JP2002532993A - Loudspeaker - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] A window plate made of glass or other transparent material adapted to be supported by a peripheral portion of a window frame, and coupled to the window plate, generating a bending wave vibration therein to cause an acoustic output A window / loudspeaker combination comprising a vibration exciter, the vibration exciter comprising a low mass voice coil, a magnet system associated with the voice coil, and a suspension for mounting the voice coil within the magnet system for relative movement. A combination comprising: an electrodynamic inertial element having: wherein the vibration exciter is entirely mounted on the window panel.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to loudspeakers, and more particularly to panel-shaped loudspeakers.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is known to drive a transparent surface of a wristwatch to act as a buzzer or sounder, ie to emit a simple tone and act as an alarm, for example, to the wearer of the wristwatch. .

It is also known to add a single, high mass inertial exciter to a window or window plate to form a loudspeaker, but the results have not been very good. Two issues,
In other words, a large mass at the exciter / glass junction point due to a plate-like fixture and / or a medium such as a screw that limits the high frequency band, and the compliance of the window panel causes resonance at a low frequency to cause drum sound. There is consequently the total coupled mass of the exciter when installed which limits the low frequency output. As a result, severe resonance in a narrow frequency band and an operating band is hardly supported in the market, and the prior art proposal has not been successful.

[0004] Nevertheless, the concept of using a feasible window panel capable of maintaining bending waves for sound reproduction is of interest for practical reasons, and the large area of a typical window is such that the device has an acoustic duct. This is advantageous for loudspeaker applications in that it can be modeled as an area drive mechanism for a given room volume defined as

[0005] Unlike relatively small cone-shaped drivers, whose output is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, typically operating in one-hundredth of an area and operating in accordance with the point source rule, this model has a low room volume. Indicates relatively constant with position. That is, the sound volume reaching range of the substantially large bending wave window is superior to that of a normal speaker.

[0006] Successful window / speaker systems suffer from the main issue that glass is a physically strong medium, and for safety and construction reasons the thickness of the windowpane is in the range of 4 to 8 mm. We need to work on it. Due to the very high rigidity coupled at high density, the mechanical impedance of the glass sheet is very high and it is difficult to drive it with a mechanical acoustic exciter. Complementary exciter technology is required to obtain useful results.

[0007] It is an object of the present invention to be able to drive as a loudspeaker for playing sound or music,
It is to provide a window for a vehicle or a building, or other equipment in which a window or a sight glass is formed.

The present invention provides WO97 / 0984 if certain conditions are met as described below.
Based on the surprising discovery that extremely rigid and high-density materials such as window boards can be successfully driven by an inertial vibration exciter intended for driving a highly rigid and lightweight panel such as an inertial vibration exciter described in 2. ing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, a window plate of glass or other transparent material adapted to be supported on the periphery of a window frame, and coupled to the window plate, where a bending wave is provided. A vibration exciter that produces vibrations to produce an acoustic output, the vibration exciter comprising a low-mass voice coil, a magnet system associated with the voice coil, and a suspension for mounting the voice coil within the magnet system for relative movement. Wherein the vibration exciter is attached to the window plate via, for example, a voice coil, to provide a window / loudspeaker combination. The exciter is preferably located on the window plate to maximize the interleaving of the resonance modes of the bending wave vibration. The window may include inner and outer panes spaced apart and having a fluid gap formed therebetween, and the exciter may be located on the inner pane.

[0010] Each window panel may be supported at its peripheral edge by rubber or a rubber-like glass sealing material.

The window and loudspeaker combination may include a conductor on the window plate for connecting the vibration exciter to a signal source, the conductor being substantially invisible.

The window or other member may be plastic, such as transparent plastic, glass or other transparent material, and may form part of a vehicle such as an automobile, aircraft, railroad or boat, building, It may form part of other fixed structures or other instruments with windows or view windows.

