JP2006092482A - Sound recognition reporting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sound recognition reporting apparatus enabling a driver to recognize the approaching direction and the approaching state of an emergency vehicle intuitively. <P>SOLUTION: A plurality of microphones are arranged outside an automobile and collect sound outside the automobile. An alarm sound recognition part recognizes an alarm sound issued by the emergency vehicle from the collected sound and detects a direction in which the emergency vehicle exists by a direction detecting part. A control unit sets a mixer so that a sound signal of a pseudo-alarm sound generated by a sound source is allocated to in in-vehicle speaker in accordance with the direction of the detected emergency vehicle. Moreover, the mixer is set so that the volume of a car audio is turned down and the volume of the pseudo-alarm sound is turned up. Thus, the driver can precisely recognize the approach direction of the emergency vehicle by the sound. Also, the approach state of the emergency vehicle may be shown on a map displayed to a display in conjunction with a navigation system. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a voice recognition / notification device for notifying an ordinary vehicle driver of the presence of a specific voice such as an emergency vehicle by adding sound.

  An emergency vehicle such as an ambulance travels while generating an alarm sound (warning sound) when an emergency occurs. When a driver of a general car hears an alarm sound, he / she takes measures such as surrendering the driving lane or stopping in order to give priority to the traveling of the emergency vehicle.

  In recent years, however, passenger cars have become more externally sound-insulated, and passenger cars equipped with devices that generate sound such as car audio and car navigation have increased in number, and warning sounds from emergency vehicles cannot be heard by passengers. The condition has always occurred.

Therefore, it is desired to reliably notify the passenger in the passenger car that the emergency vehicle is approaching. For example, a vehicle-mounted vehicle that detects an emergency vehicle alarm sound at the sound collection unit and displays the presence of the emergency vehicle on the display device in the vehicle. An emergency vehicle presence / absence reporting device has been proposed (for example, Patent Document 1).
JP-A-6-231388

  However, the vehicle-mounted emergency vehicle presence / absence reporting device described in Patent Document 1 is only visually displayed to the driver, and the driver has to pay attention to the display device. In addition, the approach direction of the emergency vehicle is displayed in four directions, front, rear, left, and right, and the approach distance is displayed in a fixed pattern in a plurality of stages, so that the driver cannot accurately recognize the position of the emergency vehicle.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a voice recognition notification device that allows a driver to intuitively recognize the approach direction and approach state of an emergency vehicle.

  The invention described in claim 1 includes a sound collection unit that collects sound outside the automobile, a sound recognition unit that recognizes specific sound among sounds collected by the sound collection unit, and a direction in which the specific sound is generated. A direction detection unit that detects a sound, a sound source unit that generates a sound signal of a pseudo sound simulating a specific sound, a plurality of in-vehicle speakers that reproduce sound signals and generate sound, and a sound signal for each in-vehicle speaker An acoustic processing unit that variably supplies a volume and a control unit that is set in the acoustic processing unit so as to supply an audio signal to each in-vehicle speaker based on a detection result of a specific sound generation direction. And

  In the present invention, a microphone is installed outside the vehicle. For example, only the warning sound of the emergency vehicle is selected from the sound collected by the microphone. Further, the direction detection unit determines the direction in which the alarm sound is generated from each microphone. In the vehicle, the sound volume is generated by controlling the volume of each speaker according to the direction of the detected alarm sound to generate a pseudo alarm sound.

  The invention according to claim 2 further comprises a navigation system comprising a vehicle current position detection function, a map data reference function, and a display function for displaying map data, wherein the control unit detects a direction in which a specific sound is generated. Based on the result, the navigation system is instructed to display a specific sound generation position on the map data.

  According to the present invention, in the above invention, the position of the emergency vehicle is displayed on the display of the navigation system based on the detected position of the emergency vehicle. Thereby, the driver can recognize the approaching state of the emergency vehicle in more detail.

  As described above, according to the present invention, since the sound field corresponding to the direction in which the emergency vehicle approaches is formed in the vehicle, the driver can accurately recognize the approach direction of the emergency vehicle by voice.

  Hereinafter, an emergency vehicle presence / absence notification device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an automobile equipped with an emergency vehicle presence / absence notification device of this embodiment. The vehicle 1 in the figure includes a plurality of outside microphones 2FL, 2FR, 2RL, and 2RR outside the vehicle body. As shown in the figure, the microphones outside the vehicle are arranged at four corners on the front, rear, left and right of the vehicle body, and each collects sound outside the vehicle body. Each outside microphone is composed of, for example, a planar condenser microphone. A planar condenser microphone is one that can extract an audio signal by a change in electrostatic capacitance of an internal electrode caused by vibration of a diaphragm. By using a planar condenser microphone, it can be installed on the body of an automobile, and can be installed outside the vehicle body while maintaining its aesthetic appearance. Further, a larger number of outside microphones may be installed. By increasing the number of installations, external sounds can be collected in more detail.

