JP2003122397A - Voice recording and reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To visualize and to display utterance progress situation while a plurality of persons is conducting conversation using microphones and to instantaneously reproduce the contents of the uttering of an objective speaker. SOLUTION: Microphone utilization time of microphone slave devices 10 is controlled by a control file 32. Voice information from the devices 10 is related to the microphone utilization time an stored into a voice file 31. Uttering time of the devices 10 is displayed on a display 50. A portion of uttering contents being instructed by a user is read from the file 31 and reproduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a voice recording / reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, to a voice recording / reproducing apparatus suitable for a conference facility, which is used when the contents of a plurality of people are heard again later. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In many cases, the contents of a meeting are left as minutes. When making a minutes, there is also a method of writing the minutes on the spot, but for accuracy, leave the utterance as a real voice using a recorder such as a tape recorder, and then play the tape while the minutes are reproduced. Are preferably combined.

[0003]

However, this requires the following operations. That is, it is necessary to reproduce the recorded voice from the beginning and to repeat the operations of "advance" and "return" to find out who spoke what in what time zone.

Therefore, not only does it take time to reach the intended speech content of the speaker, but the speaker may be mistaken depending on the quality of the voice. Such a situation may occur not only when the minutes of the meeting are created, but also when a dialogue between a plurality of people is edited, for example, at a publisher.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and its purpose is to visualize and display the progress of a speech in a conference, for example, after the conference has ended, and the purpose thereof is to achieve the objective. An object of the present invention is to provide a voice recording / reproducing device capable of instantly reproducing the content of a speaker's speech.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 of the present application is such that a plurality of microphone subunits to which digital identification signals are respectively added and transmitted from each microphone subunit. A / D conversion means for converting analog voice information into digital voice information, a management file for storing management information including the voice file for storing the digital voice information and the identification signal transmitted from each of the microphone slave units. , A control means for controlling writing / reading to / from the audio file and the management file, a timer for giving time information to the control means, and the digital audio information read from the audio file to analog audio information for reproduction Sound reproducing means, a display for displaying management information in the management file, and a predetermined instruction signal for the control means. The microphone is provided with an operation unit, and the identification signal is transmitted from each of the microphone subunits at the start of microphone use and at the end of microphone use, and the control means obtains time information from the timer and outputs the microphone. While writing the time at the start of use and the time at the end of use of the microphone together with the identification signal of the microphone slave unit in the management file, the digital voice from the microphone slave unit converted by the A / D conversion means is written. When information is written in the audio file and a reproduction instruction is issued from the operation unit, the management information including the microphone start time point, the microphone end time point and the identification signal is read from the management file, and the display is displayed. , And when the specified microphone in the display is specified by the operation unit, the audio file is searched. Is characterized in that output to the audio reproducing means reads digital audio information emitted from the microphone handset.

In the invention according to claim 2 of the present application, each of the microphone subunits is for a conference, and the control unit controls the microphone subunits from the microphone subunits over the entire period from the conference start point to the conference end point. By continuously writing the audio signal to the audio file at a fixed number of bytes per unit time including the non-audio signal period, the audio signal written to the audio file, the microphone starting point and the microphone ending The feature is that it is associated with each time point.

In the invention according to claim 3 of the present application, when the control unit displays the management information on the display, a time axis scale is set on the display, and the microphone use start point and the microphone use end point are set. It is characterized in that the use time of each of the microphone slaves, which is calculated from each time, is displayed along the time axis scale with a predetermined mark.

The invention according to claim 4 of the present application is characterized in that the identification signal is displayed as a user name of the microphone subunit on the display.

In the invention according to claim 5 of the present application, when the identification signal transmitted from the same microphone subunit is an odd number of times, the control means is at the time of starting use of the microphone,
When it is an even number of times, it is determined that the microphone has been used, and the respective times are written in the management file.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First, referring to FIG. 1, an overall structure of a voice recording / reproducing apparatus for a conference facility according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

This voice recording / reproducing apparatus has a plurality of microphone subunits 10 assigned to individual conference attendees, a microphone controller 20 for managing the speech order and voting of each conference attendee, and the progress of speeches in the conference. And a main control device 30 that manages the data of.

