included in the sound output control device. The present invention also includes a control program for an audio output control device that realizes the above on a computer, and a computer-readable recording medium on which the program is recorded.

  The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications are possible within the scope shown in the claims, and embodiments obtained by appropriately combining technical means disclosed in different embodiments. Is also included in the technical scope of the present invention. Further, new technical features can be formed by combining the technical means disclosed in each embodiment.

1 cloud server (voice output control device)
2 Household electronic devices / home appliances (electronic devices)
3 communication terminals (portable electronic devices)
Reference Signs List 10 control unit 11 communication unit 12 storage unit 20 information management unit 21 voice analysis unit 22 utterance control unit (device determination unit)
23 operation control unit 30 device information 31 utterance data 32 sound environment information 33 device layout map 40 control unit 41 communication unit 42 operation unit 43 sensor 44 microphone 45 speaker (voice output unit)
46 function execution unit 50 report generation unit (status notification unit)
51 voice control unit 52 function control unit 100 speech system (voice system)

Claims (10)

An audio output control device that controls a plurality of electronic devices having an audio output function,
Notified from the electronic device, based on status information indicating the status of the electronic device, an output device determining unit that determines a sound output device that outputs sound from among the plurality of electronic devices,
An operation control unit that instructs each electronic device to execute a silent operation in which operation sound is suppressed while at least the determined sound output device outputs sound. Audio output control device. The status information includes operation status information indicating whether or not the electronic device of the notification source is operating,
2. The audio output device according to claim 1, wherein the output device determination unit determines, as the audio output device, an electronic device in which the operating status information indicates that the operating status is inactive or the operating sound is low. Control device.   3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the operation control unit instructs each electronic device to execute the silent operation as the importance associated with the output target sound increases. 4. Audio output control device. The electronic device is a self-propelled electronic device,
When the object having a predetermined area or more is less than a predetermined distance of the audio output device, the operation control unit outputs the sound after moving to a position at least a predetermined distance from the object. The audio output control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the audio output control device controls:   When the sound volume of the environmental sound at the place where the sound output device is arranged is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold, the operation control unit increases the sound output when the sound output device outputs sound. The audio output control device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the instruction is issued to a device.   6. The output device determining unit according to claim 1, wherein the portable electronic device is determined as a sound output device in place of or in addition to the electronic device arranged at a specific place. Item 2. The audio output control device according to item 1. The status information includes a sensor value obtained by a sensor included in the electronic device or sensing information indicating an analysis result of the sensor value,
7. The output device determination unit estimates a location where a listener is located based on the sensing information, and determines a voice output device from electronic devices arranged at the estimated location. 8. The audio output control device according to any one of the above.   The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operation control unit instructs each of the electronic devices to execute the silent operation while any of the plurality of electronic devices inputs a sound. 2. The audio output control device according to claim 1. A status notification unit that notifies status information indicating the status of the own device to the audio output control device that controls the own device,
According to an instruction of the audio output control device, an audio control unit that outputs audio supplied from the audio output control device,
An electronic device, comprising: a function control unit that executes a silent operation in which operation noise is suppressed for a predetermined period in accordance with an instruction from the audio output control device. A control method of a sound output control device that controls a plurality of electronic devices having a sound output function,
An output device determination step of determining, from the plurality of electronic devices, a sound output device that outputs a sound, based on status information indicating a status of the electronic device, which is notified from the electronic device,
An operation control step of instructing each electronic device so as to execute a silent operation in which the operation sound is suppressed while at least the determined sound output device outputs sound. A control method of the control device.

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