One or more vibration exciters may be provided to apply bending wave energy to the window plate and resonate it to produce an acoustic output. The excitation means may be attached to the end or periphery of the panel-shaped member as taught in WO 99/37121, or may be attached to the outside of the transparent part of the window plate or at least outside the part used as a window. Good.

According to another aspect, the invention is a vehicle or other structure that incorporates one or more window / loudspeakers as described above. The present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, by way of example.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION FIG. 1 shows a cabin (1) part of a cabin of a bus or a cabin (2) of a railway train.
2) has a passenger seat (3) and a window (4) corresponding to the seat, and the window is mounted on the lower peripheral portion (6) of the window plate at a position hidden from view and on a vibration exciter (6). 5) driven to resonate and operate the window panel substantially as a loudspeaker as described in applicant's International Patent Application WO 99/37121. For example, WO97
Another resonant panel loudspeaker (7), as taught in US Pat.
2) It is mounted overhead such as a roof (not shown).

FIG. 2 shows the cabin (1) part of the cabin (2) of the aircraft (8), wherein the cabin window (4) operates as a loudspeaker in essentially the same form as shown in FIG. Is driven.

FIG. 3 shows a window / screen or windshield (9) of an automobile or the like, and a vibration exciter (5) is attached to a peripheral portion of the screen so as to be invisible to an occupant. The screen resonates and operates as a loudspeaker, as described in applicant's International Patent Application WO 99/37121. The dashboard of the car together with the steering wheel (11) and the rearview mirror (12)
) Are indicated by broken lines.

FIG. 4 is generally similar to that of FIG. 3 and shows a rear window shield or screen (13) of an automobile or the like that is excited to act as a resonant panel loudspeaker, and shows a rear luggage shelf (14).

FIG. 5 is a view of an automobile door (15), which has an exciter (5) attached to a lower peripheral portion (16) of a window plate so as to be invisible to an occupant, and slides in a frame (17). Fig. 3 shows a motor vehicle door (15) with a possible opening window, the window being driven by an exciter to resonate and operating as a loudspeaker substantially as described in the applicant's international patent application WO 99/37121. .

FIG. 6 is a partial view of the motor vehicle (18), having a fixed rear side window (19), mounted on the lower edge (6) of the glass window panel (19) so as to be invisible to the occupant. A window (5), driven by an exciter and resonating, operating substantially as a loudspeaker as described in the applicant's international patent application WO 99/37121.

FIG. 7 shows a window (20) of a wall (22) of a building (21), and a window plate excited by a pair of exciters at an upper end (23) of a position behind a window frame and hidden from view. To form a loudspeaker of the kind described, for example, in the applicant's International Patent Application WO 99/37121.

FIG. 8 shows a bay window (24) of a building (21), and a panel of a window plate (25)
Driven by a vibration exciter (5) mounted near the lower end of each window plate in a position hidden from view behind the window frame and resonates, for example, a loud of the type described in the aforementioned applicant's application Acts as a speaker.

FIG. 9 shows a door (26) of a building (21) incorporating a window plate (25), which is mounted on a lower end of the window plate at a position behind a window frame and hidden from view.
Excited by 5), it resonates and operates, for example, as a loudspeaker of the type described in the aforementioned applicant's application.

FIG. 10 shows a pair of glass doors (27) of a building (21), each glass door being excited by a pair of vibration exciters (5) attached to the upper end of the door to resonate the door. It then operates, for example, as a loudspeaker of the type described in the above-mentioned applicant's application.

FIGS. 11 and 12 show a double glazing (28) on the wall (22) of the building (21), which defines a room (29) and, if necessary, a vibration exciter (5) Inside the edge of the window,
That is, it can be mounted near the center of the window plate and operates as a loudspeaker of the type described, for example, in the above-mentioned applicant's International Patent Application WO 97/09842. The exciter is of the electrodynamic inertial type described in WO 97/09842 or WO 98/34320, with a voice coil via a voice coil or adding an elastic suspension between the window plate and the magnet assembly. It is entirely mounted on the window board.