  In addition, the installation position of the outside microphone is not limited to the front, rear, left, and right corners of the vehicle body. For example, a unidirectional microphone may be installed on the ceiling or the like in four directions. Any device can be used as long as it can collect sound outside the vehicle and can collect sound in each direction.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the inside of a car. As shown in the figure, in-vehicle speakers 4FL, 4FR, 4RL, and 4RR are installed at four corners in the front, rear, left and right of the vehicle. Each in-vehicle speaker is composed of, for example, a planar capacitor speaker. The planar capacitor speaker is the same as the above-described planar capacitor microphone. Here, the diaphragm is vibrated by adding a sound signal to generate sound. By using a flat capacitor speaker, it can be installed flush with the interior of the vehicle such as the ceiling, and the interior space can be widened. Further, a larger number of in-vehicle speakers may be installed. The above-mentioned speaker in the vehicle generates a sound to be reproduced by the car audio, and at the same time generates a sound for notifying the driver 3 of an approaching state of an emergency vehicle, which will be described later.

  In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which a planar condenser microphone and a planar condenser speaker are used as the outside microphone and the inside speaker. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and external sounds can be collected and sound can be produced inside the car. Anything is acceptable.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the emergency vehicle presence / absence notification device of this embodiment. The above-described outside microphone 2 is connected to the alarm sound recognition unit 5. The warning sound recognition unit 5 recognizes only the warning sound emitted by the emergency vehicle from the sound collected by the outside microphones 2FL, 2FR, 2RL, and 2RR. For example, a sound is collected only in the proximity frequency of the alarm sound using a band-pass filter or the like, and compared with an alarm sound pattern stored in advance in a memory (not shown) or the like. The pattern comparison method uses a probabilistic model such as a hidden Markov model.

  The sound source unit 9 outputs the sound information of the pseudo warning sound to the mixer 10 as a sound signal according to the control unit 7. The voice information is, for example, PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) data. That is, the sound source unit 9 is a PCM sound source that generates an audio signal from PCM data stored therein. Note that the sound source is not limited to a PCM sound source. Furthermore, an audio signal is output from the car audio 8 to the mixer 10. The car audio 8 reproduces musical sounds that the driver or the like listens to while driving. The mixer 10 outputs sound signals to the in-vehicle speakers 4FL, 4FR, 4RL, and 4RR to generate sound in the vehicle.

  Further, the mixer 10 lowers the input level of the audio signal from the car audio 8, that is, the volume of the audio musical sound, and outputs the audio signal of the pseudo alarm sound when the audio signal of the pseudo alarm sound is input according to the control unit 7. At this time, the control unit 7 individually sets the output level of the sound signal of the pseudo warning sound to each in-vehicle speaker based on the position information of the emergency vehicle. When it is determined that the alarm sound is for an emergency vehicle, an audio signal is transmitted to the direction detection unit 6. The direction detection unit 6 estimates the direction and distance of the warning sound of the emergency vehicle based on the sound input level of each outside microphone, and transmits it to the control unit 7 as the position information of the emergency vehicle. For example, when the voice input level of the left front outside microphone 2FL is the highest, it is determined that an emergency vehicle exists in the left front. As a result, a sound field is formed in the vehicle, and the driver is made aware of the direction and approach distance of the emergency vehicle.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the emergency vehicle presence / absence notification device of this embodiment. First, a process of recognizing an alarm sound generated by an emergency vehicle from the sound collected by the microphone outside the vehicle is performed (s1). If the alarm is not recognized, repeat the process from the beginning. As described above, only the alarm sound is recognized from the frequency of the sound collected from the microphone outside the vehicle. When the alarm sound is recognized, the sound input level of each microphone outside the vehicle is investigated, the presence direction and the existence distance of the emergency vehicle are detected, and output to the control unit 7 as the position information of the emergency vehicle (s2).

  The control unit 7 instructs the sound source unit 9 to output the sound information of the pseudo alarm sound as a sound signal to the mixer 10 (s3). Thereafter, the sound that is generated by each in-vehicle speaker is mixed (s4). Here, as described above, when the driver is listening to the audio musical sound, the process of lowering the input level of the audio signal from the car audio 8 is performed. Further, the output level of the audio signal to each in-vehicle speaker is set based on the position information of the emergency vehicle. Each in-vehicle speaker reproduces the input audio signal and generates a sound in the vehicle (s5).

  Thereafter, it is determined whether the total input level of the alarm sound collected by the microphone outside the vehicle has decreased (s6). Here, it is determined whether or not the emergency vehicle is moving away. As described above, it may be determined from the input level of the alarm sound, and for example, a method using the Doppler effect is also conceivable. In that case, the warning sound recognition unit 5 detects the frequency change of the warning sound. If it is determined that the emergency vehicle is moving away, the audio tone volume is faded in and the original volume level is restored while fading out the volume level of the pseudo alarm sound being sounded (s7).

