JP2012078448A - Information processor and noise canceling method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To produce a noise canceling effect of a device in which a noise source is separated from a noise canceling speaker even when the position of a listener changes.SOLUTION: An information processor 1 equipped with a camera 104, a loudspeaker 105, and a microphone 106 includes: position specifying means 101 specifying, based on image information input from the camera 104, the position of a user; opposite phase sound generating means 102 generating, based on noise input from the microphone 106, an opposite phase sound of the noise; and phase shift correcting means 103 correcting, based on the specified position of the user, the phase of the generated opposite phase sound, and making the loudspeaker 105 output the opposite phase sound after correction. The phase shift correcting means 103 calculates the phase shift on the basis of the difference between the distance from the noise source 110 of the noise to the user and the distance from the loudspeaker 105 to the user.

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a noise canceling method, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus and a noise canceling method in an apparatus in which a distance between a noise source and a noise canceling speaker is separated.

  As a technique for silencing noise and noise, it is known to detect noise with a microphone, analyze the waveform, and generate a reverse phase sound of a waveform opposite to the noise from the speaker based on the analysis result.

  In Patent Document 1, the above technique is applied to a trapping device, and a plosive sound generated when a beetle is captured by a lightning grid is muted by generating a reverse phase sound of the plosive sound from a speaker. A technique for eliminating pleasure is disclosed.

JP 2009-284785 A

  The noise canceling technology as described above is also applied to headphones. The noise canceller headphone detects noise in the outside world and generates a reverse phase sound of the noise from the headphone to mute the sound.

  However, the noise canceller headphone is effective because the noise source, the speaker, and the user are limited to predetermined positions. In the noise canceller headphone, since the speaker is a headphone, the noise once enters the organ that senses the sound of the wearer through the speaker portion that is the headphone. Therefore, it can be considered that the speaker and the noise source are located at substantially the same position, and the distance from there to the organ that senses the wearer's sound is also the same, so the noise canceling technique is effective.

  However, even if the noise canceling technology is applied to a personal computer system (hereinafter referred to as a PC system) in the same way, the positions of the noise source and the speaker are different, and the position of the listener who listens to the noise and the antiphase sound also changes. sell. Note that a noise source in the PC system is a wind noise from a CPU fan or an operation sound from an HDD or the like.

  If the position of the noise source and the speaker are not the same, there is a possibility that the noise may be amplified depending on the position of the listener even if the noise is silenced by the antiphase sound.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and in a device in which a noise source and a noise-cancelling speaker are separated from each other, information that can exert a noise-cancelling effect even if the position of the listener changes. It is an object of the present invention to provide a processing device and a noise canceling method.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus having a noise source that generates audible band noise and a speaker that outputs audible band sound. Position specifying means for specifying the position of a user who uses the apparatus, storage means for storing the position of the noise source and the position of the speaker, a microphone for acquiring the noise, and a phase of the noise acquired by the microphone From the position of the noise source stored by the storage unit to the position of the user specified by the position specifying unit, and the position of the speaker stored by the storage unit Provided is an information processing apparatus comprising correction amount calculation means for calculating the predetermined amount based on a distance to the user position specified by the position specifying means. Is shall.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes, as a second aspect, a noise source that generates audible band noise, a speaker that outputs audible band sound, and a microphone that acquires the noise. A noise canceling method by an information processing device, the storing step storing the position of the noise source and the position of the speaker, the position specifying step specifying the position of the user who uses the information processing device, and the storing step The distance from the position of the noise source stored by the position to the user position specified by the position specifying step and the position of the speaker stored by the storage step to the position of the user specified by the position specifying step And a correction amount calculating step for calculating a predetermined correction amount based on the distance of the noise, and the phase of the noise acquired by the microphone by the predetermined correction amount Characterized in that it comprises a phase correction step forward to, and is intended to provide a noise cancellation method.

  According to the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus and a noise canceling method capable of exerting a noise canceling effect even if a listener's position is changed in a device in which a noise source and a noise canceling speaker are separated. Is possible.

