JP2013118497A - Electronic device, voice processing method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a user to hear voice with good quality.SOLUTION: The electronic device comprises: a voice filter part 104 which corrects frequency characteristics in a voice signal; a detecting part 107 which detects whether or not bone conduction is used for hearing a voice signal after the voice filter part corrects the frequency characteristics; and a control part 108 which controls so that the voice filter part 104 may correct the frequency characteristics to any one of the frequency characteristics corresponding to a bone conduction sound or the frequency characteristics corresponding to aerial conduction sound, on the basis of a result detected by the detecting part 107.

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic device, a sound processing method, and a program.

  A bone conduction speaker is provided for the received voice, and the filter coefficient to be set in the voice filter for processing the received voice signal is switched between the bone conduction filter coefficient and the air conduction sound filter coefficient as follows. A configuration of a mobile phone is known.

  If the volume key volume is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the bone conduction sound filter coefficient is set. If the volume key volume is smaller than the threshold value, the air conduction sound filter coefficient is set. Further, if the filter coefficient read from the voice picked up by the microphone is equal to or greater than the threshold value, the bone conduction sound filter coefficient is set. If the filter coefficient is smaller than the threshold value, the air conduction sound filter coefficient is set. Further, if the position of the bone conduction speaker is selected as the bone conduction sound arrangement, the bone conduction sound filter coefficient is set, and if it is the air conduction sound arrangement, the air conduction sound filter coefficient is set. Also, if a key input operation for selecting and fixing to the bone conduction sound filter was performed, the bone conduction sound filter coefficient was set, and a key input operation for selecting and fixing to the air conduction sound filter was performed. If there is, the filter coefficient for air conduction sound is set (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).

JP 2007-1998 A

  However, for example, there are cases where the filter coefficient for air conduction sound is set even though the user is trying to listen to the bone conduction sound. On the other hand, the bone conduction sound filter coefficient may be set even though the user is trying to listen to the air conduction sound. In this case, the user listens to the bone conduction sound in which the frequency characteristic of the air conduction sound is set, or conversely, the user listens to the air conduction sound in which the frequency characteristic of the bone conduction sound is set. It will be. In such a state, there is a discrepancy between the sound that has been heard and the frequency characteristic set for the sound, which causes a problem that it is difficult to hear the received voice.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device, a sound processing method, and a program that allow a user to listen to sound of good quality.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. One aspect of the present invention is an audio filter unit that corrects a frequency characteristic of an audio signal, and listening to the audio signal that has been corrected by the audio filter unit. A detection unit that detects whether or not bone conduction is used, and based on a result detected by the detection unit, the voice filter unit is either a frequency characteristic corresponding to bone conduction sound or a frequency characteristic corresponding to air conduction sound. An electronic apparatus comprising: a control unit that controls to correct one of the frequency characteristics.

  One embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that the electronic device includes a sound output unit that outputs sound based on the sound signal after the frequency characteristic is corrected.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, in the electronic device, the detection unit is based on a pressure sensor that generates a detection signal at a level corresponding to a pressed force, and a level of the detection signal generated by the pressure sensor. And a determination unit that determines whether or not the head and neck of the device is touching the device.

  One embodiment of the present invention is the above electronic device, wherein the press sensor is located in the vicinity of the audio output unit.

  In one embodiment of the present invention, the electronic device further includes a touch panel that detects a position touched by the operating body, and the detection unit calculates a contact area where the operating body touches the touch panel. An area calculation unit, and a determination unit that determines whether or not the head and neck part is touching the device based on the contact area calculated by the contact area calculation unit.

  One embodiment of the present invention is an audio processing method executed by an electronic device, and includes an audio filter procedure for correcting a frequency characteristic of an audio signal, and listening to an audio signal after being corrected by the audio filter procedure. Based on a detection procedure for detecting whether or not conduction is used and a result detected by the detection procedure, either the frequency characteristic for bone conduction sound or the frequency characteristic for air conduction sound is selected by the voice filter procedure. And a control procedure for controlling to correct one of the frequency characteristics.

  In addition, according to one embodiment of the present invention, a computer apparatus uses an audio filter step for correcting a frequency characteristic of an audio signal, and whether bone conduction is used for listening to the audio signal after being corrected by the audio filter step. Based on the detection step of detecting the sound and the result detected by the detection step, the voice filter step corrects the frequency characteristic to one of bone conduction sound and air conduction sound. And a control step for controlling the program.