In FIG. 12, the vibration exciter (59) includes the inner window plate (30) of the pair of window plates (30, 31).
) To form a double-pane unit (28) attached to the frame (32) of the wall (22) of the building (21) by a rubber or rubber-like glass strip (33). The two window plates (30, 31) form a gap (34).

FIG. 13 shows the frequency response curve of the window shown in FIGS.
It shows a broadband effective sound output in the band up to 5 kHz.

FIG. 14 is a graph of the effect of acoustic attenuation of the double glass of the window / loudspeaker shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 measured indoors. The lower curve is the excitation curve of the outer panel (31), and the upper curve is the excitation curve of the inner (room) window panel (30).

FIG. 15 is a graph of room sound pressure of the embodiment of the window / loudspeaker shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, in which a bold curve indicates a measured value at 1 m, and a thin curve indicates a measured value at 2 m. I have. This indicates that the driving action of a large room capacity hardly decreases even if the distance becomes large.

If, for example, low-level pink noise or similarly weighted noise is used to reduce other very periodic noise sources, sound from windows in a home or commercial building may be announced, Available for background music, noise cancellation and / or noise masking. A consideration is the bipolar, bidirectional nature of the proposed acoustic radiation window, such as an exterior wall window. Outwardly radiated sound is disadvantageous in home appliances, which may be advantageous in the case of store windows that have an exciter located in the inner protective position and are located towards the street.

Modern double and triple windowpane units offer a new opportunity for effective window loudspeakers as they provide useful attenuation for environments remote from the drive glass of the assembly. Each air layer has a thickness of about 8 to 1 corresponding to the thickness of the pane and air gap in relation to the window element.
This results in a 2 dB attenuation. With respect to the outer open space, the sound intensity of the far field mainly obeys the inverse square law, and the sound pressure decreases rapidly with distance. This greatly limits the leakage to the outside as it opens up multiple glass options.

Factors contributing to the new advantages of the present invention include multiple glass bodies and WO 98/34
The availability of a broadband, essentially non-resonant, low drive mass exciter suitable for driving distributed mode loudspeakers of the type described at 320 and described in WO 97/09842. Furthermore, in the technical field of loudspeakers, the mechanical characteristics of glass panels were analyzed for the first time, and an effective excitation method as a valuable loudspeaker was clarified.

The self-supporting exciter can be placed in a number of effective locations, including near the edge as taught by WO 99/37121 and optimal near center as taught by WO 97/09842, so as to be invisible. . These exciters are very small and can use thin conductors or transparent tin oxide wire, so that they can be conveniently placed in optimal positions protected and reinforced by small and lightweight covers.

For example, a window measuring 1.25 × 1.1 m and having a thickness of 4 mm may have an essentially free edge at the edge of the window plate, much like a typical molded rubber support / glass seal Was analyzed with respect to the conditions. The weight of this relatively thin grade is clearly 8
. At 8 kg / m ² , much heavier than typical diaphragm materials for flexural panel speakers. The mechanical impedance is also very high at 468.7 Ns / m. Despite its high rigidity, its fundamental frequency is as low as 15Hz due to its large area and high mass.
For this purpose, a low frequency output from about one octave higher, for example 30 Hz, is partially available.

Using a 25 mm coil electrodynamic inertial exciter of the type described in WO 98/34320 near the center to create a double pane / loud speaker, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, the attenuation from the front side to the rear side (without driving) was measured. It should be noted that the sound pressure was measured indoors for both readings in this measurement, although in practice the external leakage is very small due to radiation conditions very similar to free space.

(Industrial Applicability) The computer simulations of FIGS. 16 and 18 are based on the window / loudspeaker shown in FIG. 16, and are the same as the windows / loudspeakers of FIGS. 11 to 15. That is, the window is double glazed, the thickness of the glass is 4 mm, and the gap between the window plates is 10 mm.
mm. The vibration exciter is centered on the back as taught by WO 97/09842.