It is a conceptual diagram which shows the example of an external appearance structure of this embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of this embodiment. It is a flowchart figure which shows the procedure of the noise cancellation process in this embodiment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.

In FIG. 1, the external appearance structural example of this embodiment is shown.
As illustrated, the information processing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is configured as, for example, a notebook personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a notebook personal computer). The information processing apparatus 1 includes a camera 104, a speaker 105, and a microphone 106.

  The camera 104, the speaker 105, and the microphone 106 may all be known ones, but are preferably fixed to the information processing apparatus 1 and do not move from a predetermined position. The speaker 105 is a speaker that generates a reverse phase sound of noise by a noise cancellation process described later, and is a noise canceling speaker.

  In addition, the information processing apparatus 1 includes a noise source 110. The noise source 110 is an ideal sound source assumed from a plurality of devices that generate noise (a CPU cooler fan that generates wind noise, an HDD or an optical drive that generates operation sound, and the like).

  The position of the noise source 110 becomes a problem in this embodiment. For example, the noise source 110 may be located at a place where the position of each device that generates noise is weighted and averaged by the magnitude of the noise. The position of the noise source 110 is known for each type of notebook personal computer because the position of each device is fixed.

  The distance between the speaker 105 and the user (listener) is L1. On the other hand, the distance between the noise source 110 and the user (listener) is L2. More precisely, the position of the user may be the midpoint between both ears. Since the position of the user can be changed variously, L1 and L2 can be changed according to the position of the user.

  The information processing apparatus 1 incorporates hardware that executes predetermined information processing such as a CPU and a memory (not shown in FIG. 1), and executes predetermined information processing on the hardware using the hardware. A software program is also provided. The software program is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium. The control unit 100 according to the present embodiment is configured by such cooperation between the hardware and the software program.

FIG. 2 shows a functional configuration of the present embodiment.
The information processing apparatus 1 includes a control unit 100 in addition to the camera 104, the speaker 105, the microphone 106, and the noise source 110 illustrated in FIG. The control unit 100 includes a position specifying unit 101, an antiphase sound generation unit 102, and a phase shift correction unit 103.

  The control unit 100 has a function of controlling the entire information processing apparatus 1. In particular, the control unit 100 performs noise cancellation processing using the position specifying unit 101, the antiphase sound generation unit 102, and the phase shift correction unit 103 when playing back music or video content using an application. Execute.

  The position specifying unit 101 determines the position of the user based on the image information input from the camera 104 and outputs the position to the phase shift correction unit 103 as position information. The user's distance from the camera 104 is measured by the autofocus function of the camera 104. Specifically, the area occupied by the user is specified in the image information input from the camera 104, and the distance is measured by focusing on the specified area (in other words, adjusting the focus of the image). The user's direction (which position is up, down, left, or right with respect to the front of the camera 104) is determined by analyzing the image captured by the camera 104.

  The positional information output to the phase shift correction unit 103 is used to calculate the distance L1 between the speaker 105 and the user and the distance L2 between the noise source 110 and the user. The position specifying unit 101 may calculate L1 and L2.

  The antiphase sound generation unit 102 is suitable for 0 to 360 degrees so that the phase is exactly 180 degrees shifted from the noise sound based on the noise sound collected by the microphone 106 and input to the antiphase sound generation unit 102. Calculates the offset and generates an antiphase sound.

  The phase shift correcting unit 103 is configured so that the reverse phase sound generated by the reverse phase sound generating unit 102 is reversed by 180 degrees from the noise sound at the position where the user listens based on L1 and L2. A suitable deviation of 0 to 360 degrees is calculated to correct the antiphase sound. Further, the phase shift correction unit 103 outputs the corrected antiphase sound from the speaker 105 using the speaker 105.

FIG. 3 shows a procedure of noise cancellation processing in the present embodiment.
When the noise canceling process is started by the control unit 100, first, the camera 104 is activated (step S101). Next, the position specifying unit 101 determines whether there is a user based on the image information input from the camera 104 (step S102).

