JP2010034815A - Sound output device and communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sound output device that outputs sound with automatically switching an output destination between a loudspeaker and headphones with no need of user's operation. <P>SOLUTION: A sound output device includes a channel CH#1 for output of sound from headphones connected with a headphone terminal or a loudspeaker 10, and a channel CH#2 for output of sound from the loudspeaker 10, and includes: a sound output processing section 3 for output of sound data to be output and a data type that is information indicative of whether the sound data is data to be output through the channel CH#1 or data to be output through the channel CH#2; a switching control section 4 for performing switching control of an output destination channel of the sound data on the basis of the data type output by the sound output processing section 3; and a switching section 5 for switching an output destination channel of the sound data output by the sound output processing section 3 to either one of the channels CH#1 and CH#2 in accordance with switching control of the switching control section 4. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a sound output device including a headphone terminal and a speaker, and a communication system.

  Conventionally, a sound circuit having a general hardware configuration has a mechanism in which sound is not output from a speaker when headphones are connected. For example, when a personal computer (PC) is used as a communication device using VoIP (voice over IP (Internet Protocol)) technology or the like, if a headphone connection terminal is inserted into the PC and the headphone is released from the ear, a ring tone is received. I can't hear. For this reason, when leaving the seat, manual operation such as unplugging the headphone connection terminal from the PC each time is necessary to determine whether a call has been received.

  On the other hand, Patent Document 1 described below describes a technique for individually setting an optimum volume for a headphone and a speaker while supplying a ring sound to both the headphone and the speaker. According to this technique, by adjusting the volume of the speaker, it is possible to hear the ringtone even when the user is away from the PC.

JP 2005-45742 A

  However, in the above conventional technique, since the sound of the same sound source is supplied to both the headphones and the speakers, the volume of the headphones must be adjusted in consideration of the fact that the ring sound is output at the ear. That is, there is still a problem that a complicated operation by the user is still necessary.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sound output device that outputs sound by automatically switching an output destination between a speaker and a headphone without a user operation. .

  In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, the present invention includes a headphone terminal and a speaker, a first path for outputting sound from the headphone connected to the headphone terminal or the speaker, A sound output device having a second path for outputting sound from a speaker, wherein the sound data to be output and whether the sound data is output via the first path or the second path Sound output processing means for outputting data type, which is information indicating whether the data is output via a path, and switching control of the output path of the sound data based on the data type output by the sound output processing means In accordance with the switching control means to be performed and the switching control by the switching control means, the output destination path of the sound data output by the sound output processing means is And sound switching means for switching to either one of first path or the second path, characterized in that it comprises a.

  Further, the sound output device according to the next invention, the sound data as telephone sound data in telephone communication, the data to be output through the first path as voice data that is one of the telephone sound data, The data output through the second route is ringing tone data which is one of the telephone tone data.

  The sound output device according to the next invention is an output destination switching unit in which the output destination of sound data is a headphone when headphones are connected, and the output destination of sound data is a speaker when headphones are not connected. Are provided on the first path, and the output destination switching unit uses the output destination of the sound data as headphones, amplifies the sound data sent from the second path and outputs from the speaker, When the output destination switching unit uses a speaker as the output destination of the sound data, the sound data output from the output destination switching unit and the sound data sent from the second path are combined, and the combined data Is amplified and output from a speaker.

  A communication system according to the next invention performs voice communication with a first communication device including the sound output device according to claim 1, 2, or 3 and the first communication device via a predetermined network. And a second communication device, wherein the first communication device receives sound data transmitted from the second communication device.

  A communication system according to the next invention operates as an online support system using VoIP technology, the first communication device is a device operated by a client user who receives support, and the second communication device is It is a device operated by an operator who provides support.

  The sound output device according to the present invention has an effect that it is possible to output a ringing tone from a speaker without being operated by a client user in a state where headphones are connected.

  Embodiments of a sound output device according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a communication device that operates as a sound output device according to the present invention. 1 includes a receiving unit 1, a VoIP data processing unit 2, a sound output processing unit 3, a switching control unit 4, a switching unit 5, a CODEC 6, and a headphone / speaker switching unit 7 having a headphone terminal. And an adder 8, an amplifier 9, a speaker 10, an audio storage unit 11, and an audio playback unit 12. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the communication apparatus in FIG. 1 performs IP telephone communication. Further, the communication device of FIG. 1 can be connected to a headphone 13.