The graph of FIG. 17 is a simplified two-dimensional model, which is 1 m (thick line) and 2 m (bold line).
3 shows the external (free space) average sound pressure level in a thin line). The graph of FIG. 18 is a computer two-dimensional analysis result of the sound velocities of the drive window plate and the non-drive window plate in the double glazing. This indicates that the two panes are very well connected at low frequencies, but advantageously not at high frequencies. According to the present invention,
A flex wave loudspeaker / window combination that avoids the severe practical problems encountered in the prior art can be easily manufactured.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of a bus or rail car incorporating a window / loudspeaker of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of a cabin of an aircraft incorporating the window / loudspeaker of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a window screen or a windshield of an automobile or the like incorporating the window / loudspeaker of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a rear window shield or screen of an automobile incorporating the window / loudspeaker of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an automobile door incorporating the window / loudspeaker of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a fixed side window of an automobile incorporating the window / loudspeaker of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a building window incorporating the window / loudspeaker of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a bay window of a building incorporating the window / loudspeaker of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a front view of a building door incorporating the window / loudspeaker of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a front view of a pair of glass doors of a building incorporating the window / loudspeaker of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a front view of a double pane of a building incorporating the window / loudspeaker of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a partial cross-sectional view of the double window panel / loudspeaker combination of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a frequency response graph of the window / loudspeaker embodiment.

FIG. 14 is an attenuation graph of a double pane.

FIG. 15 is a graph of room sound pressure at positions 1 m and 2 m from a window / loudspeaker.

FIG. 16 is a mathematical model of a double glazing of the type shown in FIG.

17 is a graph of a mathematical simulation corresponding to FIG.

18 is a graph of a mathematical simulation of the sound speed of the non-driven and driven window plates in the model of FIG.

[Procedural Amendment] Submission of translation of Article 34 Amendment

[Submission date] December 6, 2000 (2000.12.6)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Claims

[Correction method] Change

[Contents of correction]

[Claims]

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (81) Designated country EP (AT, BE, CH, CY, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE, IT, LU, MC, NL, PT, SE ), OA (BF, BJ, CF, CG, CI, CM, GA, GN, GW, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG), AP (GH, GM, KE, LS, MW, SD, SL, SZ, TZ, UG, ZW), EA (AM, AZ, BY, KG, KZ, MD, RU, TJ, TM), AE, AL, AM, AT, AU, AZ, BA, BB, BG, BR, BY, CA, CH, CN, CR, CU, CZ, DE, DK, DM, EE, ES, FI, GB, GD, GE, GH, GM, HR, HU, ID , IL, IN, IS, JP, KE, KG, KP, KR, KZ, LC, LK, LR, LS, LT, LU, LV, MA, MD, MG, MK, MN, MW, MX, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RO, RU, SD, SE, SG, SI, SK, SL, TJ, TM, TR, TT, TZ, UA, UG, US, UZ, VN, YU, ZA, ZW

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A window plate of glass or other transparent material adapted to be supported on the periphery of a window frame and coupled to said window plate to generate bending wave vibrations therein to produce an acoustic output. A window and loudspeaker combination comprising a vibration exciter, wherein the vibration exciter is capable of relative movement of the voice coil within a low mass voice coil, a magnet system associated with the voice coil, and the magnet system. And an electrodynamic inertial element having a suspension mounted thereon, wherein the vibration exciter is mounted entirely to the window panel. 2. The combination according to claim 1, wherein the exciter is disposed on the window plate to maximize interleaving of bending wave vibration resonance modes. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the window has a spaced interior and an exterior, forming a fluid gap therebetween, and wherein the exciter is disposed on the interior window plate. The combination according to claim 1 or 2, wherein 4. The combination according to claim 1, wherein each of the window plates is supported by a rubber or rubber-like glass sealing material at a peripheral edge. 5. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a conductor on the window for connecting the exciter to a signal source, wherein the conductor is substantially invisible.
The combination according to item. 6. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle is characterized by a window / loudspeaker combination. 7. A building or other structure according to any of the preceding claims, characterized by a window / loudspeaker combination.