  According to the present invention, a user can listen to sound of good quality.

It is a figure which shows the example of an external appearance of the portable terminal device which is an example of the electronic device in each embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the schematic structural example of the portable terminal device in 1st Embodiment. It is the figure which compared the bone conduction sound corresponding filter characteristic set to an audio | voice filter part, and the air conduction sound corresponding filter characteristic. It is a figure which shows the example of a process sequence which the portable terminal device in 1st Embodiment performs. It is a figure which shows the schematic structural example of the portable terminal device in 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a process sequence which the portable terminal device in 2nd Embodiment performs.

<First Embodiment>
[Appearance of mobile terminal device]
FIG. 1 shows an appearance example of a mobile terminal device 100 which is an example of an electronic apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The mobile terminal device 100 shown in this figure is an electronic device called a smartphone, which is configured by combining a mobile phone and an information processing terminal. FIG. 1A is a plan view of the front panel of the main body of the mobile terminal device 100 as viewed from the front. FIG. 1B is a side view of the main body of the mobile terminal device 100 as viewed from the side.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, a display unit 120 and a touch panel 130 are provided on the front surface of the mobile terminal device 100. The touch panel 130 outputs, as an operation input device, coordinate information of a position where an operation body such as a finger contacts. In the present embodiment, the touch panel 130 may be a touch panel of a publicly known system such as a capacitive system or a resistive film system as long as it reacts to contact with the human skin. It is not limited to a specific touch panel.

In addition, an audio output unit 106 and a press sensor 111 are provided above the touch panel 130.
The voice output unit 106 is a member that outputs voice including received voice. For the audio output unit 106, for example, a bone conduction speaker is used. A known bone conduction speaker can be used.

The pressure sensor 111 is a member that outputs a detection electric signal at a level corresponding to the force to be pressed. For example, a known pressure detection value can be obtained by changing a resistance value according to an applied pressure value. The piezoresistive method is used. In the present embodiment, the method employed for the pressure sensor 111 may be a known pressure sensor such as a capacitance method, and is not limited to a specific pressure sensor.
That is, when the user makes a call using the mobile terminal device 100, the ear is brought close to the audio output unit 106 in order to listen to the received voice output from the audio output unit 106. In addition, when the user tries to listen to the received voice by the bone conduction sound, the ear (auricle) is brought into contact with the voice output unit 106. The press sensor 111 detects the force that is pressed in accordance with the user touching the ear with the audio output unit 106 in this way.

  The press sensor 111 is intended to detect an ear contact with the audio output unit 106 as described above. For this purpose, the press sensor 111 is provided in the vicinity of the audio output unit 106 as shown in FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b). Thereby, the press sensor 111 can detect accurately the force pressed according to the contact state of the ear with respect to the audio | voice output part 106. FIG.

  In addition, the vibration according to the sound output of the sound output unit 106 of the mobile terminal device 100 is transmitted to the touch panel 130, so that the touch panel 130 vibrates, and the vibration propagates through the air, so that the sound from the sound output unit 106 is transmitted. Sound is conducted as air conduction sound.

[Configuration of mobile terminal device]
FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration example of the mobile terminal device 100 according to the first embodiment. The mobile terminal device 100 shown in this figure includes an antenna 101, a communication unit 102, a received voice decoding unit 103, a voice filter unit 104, a voice amplification unit 105, a voice output unit 106, a detection unit 107, a control unit 108, and a filter coefficient table 109. Is provided. In addition, although the portable terminal device 100 is provided with the structure for transmitting transmission voice, in FIG. 1, illustration is abbreviate | omitted about this structure.

For example, the antenna 101 receives radio waves from a base station apparatus of a mobile phone communication system and outputs a received signal.
The communication unit 102 executes various processes corresponding to mobile phone communication such as outgoing call, incoming call, incoming call process, and end call process.
The received voice decoding unit 103 demodulates and decodes the received signal to extract a voice signal. The audio filter unit 104 corrects the frequency characteristics of the extracted audio signal. The sound filter unit 104 changes the frequency characteristic for correction according to the filter coefficient set by the control unit 108. Note that the audio filter unit 104 is formed by a digital filter, for example.
The audio amplifying unit 105 amplifies the audio signal corrected by the audio filter unit 104.
The audio output unit 106 outputs the corrected audio signal that has been amplified as audio.