  If it is determined that there is a user, the position specifying unit 101 specifies the user position and acquires the user's position information (step S103). The acquired position information is temporarily stored in a temporary memory (not shown) or the like. The position information to be stored stores at least the previous and current acquired positions.

  Next, the phase shift correction unit 103 compares the previous position information with the position information acquired this time, and determines whether or not the position of the user has changed from before (step S104). If it is determined that there is a change in the user position, the phase shift is calculated from the user position (step S105). When it is determined that there is no change, the phase shift is not calculated.

  Specifically, the phase shift may be calculated by recalculating L1 and L2, and shifting the phase of the antiphase sound generated by the antiphase sound generation means 102 according to the difference between them.

Next, the phase shift correcting means 103 emits the corrected anti-phase sound using the speaker 105 (step S106).
The cycle from step S102 to step S106 is repeated at a predetermined cycle.
When the flow of noise cancellation processing is executed for the first time, there is no previous position information in step S104 (undefined), so it is preferable to always calculate the phase shift.

  According to the above-described embodiment, it is possible to apply a noise canceling technique for reducing noise by emitting an antiphase sound of noise to an information processing apparatus.

  In the present embodiment, the noise source 110 and the speaker 105 that is a noise canceling speaker are separated from each other, but based on the distance between the listener and the noise source 110 and the distance between the listener and the speaker 105. Since the phase of the anti-phase sound is shifted by the phase shift correction means 103, it is possible to exert a noise canceling effect even if the listener's position changes.

  The above-described embodiment can be variously modified. For example, in order to specify the user position, an image captured by the camera 104 is used in the present embodiment. However, for example, the position is specified using two or more infrared distance measuring sensors provided at different positions. May be.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Information processing apparatus 100 Control part 101 Position specification means 102 Antiphase sound generation means 103 Phase shift correction means 104 Camera 105 Speaker 106 Microphone 110 Noise source

Claims (6)

An information processing apparatus comprising: a noise source that generates audible band noise; and a speaker that outputs a sound in which the phase of the noise is corrected by a predetermined amount,
The information processing apparatus, wherein the predetermined amount is calculated based on a distance from the noise source to a user who uses the information processing apparatus and a distance from the speaker to the user. An information processing apparatus having a noise source that generates audible band noise and a speaker that outputs audible band sound,
Position specifying means for specifying the position of a user who uses the information processing apparatus;
Storage means for storing the position of the noise source and the position of the speaker;
A microphone for acquiring the noise;
Phase correction means for correcting the phase of the noise acquired by the microphone by a predetermined amount;
The distance from the noise source position stored in the storage means to the user position specified by the position specifying means, and the user position specified by the position specifying means from the speaker position stored in the storage means And a correction amount calculating means for calculating the predetermined amount based on the distance to the information processing apparatus. The position specifying means includes
Image acquisition means for acquiring images;
User image specifying means for specifying an area occupied by the user in the image;
User ranging means for measuring the distance from the image acquisition means to the user by focusing the image;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the storage unit stores a position of the image acquisition unit. The position specifying means includes
A first distance measuring means for measuring a distance to the object;
A second distance measuring means for measuring a distance to the object provided at a position different from the first distance measuring means;
3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the storage unit stores positions of the first distance measuring unit and the second distance measuring unit.   5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the position of the user is periodically specified by the position specifying unit, and the correction by the phase correcting unit is performed when the user position is changed. The information processing apparatus according to item. A noise canceling method by an information processing apparatus having a noise source that generates audible band noise, a speaker that outputs audible band sound, and a microphone that acquires the noise,
A storage step of storing the position of the noise source and the position of the speaker;
A position specifying step for specifying a position of a user who uses the information processing apparatus;
The user specified by the position specifying step from the position of the noise source stored by the storing step to the user position specified by the position specifying step and the position of the speaker stored by the storing step A correction amount calculation step for calculating a predetermined correction amount based on the distance to the position of
A phase correction step of correcting the phase of the noise acquired by the microphone by the predetermined correction amount;
A noise canceling method comprising:

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