  The receiving unit 1 receives data of IP telephone communication using a packet from an external network (packet switching network) of the communication device, and outputs the data to the VoIP data processing unit 2. The VoIP data processing unit 2 performs VoIP call control such as connection processing and disconnection processing in IP telephone communication. Further, the VoIP data processing unit 2 converts the telephone sound data (voice data or ringing tone data) and the data type (information indicating that the data is voice data or ringing tone data) as a result of the VoIP call control. Output to. The sound output processing unit 3 extracts the data type from the output of the VoIP data processing unit 2 and notifies the switching control unit 4 of the result. Further, according to an instruction from the switching control unit 4, the voice data or the ringing tone data is output to the switching unit 5 as the input sequence # 1.

  The switching control unit 4 performs switching control of the output destination channel for the switching unit 5 based on the data type notified from the sound output processing unit 3. In addition, after executing the switching control of the output destination channel of the switching unit 5, the switching control unit 4 notifies the sound output processing unit 3 to that effect. The switching unit 5 switches the output destination channel of the telephone sound data (input sequence # 1) from the sound output processing unit 3 according to the switching control from the switching control unit 4. The CODEC 6 has two ports, CH # 1 and CH # 2, and D / A (Digital Analog) converts the sound data output from the switching unit 5 into an analog signal, which has the same channel as the input port channel. Output to output port. The headphone / speaker switching unit 7 is an existing switch having a headphone terminal, and outputs an input to the headphone terminal when the connection terminal of the headphone 13 and the headphone terminal of the communication apparatus are connected. On the other hand, when the connection terminal of the headphone 13 and the headphone terminal of the communication apparatus are not connected, the input to itself is output to the adder 8. The adding unit 8 adds the output from the CODEC 6 and the output from the headphone / speaker switching unit 7 and outputs the addition result to the amplifier 9. The amplifier 9 amplifies the analog signal input to itself and outputs the amplification result to the speaker 10. That is, the headphone / speaker switching unit 7 switches the CH # 1 output of the CODEC 6 to the headphone 13 side when the connection terminal of the headphone 13 is connected to the headphone terminal of the headphone / speaker. When the connection terminal of the headphone 13 is not connected, the output of CH # 1 is switched to the speaker 10 side via the adding unit 8.

  The audio storage unit 11 is a storage unit that stores data such as music. The audio playback unit 12 reads out and expands the music data file from the audio storage unit 11 and outputs the music data to the switching unit 5 as the input sequence # 2. The switching unit 5 outputs the music data (input sequence # 2) from the audio playback unit 12 to a preset output destination channel (for example, CH # 1). When the output destination channel of the data input to the switching unit 5 is CH # 2, the data is output only to the speaker side.

  In this embodiment, the input sequences # 1 and # 2 are both set to be connected to CH # 1 in the initial state, and the user can perform telephone communication or music appreciation by output from headphones or speakers. Is possible.

  Subsequently, the operation of the communication system using the communication apparatus configured as described above will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a communication system using the communication apparatus of FIG. The communication system of FIG. 2 includes a communication device 20, a headphone 21 that can be connected to the communication device 20, a packet switching network 23, a communication device 24, and a headphone 25 that can be connected to the communication device 24. The communication devices 20 and 24 have the configuration of the communication device in FIG.

  Here, the relationship between the communication apparatus of FIG. 1 and the communication system of FIG. 2 will be described. The communication device in FIG. 1 forms part of the configuration of the communication devices 20 and 24 in FIG. 2, and the headphones 21 and 25 in FIG. 2 correspond to the headphones 13 in FIG. In FIG. 2, the headphones 21 and 25 are connected to the communication devices 20 and 24. This is because the connection terminal of the headphones 13 is connected to the headphone terminal of the headphone / speaker switching unit 7 of the communication device of FIG. It corresponds to that. The headphone 21 and the headphone 25 are provided with a microphone, and the sound input to the microphone is converted into VoIP data by the VoIP data processing unit 2 of the communication device 20 and the communication device 24 and directed toward the counterpart communication device. Sent.

  The communication system in FIG. 2 is, for example, an online support system using VoIP technology. The communication device 20 is a communication device operated by a user (client user) receiving support, and the communication device 24 is a communication device operated by a user (operator) providing support in the support center. Note that description of VoIP call control is omitted here.

  In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the headphones 21 and 25 are connected to the communication device 20 and the communication device 24, respectively. In this state, the connection terminal of the headphone 13 is connected to the headphone terminal of the headphone / speaker switching unit 7 in FIG. 1, and the output on the CH # 1 side of the switching unit 5 and the CODEC 6 in FIG. Is transmitted to.

  Then, the client user starts up online support software (not shown), and uses the communication device 20 and the headphones 21 to call the support center operator. On the other hand, in the communication device 24 on the support center side, the online support software has been activated, and at the same time when a call arrives at the communication device 24, the communication device 20 and the communication device 24 are connected to the network. After that, in a state in which calls can be made with each other through headphones 21 and 25 equipped with a microphone by VoIP, the client user further asks the operator what he / she wants to know, such as how to use the application and malfunction of the PC. Is assumed.