As an example, the detection unit 107 detects whether or not an ear is in the vicinity of the audio output unit 106. Here, the vicinity is, for example, a range corresponding to the size of a human ear. Specifically, the vicinity may be a range corresponding to the average value of the size of the human ear, or a range corresponding to the maximum value or the minimum value of the size of the human ear. Moreover, since the size of a person's ear is different for each country, each region, and the user's age, the vicinity may be set for each country, each region, and each user's age.
First, as shown in FIG. 1, the audio output unit 106 is arranged on the front panel of the mobile terminal device 100. The detection unit 107 detects whether the ear is in contact with the vicinity of the audio output unit 106 arranged in this way.

In the first embodiment, the detection unit 107 includes a pressure sensor 111, a detection signal amplification unit 112, and a determination unit 113.
The press sensor 111 generates a detection electrical signal at a level corresponding to the pressing force as described above, and supplies the generated detection electrical signal to the detection signal amplification unit 112. As shown in FIG. 1, the press sensor 111 is provided in the vicinity of the audio output unit 106 on the front panel of the mobile terminal device 100. Thereby, the force which presses the press sensor 111 is handled as what reflected the contact state of the ear with respect to the audio | voice output part 106. FIG.
The detection signal amplification unit 112 amplifies the detection electrical signal supplied from the pressure sensor 111 so that the determination unit 113 can recognize the level of the detection electrical signal. Then, the detection signal amplification unit 112 supplies the detection signal after amplification (hereinafter referred to as “amplification detection signal”) to the determination unit 113.

  Based on the level of the amplified detection signal supplied from the detection signal amplification unit 112, the determination unit 113 determines whether or not the ear is in the vicinity of the audio output unit 106. Specifically, when the level of the detection signal is equal to or higher than a preset threshold value, it is estimated that the ear is intentionally applied to the audio output unit 106 in order to listen to the bone conduction sound. Is done. In that case, the determination unit 113 determines that the ear is touching the vicinity of the audio output unit 106. On the other hand, when the level of the detection signal is less than a preset threshold, the ear is not intentionally applied to the audio output unit 106 in order to listen to the air conduction sound. Is estimated. In that case, the determination unit 113 determines that the ear is not touching the vicinity of the audio output unit 106. The determination unit 113 outputs the determination result to the control unit 108 as the detection result of the detection unit 107.

  When the detection unit 107 detects that the ear is touching the vicinity of the audio output unit 106, the control unit 108 controls the audio filter unit 104 to correct the audio signal to a frequency characteristic corresponding to bone conduction sound. . Further, when the detection unit 107 detects that the ear is not touching the vicinity of the audio output unit 106, the audio filter unit 104 performs control so as to correct the audio signal to the frequency characteristic corresponding to the air conduction sound. That is, the control unit 108 performs control so that the sound filter unit 104 corrects the frequency characteristic for bone conduction sound or the frequency characteristic for air conduction sound based on the result detected by the detection unit 107. In other words, the control unit 108 controls the correction of the frequency characteristics by the sound filter unit 104 based on the result detected by the detection unit 107.

  For this purpose, the control unit 108 selects and reads either the bone conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient or the air conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient stored in the filter coefficient table 109. Then, the control unit 108 sets one of the read bone conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient and air conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient in the voice filter unit 104.

The sound filter unit 104 has a filter characteristic corresponding to the bone conduction sound by setting the bone conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient. Thereby, the frequency characteristic of the audio signal is corrected so as to be suitable for listening to the bone conduction sound. In addition, the sound filter unit 104 has filter characteristics corresponding to the air conduction sound by setting the air conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient. Thereby, the frequency characteristic of the audio signal is corrected so as to be suitable for listening to the air conduction sound.
The control unit 108 is realized by, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) executing a program. Further, the filter coefficient table 109 is stored in a storage device used as an auxiliary storage device by the CPU as an example.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram comparing the bone-conducted sound corresponding filter characteristics and the air-conducted sound compatible filter characteristics set in the audio filter unit. FIG. 3A shows a filter characteristic (bone conduction sound corresponding filter characteristic) fl1 in which the bone conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient is set and a sound characteristic of the sound filter section 104 in which the air conduction sound correspondence filter coefficient is set. The example of the filter characteristic (filter characteristic for air conduction sound) fl2 is shown. In this embodiment, the bone conduction sound is a sound in which the vibration of the bone conduction speaker is transmitted to the inner ear (auditory nerve) via the bone (skull). The air conduction sound is a sound transmitted to the inner ear through the eardrum (middle ear) through the vibration of the bone conduction speaker propagating in the air.