  In this embodiment, an example in which the pseudo alarm sound is generated from the in-vehicle speaker 4 is shown. However, the alarm sound collected by the microphone outside the vehicle may be generated by assigning the volume to each in-vehicle speaker as it is. Alternatively, only when an emergency vehicle approaches within a predetermined distance, the alarm sound may be generated by assigning a volume to each in-vehicle speaker as it is.

  Further, the emergency vehicle is not limited to one type, and may be applied to each of an ambulance, a fire engine, and the like. What is necessary is just to sound the sound which simulated each warning sound.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another configuration of the emergency vehicle notification device. In addition to the configuration of the emergency vehicle notification device described above, a navigation system 11 is connected to the control unit 7 as shown in FIG. The navigation system 11 includes a so-called GPS (Global Positioning System), a display, and the like. The navigation system 11 specifies the position of the vehicle and displays the map and the vehicle position on the display based on the map data.

  In this embodiment, the presence position of the emergency vehicle is displayed on the display of the navigation system 11 in addition to the operation of generating the above-described pseudo warning sound from the in-vehicle speaker when the warning sound of the emergency vehicle is recognized. In this case, the control unit 7 specifies the position of the emergency vehicle on the map data based on the position information of the emergency vehicle and the position of the host vehicle specified by the GPS. It is also possible to simply display that the emergency vehicle is approaching without specifying the position. Also in this case, the emergency vehicle is not limited to one type, and may be applied to each of an ambulance, a fire engine, and the like. What is necessary is just to display the image data of each emergency vehicle on the display of the navigation system 11.

  Note that voices other than emergency vehicles may be recognized. For example, among the sounds collected by the microphone outside the vehicle, a warning sound for crossing may be further recognized. When a crossing warning sound is recognized, the car window is opened slightly so that the driver can recognize the actual crossing warning sound. The emergency vehicle notification device that performs such an operation will be described below.

  FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an emergency vehicle notification device including a window control unit. As shown in the figure, in addition to the configuration of the emergency vehicle notification device described above, a window control unit 12 is connected to the alarm sound recognition unit 5. The window control unit 12 is connected to the power window equipment of the automobile, and instructs the power window equipment to open and close the driver side window.

  In the emergency vehicle notification device in this configuration, when the warning sound of the emergency vehicle is recognized, the above-described pseudo warning sound is generated from the in-vehicle speaker. When the warning sound of the crossing is recognized, the warning sound recognition unit 5 The crossing approach information is transmitted to the window control unit 12. Here, the direction in which the warning sound of the crossing is generated is not specified. Thereafter, the window control unit 12 instructs the power window equipment to open the driver side window. Thus, the driver can recognize the actual crossing warning sound. It is also possible for the alarm sound recognition unit 5 to further recognize rain sound so that the window cannot be opened in case of rain. It is also possible to install a rain sensor (not shown) outside the vehicle and connect it to the window control unit 12 so as not to open the window when rain is detected.

  As described above, the emergency vehicle notification device according to the present embodiment detects the direction and distance of the alarm sound of the emergency vehicle by using a plurality of outside microphones, and forms a sound field on a plurality of in-vehicle speakers to generate sound. The driver can intuitively recognize the approaching direction and approaching state of the vehicle. Further, by displaying the position of the emergency vehicle in conjunction with the navigation system, the approaching state of the emergency vehicle can be recognized in more detail.

Schematic diagram of an automobile Schematic diagram inside the car Block diagram of emergency vehicle notification device Flow chart showing operation of emergency vehicle notification device Block diagram showing another configuration of the emergency vehicle notification device Block diagram of emergency vehicle notification device with window control unit

Explanation of symbols

1-Automobile 2FL-Left front exterior microphone 2FR-Right front exterior microphone 2RL-Left rear exterior microphone 2RR-Right rear exterior microphone 3-Driver 4FL-Left front interior speaker 4FR-Right front interior speaker 4RL-Left rear interior speaker 4RR -Rear right speaker 5-Alarm sound recognition unit 6-Direction detection unit 7-Control unit 8-Car audio 9-Sound source unit 10-Mixer 11-Navigation system 12-Window control unit

Claims (2)

A sound collection part that collects the sound outside the car,
A voice recognition unit that recognizes a specific voice among the voices collected by the sound collection unit;
A direction detection unit for detecting the direction of occurrence of specific sound;
A sound source unit that generates a sound signal of a pseudo sound simulating a specific sound;
A plurality of in-vehicle speakers that reproduce audio signals and generate sounds;
An acoustic processing unit that supplies an audio signal with a variable volume for each in-car speaker;
A voice recognition reporting device comprising: a control unit configured to set an acoustic processing unit to supply a voice signal to each in-vehicle speaker based on a detection result of a specific voice generation direction. A navigation system comprising a vehicle current position detection function, a map data reference function, and a display function for displaying map data;
The voice recognition reporting device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit instructs the navigation system to display a specific voice generation position on the map data based on a detection result of a specific voice generation direction.

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