  In such a case, the operator investigates the content of the question, but depending on the content of the question, the answer may not be immediately obvious, and the survey may take time. In such a situation, the client user may remove the headphones 21 from the ear while the headphones 21 and the communication device 20 are connected while waiting for an answer. In this case, even if the operator who has finished the investigation performs a call operation on the client user using the callback function, a general communication apparatus not having the configuration of the present invention outputs a ringing tone only to the headphone 21 side. The client user may not be able to hear the ringing tone.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, even when the headphone 21 and the communication device 20 are connected and the client user removes the headphone 21 from his / her ear, the output destination of the ring tone without the user's operation. Is automatically switched from the headphone side to the speaker side.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a telephone sound output operation of the communication device in the communication system of FIG. Note that the processing of FIG. 3 is performed only when the online support software is running. In the initial state, the output destination of the telephone sound (input sequence # 1) of the communication device 20 is set to CH # 1. Therefore, the voice uttered by the operator on the support center side is converted into an electrical signal by the microphone of the headphone 25, converted to VoIP data by the communication device 24, transmitted to the communication device 20 on the client user side, and VoIP in the communication device 20. After being converted into an analog signal by the CODEC 6 through the data processing unit 2, the headphone 21 connected to the communication device 20 (that is, the headphone connected to the headphone terminal of the headphone / speaker switching unit 7 in FIG. 1). 13) is output as voice, and the client user can hear the explanation of the operator.

  Here, it is assumed that, as described above, a question requiring time to answer an operator is made from the client user to the operator in a state where voice is exchanged between the operator and the client user. Then, since a waiting time for the operator to investigate the question or the like occurs, it is assumed that the client user once leaves the terminal of the communication device 20 (that is, the client user once removes the headphones from his / her ear). Then, the operator who has finished the survey on the question from the client user performs a call operation on the client user using the callback function provided in the communication system. Specifically, the communication device 24 generates ringing tone information, which is information for generating a ringing tone, by an operator's operation, and directs the information to the communication device 20 as IP telephone communication data (packets). Send.

  Next, when the receiving unit 1 of the communication device 20 receives the data of the IP telephone communication (step S1), it outputs this to the VoIP data processing unit 2. The VoIP data processing unit 2 processes the input data (step S2). Here, since the received data is the ringing tone information, the VoIP data processing unit 2 generates ringing tone data based on the ringing tone information, and the generated ringing tone data and the data type of the data (in the ringing tone) Information indicating the presence) is output to the sound output processing unit 3. Upon receiving these, the sound output processing unit 3 extracts the data type of the data to be output, and notifies the switching control unit 4 of the result.

  Next, the switching control unit 4 determines the type of data to be output based on the notification from the sound output processing unit 3 (step S3). Here, since the switching control unit 4 can determine that the output target data is a ringing tone (step S3: Yes), switching is performed so that the output destination channel of the telephone tone data (ringing tone data) is CH # 2. The unit 5 is controlled. The switching unit 5 switches the output destination of the ringing tone data from CH # 1 to CH # 2 according to the control of the switching control unit 4 (step S4). Further, after performing the switching control, the switching control unit 4 notifies the sound output processing unit 3 to that effect. Upon receiving this notification, the sound output processing unit 3 outputs the ringing tone data to the switching unit 5. Thereafter, the ringing tone data is output to CH # 2 by the switching unit 5 and output from the CODEC 6 as an analog signal. And an analog signal is output from the speaker 10 as a ringing tone via the addition part 8 and the amplifier 9 (step S5).

  As described above, in this embodiment, the ringing tone is automatically output from the speaker 10 and the ringing tone is not output to the headphones 21, so that the client user does not need to adjust the volume. Further, even when the client user removes the headphones 21 from his / her ear while the headphones 21 and the communication device 20 are connected during the time waiting for an answer from the operator, the client user is controlled by the switching control. Can hear the ringing tone from the speaker 10.

  Thereafter, when the client user hears a ringing tone and responds to the call from the operator by the process of step S5, and the operator further responds, the communication device 20 executes the processes of steps S1 and S2 as described above. . Here, since the received data is not the ringing tone information, the VoIP data processing unit 2 determines that the data is voice data, and indicates the received voice data and the data type of the voice data (indicating that the data is voice). Information) is output to the sound output processing unit 3. When receiving sound data from the VoIP data processing unit 2, the sound output processing unit 3 notifies the switching control unit 4 of the data type of the data to be output. As a result, the switching control unit 4 can determine that the data to be output is voice (step S3: No), so the switching unit 5 is set so that the output destination channel of the telephone sound data (voice data) is CH # 1. Control. The switching unit 5 switches the output destination of the audio data from CH # 2 set above to CH # 1 in accordance with the control of the switching control unit 4 (step S6). Further, after performing the switching control, the switching control unit 4 notifies the sound output processing unit 3 to that effect. Upon receiving this notification, the sound output processing unit 3 outputs the audio data to the switching unit 5. Thereafter, the audio data is output to CH # 1 by the switching unit 5 and output from the CODEC 6 as an analog signal. Then, the analog signal is output as sound from the headphone / speaker switching unit 7 (step S7).