  The audio output unit 106 of this embodiment is a bone conduction speaker. For this reason, the sound output from the sound output unit 106 can be heard as a bone conduction sound by bringing the user's head, that is, the ear into contact with the portion of the sound output unit 106. Since the bone conduction sound is propagated without interposing air, there is an advantage that it is easy to hear even when the surrounding noise is large. Even if the ear is not in contact with the sound output unit 106, the sound output from the sound output unit 106 can be naturally heard as an air conduction sound if the ear is positioned in the vicinity of the sound output unit 106. it can.

  However, in the case of bone-conducted sound, high-frequency perception is reduced by propagating through biological tissue such as bone. For this reason, the audio output unit 106 as a bone conduction speaker is configured to output audio with high frequencies emphasized. Accordingly, the bone-conducting sound corresponding filter characteristic fl1 is a flat characteristic as shown in FIG.

  However, when trying to listen to the vibration of the audio output unit 106, which is a bone conduction speaker, as air-conducted sound, high-frequency attenuation due to propagation of living tissue does not occur. Will result in an unnatural hearing. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3A, the air conduction sound corresponding filter characteristic fl2 is a characteristic in which a high frequency is attenuated with respect to the bone conduction sound corresponding filter characteristic fl1. The filter coefficient table 109 stores bone conduction sound corresponding filter coefficients for setting the bone conduction sound corresponding filter characteristic fl1 shown in FIG. Further, the filter coefficient table 109 stores air conduction sound corresponding filter coefficients for setting the air conduction sound corresponding filter characteristic fl2 in the sound filter unit 104.

  FIG. 3B shows the frequency characteristics fc1 and fc2 of the audio signal corrected by the audio filter unit 104. The frequency characteristic fc1 is the frequency characteristic of the audio signal after being corrected by the audio filter unit 104 in which the bone conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient (bone conduction sound corresponding filter characteristic fl1) is set. The frequency characteristic fc2 is the frequency characteristic of the sound signal corrected by the sound filter unit 104 in which the air conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient (air conduction sound corresponding filter characteristic fl2) is set.

  As can be seen by comparing these frequency characteristics fc1 and fc2, the frequency characteristic fc2 is a characteristic in which the high frequency band is attenuated more than the frequency characteristic fc1. That is, the sound signal corrected by the air-conducting sound-corresponding filter characteristic fl2 is attenuated at higher frequencies than the sound signal corrected by the bone-conducting sound-corresponding filter characteristic fl1. When the sound corrected to have the frequency characteristic fc2 is heard as an air conduction sound, a natural audibility in which a high frequency is appropriately suppressed can be obtained.

Since the bone-conducting sound corresponding filter characteristic fl1 shown in FIG. 3A is flat, the operation of the audio filter unit 104 in which the bone-conducting sound corresponding filter characteristic fl1 is set is an audio signal. It passes without changing the frequency characteristic of the. However, in the present embodiment, when correcting the frequency characteristic of the audio signal, the operation for correcting the frequency characteristic of the audio signal is also performed for the operation of outputting without changing the frequency characteristic of the audio signal. Shall be included.
In addition, the examples of the bone conduction sound compatible filter characteristic fl1 and the air conduction sound compatible filter characteristic fl2 shown in FIG. 3A are merely examples, and as long as they are different, each may be changed as appropriate. It is included in this embodiment.

  As understood from the above description, in the mobile terminal device 100, the detection unit 107 determines whether or not the ear is in contact with the vicinity of the audio output unit 106. Here, the fact that the ear is in contact with the vicinity of the voice output unit 106 means that the user is listening to the received voice by the bone conduction sound during a call. On the other hand, the fact that the ear is not in contact with the vicinity of the audio output unit 106 means that the user is trying to listen to the received voice by the air conduction sound.

