JP2011012980A - Alarm timepiece - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an alarm timepiece generating an alarm sound audible not only to young people from a speaker and surely reducing unwanted audible sounds accompanying the generation of the alarm sound.SOLUTION: In the alarm timepiece generating the alarm sound from the speaker at a predesignated scheduled time, a high-frequency sound of 16-18 [kHz] is produced intermittently as the alarm sound. At the gap in the high-frequency sound, the frequency of the high-frequency sound is raised to 20 [kHz] or more so as to be turned into ultrasonic waves, and the frequency of the ultrasonic waves is then lowered so as to be turned into a high-frequency sound.

Description

  The present invention relates to an alarm clock that generates a notification sound from a speaker at a scheduled time designated in advance.

In general, an alarm clock is used for getting up, but according to the notification sound, there is a disadvantage that even a sleeping person is awakened nearby.
In recent years, devices utilizing the fact that high-frequency sounds are difficult to hear with age are known. For example, the invention described in Patent Document 1 is one of them.

JP 2009-65263 A

  Now, as an alarm clock used for a young person to get up, an alarm clock that generates a high-frequency sound can be considered. For example, it is convenient when a student wants to get up earlier than his / her parent.

  However, in order to put such an alarm clock into practical use, it is necessary to consider the acoustic distortion of the speaker. In other words, the speaker ideally converts the electric signal wave into the sound wave faithfully, but in reality, it always vibrates in some way, and this is a source of unnecessary audible sound.

  If an unnecessary audible sound accompanying the generation of the notification sound is clearly audible to an age group other than the youth, it is not useful as an alarm clock for only the youth to wake up. For non-young age groups, it will be uncomfortable because they will only hear unwanted audible sounds generated by speakers, that is, noise.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and its purpose is to generate a notification sound that can be heard only by young people from a speaker, and reliably reduce unnecessary audible sound accompanying the generation of the notification sound. It is to provide an alarm clock.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, in an alarm clock that generates a notification sound from a speaker at a predetermined designated time, a high frequency sound of 16-18 [kHz] is intermittently generated as the notification sound. In the break of the high-frequency sound, the alarm clock is configured to raise the frequency of the high-frequency sound to 20 [kHz] or higher to generate an ultrasonic wave, and further lower the frequency of the ultrasonic wave to generate the high-frequency sound. According to such a configuration, unnecessary audible sound accompanying the generation of the notification sound is reliably reduced. The concept will be described below.

  The acoustic distortion greatly depends on the performance of the speaker. However, it is unbalanced to use a high-performance and expensive speaker for an alarm clock. The inventor of the present application conducted a trial experiment for generating high-frequency sound using a relatively inexpensive speaker used in an existing alarm clock.

  According to a trial experiment by the present inventor, it was found that unnecessary audible sound is remarkable when high-frequency sound is generated from silence. For example, when an alarm sound “beep” is generated intermittently at a predetermined interval, a noise “buzz” is accompanied. If you can hear the sound being generated, the noise will be drowned out and you won't be bothered. However, only noise can be heard by non-young people who cannot hear high-frequency sound.

  Therefore, the inventor of the present application has considered a method of continuing the vibration of the speaker when a notification sound is generated as a method of reducing such noise. Between the breaks of the high frequency sound, that is, between “beep” and “beep”, the frequency of the high frequency sound “beep” is increased to 20 [kHz] or more to make an ultrasonic wave, and the frequency of the ultrasonic wave is further lowered to reduce the high frequency sound “beep”. ”. This configuration clearly improved the problem of noise being heard by non-young age groups.

  The present invention realizes a reduction in unnecessary audible sound without depending on the performance of the speaker, and is very advantageous for practical use of an alarm clock that generates high-frequency sound.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain an alarm clock in which an alarm sound that can be heard only by a young person is generated from a speaker, and an unnecessary audible sound accompanying the generation of an alarm sound is reliably reduced.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the alarm clock according to the Example of this invention.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The alarm clock 1 shown in FIG. 1 generates a notification sound from a speaker 50 at a predetermined scheduled time. This alarm clock 1 is controlled by a control unit 20 comprising a microcomputer storing a required program. The time is displayed by analog or digital time display means 30. The scheduled time is input by the user operating the scheduled time setting means 40 including a guide mechanism or a button. When the scheduled time arrives, the control unit 20 outputs a signal from the frequency transmission circuit 21 to the analog amplifier 52 of the speaker 50. The speaker 50 generates a notification sound when the diaphragm 51 vibrates based on the signal input to the analog amplifier 52. The notification sound is stopped when the user operates the notification sound stop means 60.

  In the alarm clock 1 of this example, a normal mode in which the frequency of the notification sound is 2-6 [kHz] and a high-frequency sound mode in which 16-18 [kHz] are set are set. Each mode is alternatively selected by the user operating the switch type mode switching means 70.

  In the normal mode, an alarm sound or a melody is generated as a notification sound in the same manner as an existing alarm clock.

  In the high frequency mode, a high frequency sound of 16-18 [kHz] is intermittently generated as the notification sound. Here, at the break of the high-frequency sound, the frequency of the high-frequency sound is raised to 20 [kHz] or more to make an ultrasonic wave, and the frequency of the ultrasonic wave is lowered to make a high-frequency sound.

  Although not particularly limited, in this example, a high-frequency sound of 6.25 [msec] is generated at regular intervals every second, and the number of occurrences increases as time elapses from the start of generation of the notification sound. It has become. This high-frequency sound can be heard by young people but cannot be heard by other age groups. 3 seconds after the start of the occurrence, once per second, 3 seconds after the start of the occurrence, 3 seconds after the start of the occurrence, 2 times per second, 3 seconds after the start of the occurrence, 3 seconds after the start of the occurrence, 4 times per second After 9 seconds from the start of occurrence, the pace is 8 times per second.

  If the diaphragm 51 of the speaker 50 stops vibration at the break of the high frequency sound, an unnecessary audible sound “buzz” is generated every time the notification sound is generated. In this respect, according to the present example, the frequency is increased and decreased and faded in and out with respect to the ultrasonic region, so the diaphragm 51 continues to vibrate. As a result, generation of unnecessary audible sounds can be suppressed.

  As described above, the alarm clock of this example is very reasonably configured as an alarm clock used by young people. In addition, it is needless to say that the configuration of each part in the present example can be appropriately changed in design within the technical scope described in the claims, and is not limited to that illustrated in the drawings.

  The present invention can be suitably used as an alarm clock used by young people.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Alarm clock 20 Control part 21 Frequency generation circuit 30 Time display means 40 Schedule time setting means 50 Speaker 51 Diaphragm 52 Analog amplifier 60 Notification sound stop means 70 Mode switching means

Claims (1)

In an alarm clock that generates a notification sound from a speaker at a scheduled time specified in advance,
As the notification sound, a high frequency sound of 16-18 [kHz] is intermittently generated,
An alarm clock characterized in that at the break of the high-frequency sound, the frequency of the high-frequency sound is raised to 20 [kHz] or more to produce an ultrasonic wave, and further the frequency of the ultrasonic wave is lowered to produce the high-frequency sound.

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