An identification signal (ID signal) for identifying the attendees of the conference is given to each microphone subunit 10. In this embodiment, an infrared bidirectional communication system is applied between each microphone subunit 10 and the microphone controller 20.

Although not shown in detail, each microphone subunit 10 is provided with a speech request button and a voting button in addition to the microphone switch. Turn on the microphone switch when using the microphone, and turn off the microphone switch when you finish using the microphone. In either case, the identification signal is transmitted as a digital signal to the microphone controller 20 as the microphone switch is turned on and off.

The microphone controller 20 includes an analog output system 21 for outputting audio information from each microphone subunit 10.
The two output systems of the digital output system 22 for outputting the identification signal from each microphone subunit 10 are provided, and the analog output system 21 among them has an A / D converter 211 for converting analog audio information into digital audio information. Is provided.

The main controller 30 gives an audio file (digital recorder) 31 and a management file 32, a control means 33 for controlling writing / reading to and from each of these files 31, 32, and gives time information to the control means 33. And a timer 34.

The digital audio information converted by the A / D converter 211 is written in the audio file 31, and the identification signal of the microphone subunit 10 sent from the digital output system 22 of the microphone controller 20 is written in the management file 32. Written.

Further, the audio recording / reproducing apparatus includes an audio reproducing means 40 having a D / A converter 41 and a speaker 42 for returning digital audio information read from the audio file 31 to analog audio information, and a management file 32. And a display 50 for displaying management information therein.

Next, referring to FIG. 2, the management file 32
The configuration of will be described. In the management file 32, an absolute time column 321 in which the current time (absolute time) is written,
A relative time field 322 in which the elapsed time (relative time) from the start of the conference is written and a speaker name field 323 in which the microphone user name (speaker name) is written are prepared.

The control means 33 has a symmetrical table of the identification signal and the microphone user, and the identification signal is written in the speaker name column 323 as the microphone user name. However, the identification signal may be used at the time of writing to the management file 32, and the identification signal may be converted into the microphone user name at the time of displaying on the display 50 described later.

Data is written in each column only at the start of microphone use and at the end of microphone use. That is, the control unit 33 obtains the time information from the timer 34 only when the identification signal is output from each microphone slave unit 10, the current time in the absolute time column 321, and the elapsed time from the conference start time in the relative time column 322. Write in.

In this case, when the identification signal sent from the same microphone subunit 10 is the first time (or an odd number), it is determined that the microphone is started to be used, and when it is the second time (or an even number), Judge that it is the end of microphone use.

Explaining in line 1 and line 3 of each column in FIG. 2, the microphone user A's time is 14:58:46 (time 2 minutes 49 seconds from the start of the conference). It can be seen that the microphone user A started to use the microphone 3 seconds later at 14:58:49 (elapsed time 2 minutes 52 seconds from the start of the conference).

Next, referring to FIG. 3, the audio file 31
The configuration of will be described. Although the audio file 31 has an arbitrary storage capacity of 0 to n bytes (byte), according to the present invention, the audio file 31 includes each microphone slave unit over the entire period from the conference start time to the conference end time. The audio signal from 10 is continuously written in a constant number of bytes per unit time including a non-audio signal period (a period in which no microphone is used).

In this embodiment, the audio file 31
The amount of data written to is 100 kilobytes per minute, and FIG. 4 shows the relationship between the elapsed time from the start of the conference and the amount of data written. According to this, for example, if the conference time is 60 minutes, 6 megabytes will be used.

Since the elapsed time of the conference and the amount of data written to the audio file 31 are proportional to each other in this way, for example, suppose that the microphone user X uses the microphone for 5 minutes after 10 minutes at the start of the conference. The utterance content (audio information) is written in the area of 1 to 1.5 megabytes of the audio file 31. The conference start time and the conference end time are appropriately determined by, for example, the conference organizer, and a conference start signal and a conference end signal are given to the control means 33 from an operation unit (not shown).

After the conference, when a reproduction instruction is issued from an operation unit (not shown), the control means 33 reads the data stored in the management file 32 during the conference and displays it on the display 5
Display at 0. An example of the display is shown in FIG.