  Therefore, when it is detected that the ear is in contact with the vicinity of the audio output unit 106, the control unit 108 sets a bone conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient for the audio filter unit 104. As a result, the audio signal is corrected to the frequency characteristic corresponding to the bone conduction sound. At this time, the user is in contact with the audio output unit 106 in an attempt to listen to the reception sound of the bone conduction sound, and the bone conduction sound that is heard has a frequency characteristic corresponding to the bone conduction sound. become. Therefore, the user can listen to the received voice being heard as the bone conduction sound with good sound quality.

  When it is detected that the ear is not in contact with the vicinity of the audio output unit 106, the control unit 108 sets an air conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient for the audio filter unit 104. As a result, the audio signal is corrected to the frequency characteristic corresponding to the air conduction sound. Therefore, the user is listening to the air conduction sound when the user places the ear in the vicinity of the audio output unit 106 but is not in contact with the audio output unit 106. In that case, the air conduction sound that the user listens has frequency characteristics corresponding to the air conduction sound. Therefore, the user can listen to the received voice that is being listened to as the air conduction sound with good sound quality.

[Processing procedure]
The flowchart of FIG. 4 shows an example of a processing procedure executed by the mobile terminal device 100 according to the first embodiment. In the detection unit 107, the determination unit 113 receives a notification of outgoing or incoming call from the communication unit 102 in response to the occurrence of outgoing or incoming call (step S101). In response to receiving this notification, the control unit 108 determines whether or not the level of the detection signal of the pressure sensor 111 amplified by the detection signal amplification unit 112 is equal to or higher than the threshold value p (step S102).

  When the determination unit 113 determines that the level of the amplified detection signal is equal to or higher than the threshold p (step S102—YES), the detection unit 107 has detected that the ear is in contact with the audio output unit 106. Therefore, the control unit 108 reads out the bone conduction sound-corresponding filter coefficient from the filter coefficient table 109 and sets it in the voice filter unit 104 (step S103). As a result, the sound filter unit 104 has the bone conduction sound corresponding filter characteristic fl1 shown in FIG. 3A, and operates to correct the sound signal to the bone conduction sound compatible frequency characteristic.

  On the other hand, when the determination unit 113 determines that the level of the amplified detection signal is less than the threshold value p (step S102—NO), the detection unit 107 detects that the ear is not in contact with the audio output unit 106. It will be done. Therefore, the control unit 108 reads out the air conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient from the filter coefficient table 109 and sets the coefficient in the voice filter unit 104 (step S104). Thereby, the voice filter unit 104 has the air conduction sound corresponding filter characteristic fl2 shown in FIG. 3A, and operates to correct the voice signal to the frequency characteristic corresponding to the air conduction sound.

Next, the determination unit 113 determines whether or not the reception process has been completed in response to the start of the reception process by the communication unit 102 (step S105) (step S106).
When it is determined that the reception process has not ended (step S106: NO), the determination unit 113 further determines whether or not a certain time has passed (step S107). Here, when it is determined that the predetermined time has not elapsed (step S107—NO), the determination unit 113 returns to step S106. Then, when it is determined that the predetermined time has elapsed without completing the reception process (step S106—NO) (step S107—YES), the determination unit 113 again presses the pressure sensor 111 according to an instruction from the control unit 108. It is determined whether the level of the detected signal is equal to or higher than the threshold value p (step S108).

  When the determination unit 113 determines that the level of the amplification detection signal of the pressure sensor 111 is equal to or higher than the threshold value p (YES in step S108), the control unit 108 reads out the bone conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient from the filter coefficient table 109. Set in the voice filter unit 104 (step S109).

  On the other hand, when the determination unit 113 determines that the level of the amplified detection signal is less than the threshold value p (step S108—NO), the control unit 108 reads out the air conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient from the filter coefficient table 109. Is set in the voice filter unit 104 (step S110). After the process of step S109 or step S110 is completed, the process returns to step S106. If it is determined that the reception process has been completed (step S106—YES), the process shown in FIG.

  In addition, according to the process of step S106 to S110 shown in the said FIG. 4, while the receiving process is performed, the filter coefficient set with respect to the audio | voice filter part 104 is switched as follows. That is, during the reception process, if the sound output unit 106 is changed from the state in which the ear is in contact to the state in which the ear is not in contact, the bone conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient is switched to the air conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient. Done. On the contrary, if the sound output unit 106 is changed from a state in which the ear is not in contact to the state in contact during the reception process, the air conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient is changed to the bone conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient. Is switched to.