  In the above processing flow, the case where the switching control unit 4 switches the output destination for the CODEC 6 based on the presence / absence of the ringing tone information has been described, but another switching method may be used. For example, in the initial state, it is assumed that the output destination of the telephone tone (input sequence # 1) of the communication device 20 is set to CH # 1, and the switching control unit 4 determines that the data to be output is a ringing tone. In this case (step S3: Yes), the switching unit 5 may be controlled so that the output destination channel of the telephone sound data (ringing sound data) is temporarily set to CH # 2. Here, the switching unit 5 outputs the input sequence # 1 to the CH # 2 of the CODEC 6 only while the control signal from the switching control unit 4 is being output. In this case, when the switching control unit 4 determines that the output target data is voice in the processing flow (step S3: No), the switching processing by the switching control unit 4 and the switching unit 5 is not necessary.

  Note that the above description is based on the assumption that the headphones 21 are connected to the communication device 20. However, when the connection terminal of the headphones 21 is pulled out from the communication device 20 by the client user, as described above. The headphone / speaker switching unit 7 outputs the input data to itself to the adding unit 8. Therefore, in such a case, the telephone sound is output from the speaker 10 via the adding unit 8 and the amplifier 9.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, in a situation where headphones are connected to the communication device, the output destination (headphones or speakers) of the telephone sound is set as the data type (information indicating voice data or ringing tone data). It is configured to automatically switch according to the situation. As a result, even when the client user removes the headphones from his / her ear while the headphones and the communication device are connected, the client user can call without waiting for the response from the operator. Sound can be output from the speaker.

  In this embodiment, the ringing tone information is transmitted when the operator performs a calling operation. However, another method may be used as a method for recognizing that the data is a ringing tone. Specifically, a case where a data type flag indicating whether the data is voice data or ringing tone data is provided in the header of the telephone sound data. In this case, the VoIP data processing unit 2 processes the received telephone sound data and determines the type of the received telephone sound data based on the data type flag.

  As described above, the sound output device according to the present invention is useful as a communication device that performs voice communication with other devices, and is particularly suitable for a communication device including a headphone terminal and a speaker.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the communication apparatus which operate | moves as a sound output device concerning this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the communication system using the communication apparatus of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the telephone sound output operation | movement of the communication apparatus in the communication system of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Reception part 2 VoIP data processing part 3 Sound output processing part 4 Switching control part 5 Switching part 6 CODEC
7 Headphone / speaker switching unit 8 Addition unit 9 Amplifier 10 Speaker 11 Audio storage unit 12 Audio playback unit 13 Headphone 20, 24 Communication device 21, 25 Headphone 23 Packet switching network

Claims (5)

A sound output comprising a headphone terminal and a speaker, and having a first path for outputting sound from the headphone connected to the headphone terminal or the speaker, and a second path for outputting sound from the speaker A device,
Sound output processing means for outputting sound data to be output and data type that is information indicating whether the sound data is data output via the first path or data output via the second path When,
Based on the data type output by the sound output processing means, switching control means for performing switching control of the output destination path of the sound data;
Sound switching means for switching the output destination path of the sound data output from the sound output processing means to either the first path or the second path according to switching control by the switching control means;
A sound output device comprising: The sound data is telephone sound data in telephone communication,
The data output via the first route is voice data that is one of the phone sound data, and the data that is output via the second route is the ring tone that is one of the phone sound data. The sound output device according to claim 1, wherein the sound output device is data. An output destination switching unit in which the output destination of sound data is headphones when headphones are connected, and the output destination of sound data is speakers when headphones are not connected;
On the first path,
When the output destination switching unit uses the output destination of the sound data as a headphone, the sound data sent from the second path is amplified and output from the speaker,
When the output destination switching unit uses a speaker as the output destination of the sound data, the sound data output from the output destination switching unit and the sound data sent from the second path are combined, and the combined data The sound output device according to claim 1, wherein the sound is output from a speaker. A first communication device comprising the sound output device according to claim 1, 2 or 3,
A second communication device that performs voice communication with the first communication device via a predetermined network;
With
The communication system, wherein the first communication device receives sound data transmitted from the second communication device. Operates as an online support system using VoIP technology
5. The communication according to claim 4, wherein the first communication device is a device operated by a client user who receives support, and the second communication device is a device operated by an operator who provides support. system.

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