The data in this display example is different from that of the management file 32 shown in FIG.
3, the time scale is set on the display 50, and the microphone usage time is calculated for each microphone subunit 10 from the time when the microphone is used and the time when the microphone is used (both are elapsed times from the start of the conference). Is represented by, for example, the length of the arrow, and is displayed along with the user name (speaker name) along the time axis scale.

When the speaker name displayed on the display 50 is clicked (designated) from the operation unit (not shown), the control means 33 causes the microphone use start time and the microphone use end time of the clicked portion. The audio information written in the audio file 31 between
It is read out from 1 and output to the audio reproducing means 40.

When there are a plurality of speakers in the clicked time zone, the utterances of the respective speakers are reproduced at the same time. You can immediately know what you said to the obi.

In the above embodiment, it is assumed that the content of the utterance is heard after the end of the conference in order to create the minutes.
You can do the same thing at any time, even during a meeting. The present invention can be applied not only when the minutes of the meeting are created, but also when a dialogue between a plurality of people is edited by a publisher or the like.

Although a general-purpose personal computer can be used as the main controller 30, the main controller 30 can substitute the function of the microphone controller 20 depending on its performance. That is, in the present invention, the microphone controller 20 is not an essential component. The communication means between each microphone subunit 10 and the microphone controller 20 (or main controller 30) may be wired.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Provided is a voice recording / reproducing apparatus which, when a plurality of people gather and have a conversation by using a microphone, visualizes and displays the progress of the utterance and is capable of instantly reproducing the utterance content of a target speaker.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of an embodiment of a voice recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a management file in the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an audio file in the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a relative relationship between a memory area of the audio file and a recording time.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of a display in the above embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Microphone handset 20 microphone controller 211 A / D converter 30 Main controller 31 audio files 32 management files 33 Control means 34 timer 40 audio playback means 41 D / A converter 42 speakers 50 display

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of microphone subunits each provided with a digital identification signal, and A / A for converting analog voice information transmitted from each microphone subunit into digital voice information.
D conversion means, an audio file for storing the digital audio information, a management file for storing management information including the identification signal transmitted from each of the microphone subunits, and writing / reading to / from the audio file and the management file. Control means for controlling the control means, a timer for giving time information to the control means, a voice reproducing means for returning the digital voice information read from the voice file to analog voice information and reproducing it, and management information in the management file. And a control section for giving a predetermined instruction signal to the control means, and from each of the microphone subunits, the identification signal is transmitted at the microphone use start point and the microphone use end point, respectively, The control means obtains time information from the timer, and when the microphone is started and when the microphone is used. While writing each time of the above in the management file together with the identification signal of the microphone slave unit, the digital audio information from the microphone slave unit converted by the A / D conversion means is written in the audio file. When a reproduction instruction is issued from the operation unit, the management information including the time at which the microphone is started and the time at which the microphone is ended and the identification signal is read from the management file and displayed on the display. When a predetermined microphone subunit in the display is designated, the voice file is searched, the digital voice information emitted from the microphone subunit is read and output to the voice reproducing means. Recording and playback device. 2. Each of the microphone subunits is for a conference, and the control unit controls the voice signal from each of the microphone subunits to be a non-voice signal period over the entire period from the conference start time to the conference end time. By continuously writing to the audio file with a fixed number of bytes per unit time including, it is possible to associate the audio signal written in the audio file with the time when the microphone is used and when the microphone is used. The audio recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, which is performed. 3. The control unit, when displaying the management information on the display, sets a time axis scale on the display and is calculated from each time of the microphone use start point and the microphone use end point. The voice recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the use time of each microphone slave unit is displayed along the time axis scale with a predetermined mark. 4. The display device displays the identification signal as a user name of the microphone subunit.
The audio recording / playback device described in 2 or 3. 5. The control means is the time point when the microphone is started when the identification signal transmitted from the same microphone handset is an odd number of times, and is the time point when the microphone is used when the identification signal is an even number. The audio recording / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein each of the times is written in the management file.