  When the user is talking, for example, his / her ear is brought into contact with or separated from the audio output unit 106 in accordance with a change in surrounding conditions. Specifically, at first, there was no ambient noise, so the user listened to the received voice without listening to the voice output unit 106. If the ambient noise suddenly increased, the user listened to the voice output unit 106. Try to listen to the received voice with strong contact.

  As described above, the mobile terminal device 100 according to the present embodiment determines whether the bone conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient and the air conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient correspond to the change in the contact state of the ear with the sound output unit 106 during the reception process. Switch with. Thereby, the portable terminal device 100 can switch to the bone conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient when the user tries to listen to the bone conduction sound by bringing his / her ear into contact with the main body of the electronic device. On the other hand, the portable terminal device 100 can switch to a filter coefficient corresponding to an air conduction sound when the user tries to listen to the air conduction sound without the ear contacting the main body of the electronic device. As a result, even when the contact state of the ear with the voice output unit 106 is changed while the user is talking, the received voice can always be heard with good sound quality.

In the present embodiment, the detection unit 107 detects whether or not the ear is touching the vicinity of the audio output unit 106 by arranging the press sensor 111 in the vicinity of the audio output unit 106. It is not limited to the vicinity of 106. The detection unit 107 may detect whether the ear is touching the mobile terminal device 100.
In this embodiment, the detection unit 107 detects whether or not the ear is in the vicinity of the sound output unit 106, but is not limited to the ear, and the head and neck touches the vicinity of the sound output unit 106. You may detect whether it is. Here, the head and neck is a general term for a head and a neck.
Further, the detection unit 107 detects whether or not the ear is in the vicinity of the audio output unit 106. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and bone conduction is used to listen to the audio signal after the audio filter unit 104 corrects it. What is necessary is just to detect whether it is.

<Second Embodiment>
[Configuration of mobile terminal device]
FIG. 5 shows a schematic configuration example of the mobile terminal device 100b according to the second embodiment. In this figure, the same parts as those in FIG. That is, the antenna 101, the communication unit 102, the received voice decoding unit 103, the voice filter unit 104, the voice amplification unit 105, the voice output unit 106, the detection unit 107, and the filter coefficient table 109 in the second embodiment are shown in FIG. The antenna 101, the communication unit 102, the received voice decoding unit 103, the voice filter unit 104, the voice amplification unit 105, the voice output unit 106, the detection unit 107, and the filter coefficient table 109 according to the first embodiment have the same configuration. .
In the second embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the detection unit 107b includes a touch panel 131, a contact area calculation unit 114, and a determination unit 113b.

 The detection unit 107b in the present embodiment detects whether or not the ear is in the vicinity of the audio output unit 106. In the present embodiment, the detection unit 107b detects whether or not the ear is in the vicinity of the audio output unit 106, but is not limited to the vicinity of the audio output unit 106, and may be limited to the ear. Absent. The detection unit 107b may detect whether or not the head and neck part is touching the device itself. The detection unit 107b may detect whether bone conduction is used for listening to the audio signal after the audio filter unit 104 corrects it.

    The touch panel 131 corresponds to the touch panel 130 illustrated in FIG.

  The contact area calculation unit 114 is a member that calculates an area (contact area) where the operating body is in contact with the touch panel 131. The contact area calculation unit 114 receives, from the touch panel 131, coordinate information indicating a position where the operating body is in contact with the panel. At this time, the number of coordinate information output at the same time changes in accordance with the area of the portion of the touch panel 131 in contact with the operating tool. The contact area calculation unit 114 calculates the contact area based on, for example, the number of coordinates simultaneously output from the touch panel 131, and outputs contact area information indicating the calculated contact area to the determination unit 113b.

  The determination unit 113b in the second embodiment determines whether or not the ear is in the vicinity of the audio output unit 106 based on the contact area indicated by the contact area input from the contact area calculation unit 114. Specifically, the determination unit 113b compares the contact area with a preset threshold value. And the determination part 113b will determine with the ear | touch touching the audio | voice output part 106, if a contact area is more than a threshold value. On the other hand, the determination unit 113b determines that the ear is not touching the vicinity of the audio output unit 106 if the contact area is less than the threshold value.

  As described above, in the second embodiment, the determination unit 113b is connected to its own device (for example, the vicinity of the audio output unit 106) based on the contact area where the operating body touches the touch panel 131 (for example, the ear). ) Is touched or not. Therefore, if the second embodiment is applied to an electronic device including the touch panel 131 for various operations, the ear touches the audio output unit 106 like the press sensor 111 of the first embodiment. There is no need to add a sensor for detecting whether or not there is. Thereby, in addition to the effect of 1st Embodiment, the electronic device can avoid the cost increase, enlargement, and weight increase by sensor addition.

[Processing procedure]
The flowchart of FIG. 6 shows an example of a processing procedure executed by the mobile terminal device 100 according to the second embodiment. In the detection unit 107, the determination unit 113b receives the notification from the communication unit 102 in response to the occurrence of outgoing or incoming calls (step S201). In response to receiving this notification, the determination unit 113b determines whether or not the contact area calculated by the contact area calculation unit 114 is greater than or equal to the threshold value q (step S202).

When the determination unit 113b determines that the contact area is greater than or equal to the threshold q (step S202—YES), the control unit 108 reads out the bone conduction sound-corresponding filter coefficient from the filter coefficient table 109 and sets it in the audio filter unit 104. (Step S203).
On the other hand, when the determination unit 113b determines that the contact area is less than the threshold value q (NO in step S202), the control unit 108 reads out the air-conducted sound corresponding filter coefficient from the filter coefficient table 109 and extracts the sound filter. Set in the unit 104 (step S204).

  Next, the determination unit 113b determines whether or not the reception process has ended in response to the start of the reception process in the communication unit 102 (step S205) (step S206). If it is determined that the reception process has not ended (step S206—NO), the determination unit 113b determines whether or not a certain time has passed (step S207). Here, when the determination unit 113b determines that the predetermined time has not elapsed (step S207—NO), the process returns to step S206. If the determination unit 113b determines that a certain time has passed without completing the reception process (step S206—NO), the current contact area is again determined according to an instruction from the control unit 108. It is determined whether or not it is greater than or equal to the threshold value q (step S208).

When the determination unit 113b determines that the current contact area is equal to or greater than the threshold q (step S208—YES), the control unit 108 reads out the bone conduction sound-corresponding filter coefficient from the filter coefficient table 109 and sends it to the audio filter unit 104. Setting is made (step S209).
On the other hand, when the determination unit 113b determines that the current contact area is less than the threshold q (step S208—NO), the control unit 108 reads out the air conduction sound corresponding filter coefficient from the filter coefficient table 109. Set in the voice filter unit 104 (step S210). After the process of step S209 or step S210 is completed, the process returns to step S206. If the determination unit 113b determines that the reception process has been completed (step S206—YES), the process illustrated in FIG.

As described above, the electronic device in each embodiment controls the frequency characteristics of the sound to be output based on whether or not the ear is touching the electronic device.
Note that the mobile terminal device 100b according to the second embodiment determines whether or not the ear is touching the vicinity of the audio output unit based on the contact area where the operating body touches the touch panel 131, but is not limited thereto. Not a thing.
The mobile terminal device 100b may determine whether or not the ear touches the vicinity of the audio output unit based on the detection results of other sensors. For example, the mobile terminal device 100b may include an optical sensor, and determine whether or not the ear is in the vicinity of the audio output unit based on the amount of light detected by the optical sensor. In that case, specifically, for example, when the light amount detected by the optical sensor is equal to or less than a predetermined light amount, the mobile terminal device 100b considers that the light incident on the optical sensor is blocked by the ear, It is determined that the ear is in the vicinity of the output unit. On the other hand, for example, when the amount of light detected by the optical sensor exceeds a predetermined amount of light, the mobile terminal device 100b considers that the light incident on the optical sensor is not blocked by the ear, and closes the ear near the audio output unit. Determine that is not touching.

    In each of the above embodiments, a speaker as one sound output unit 106 is provided, and the frequency characteristics of sound output from the sound output unit 106 are switched according to bone conduction sound and air conduction sound. However, it is not limited to this. For example, the following configuration may be used. A bone-conducted speaker and an air-conducted sound-compatible speaker are individually provided, and the received voice is received from either the bone-conducted sound-compatible speaker or the air-conducted sound-compatible speaker according to the detection result of the detection unit 107. You may switch so that it may output. Here, in the bone-conducted sound-compatible speaker and the air-conducted sound-compatible speaker, the former has frequency characteristics corresponding to bone conduction, and the latter has frequency characteristics corresponding to air-conducted sound.

  In each of the above embodiments, the threshold value p and the threshold value q used to determine the contact state of the ear with the audio output unit 106 are set in advance fixedly. However, for example, it may be configured so that it can be changed and set according to a user operation.

  Moreover, in each said embodiment, although the portable terminal device 100 is mentioned as an example, it is not limited to this. In other words, the present invention can be applied to various electronic devices that are supposed to output sound, such as music players and headphones. In that case, since the electronic device can change the frequency characteristic of the listening sound according to the contact state of the user's ear with the electronic device, the user can listen to the sound of good quality.

  Further, a frequency characteristic is obtained by recording a program for realizing the function of each unit in FIG. 2 or FIG. 5 on a computer-readable recording medium, causing the computer system to read and execute the program recorded on the recording medium. May be switched. Here, the “computer system” includes an OS and hardware such as peripheral devices. The “computer system” includes a WWW system having a homepage providing environment (or display environment). The “computer-readable recording medium” refers to a storage device such as a flexible medium, a magneto-optical disk, a portable medium such as a ROM and a CD-ROM, and a hard disk incorporated in a computer system. Further, the “computer-readable recording medium” refers to a volatile memory (RAM) in a computer system that becomes a server or a client when a program is transmitted via a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line. In addition, those holding programs for a certain period of time are also included.

  The program may be transmitted from a computer system storing the program in a storage device or the like to another computer system via a transmission medium or by a transmission wave in the transmission medium. Here, the “transmission medium” for transmitting the program refers to a medium having a function of transmitting information, such as a network (communication network) such as the Internet or a communication line (communication line) such as a telephone line. The program may be for realizing a part of the functions described above. Furthermore, what can implement | achieve the function mentioned above in combination with the program already recorded on the computer system, what is called a difference file (difference program) may be sufficient.

100, 100b Mobile terminal device 101 Antenna 102 Communication unit 103 Received speech decoding unit 104 Audio filter unit 105 Audio amplification unit 106 Audio output unit 107, 107b Detection unit 108 Control unit 109 Filter coefficient table 111 Pressure sensor 112 Detection signal amplification unit 113, 113b Determination unit 114 Contact area calculation unit 120 Display unit 130, 131 Touch panel

Claims (7)

An audio filter for correcting the frequency characteristics of the audio signal;
A detection unit for detecting whether bone conduction is used for listening to the audio signal after the audio filter unit has corrected, and
Based on the result detected by the detection unit, a control unit that controls the audio filter unit to correct to one of the frequency characteristics corresponding to the bone conduction sound or the frequency characteristic corresponding to the air conduction sound; and
An electronic device comprising:   The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: an audio output unit that outputs audio based on the audio signal after the frequency characteristic is corrected. The detector is
A pressure sensor that generates a detection signal at a level corresponding to the force to be pressed;
Based on the level of the detection signal generated by the pressure sensor, a determination unit that determines whether the head and neck is touching the device,
The electronic apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:   The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein the press sensor is located in the vicinity of the audio output unit. A touch panel for detecting a position touched by the operating body;
The detector is
A contact area calculation unit that calculates a contact area where the operating body touches the touch panel;
Based on the contact area calculated by the contact area calculation unit, a determination unit that determines whether the head and neck is touching the device,
The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: An audio processing method executed by an electronic device,
An audio filter procedure for correcting the frequency characteristics of the audio signal;
A detection procedure for detecting whether bone conduction is used for listening to the audio signal after being corrected by the audio filter procedure;
Based on the result detected by the detection procedure, a control procedure for controlling to correct one of the frequency characteristics corresponding to the bone conduction sound or the frequency characteristic corresponding to the air conduction sound by the voice filter procedure;
A voice processing method characterized by comprising: Computer equipment,
An audio filter step for correcting the frequency characteristics of the audio signal;
A detection step for detecting whether bone conduction is used for listening to the audio signal after being corrected by the audio filter step;
Based on the result detected by the detection step, a control step for controlling to correct to one of the frequency characteristics corresponding to the bone conduction sound or the frequency characteristic corresponding to the air conduction sound by the voice filter step;
A program for running

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