JP2021101262A - Privacy system, privacy improving method, masking sound generation system, masking sound generation method - Google Patents

Abstract

To protect privacy of conversation without degrading comfort.SOLUTION: The privacy system is to generate a sound obtained by converting an environmental sound or a performance sound into the frequency of human voice. Further, the privacy improving method is a method of generating a sound obtained by converting an environmental sound or a performance sound into the frequency of human voice, and changing the color temperature or the illuminance for each area to be classified. Furthermore, not only human voices in an environment but also including noises such as mechanical sounds etc. generated in the space, all sounds present in the environment are regarded as noises, and adopting a method to aim masking the noises and making it comfortable for the human ear.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a privacy system, a privacy improving method, a masking sound generation system, and a masking sound generation method.

In order to protect speech privacy, conventional methods such as playing music and obtaining a masking (making it difficult to hear) effect by the sound, or a noise masking method that emits noise called pseudo air conditioning sound and obtains a masking effect in the same way, etc. It was widely adopted. However, these methods could not be a very good solution due to the problem of music preference in the former and the problem of discomfort due to continuous noise flow in the latter. On the other hand, in recent years Yamaha Corporation has used disturbing sounds synthesized from human voices to blend conversation sounds into the disturbing sounds, reducing word intelligibility even at low volumes compared to the above-mentioned music use and noise masking. We have developed an information masking technology that can be used. That is the product called the speech privacy system "VSP-1" (see the URL described in Non-Patent Document 1 below).

http://www.yamaha.co.jp/news/2011/11030302.html

Yamaha's speech privacy system "VSP-1" mentioned above uses disturbing sounds synthesized from human voice for masking. This certainly seems to be effective in protecting the privacy of conversations. However, there is a problem in making the sound environment on the spot comfortable. In other words, the above-mentioned disturbing sound itself is nothing but "noise" for the people on the spot.

Therefore, Yamaha's speech privacy system "VSP-1" works in an environment where only human voice exists, but in any environment, sounds other than human voice exist as noise. It is normal, and noise such as mechanical noise existing in the environment is often a bigger problem. In such an environment, there is a need for a system that protects the privacy of conversation and at the same time responds to the wide variety of noise that exists in that environment and makes people living in that environment comfortable.

The present invention is intended to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to protect the privacy of conversation without deteriorating comfort.

In order to solve the above problems, according to one viewpoint of the present invention, the privacy system is set to generate a sound obtained by converting an environmental sound or a directing sound into a human voice frequency.

Further, according to another aspect of the present invention, the privacy system analyzes the frequency component of the generated sound generated in the target space, and effectively creates the sound component to mask the analyzed frequency component, and the above-mentioned preparation. It was assumed that the sound component was output.

Further, according to another aspect of the present invention, the privacy improving method is a method of generating a sound obtained by converting an environmental sound or a directing sound into the frequency of a human voice, and changing the color temperature or the illuminance for each region to be classified. did.

Further, according to another aspect of the present invention, the masking sound generation system extracts a harmony composition based on the conversational voice and the sound heard in the room, and determines the utterance timing based on the change in the conversation speed or the loudness of the voice. It was extracted and a masking sound was generated based on the harmony composition, the utterance timing, and the sound heard in the room.

Further, according to another aspect of the present invention, the masking sound generation method is based on a step of extracting a harmony composition based on a conversational voice and a sound heard in a room, and an utterance based on a change in conversation speed or voice volume. A masking sound is generated based on the process of extracting the timing, the harmony composition, the utterance timing, and the sound heard in the room.

According to the privacy system and the privacy improving method of the present invention, the privacy of conversation can be protected without deteriorating the comfort level of the person in the space.

Hereinafter, Example 1 of the present invention will be described, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below.

The problem with Yamaha's speech privacy system "VSP-1", which is an example of conventional typical technology, is to use the same acoustic components as human voice (disturbing sound synthesized from human voice) to mask human voice. That is. With this method, although the purpose of protecting the privacy of conversation can be achieved, the sound environment on the spot cannot be made comfortable. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, by converting environmental sounds such as the murmuring of a river and directing sounds such as musical instrument sounds into the frequencies of human voices and flowing them, the comfort level of the surrounding people is not reduced, and the surroundings are not deteriorated. It makes it difficult for a person to recognize the conversation and can ensure the privacy of the conversation. Furthermore, not only human voice in a certain environment but also noise such as mechanical sound generated in that environment is captured as noise, and the noise is masked and at the same time comfortable for the human ear. It adopts a method that aims to make it a noise. Specifically, the frequency components of all sounds such as mechanical noise generated in a certain environment, including human voice, are analyzed, and the sound components (human beings) effective for masking all of these noises. This is a method of creating an acoustic component that makes you feel comfortable even when you listen to it, rather than a disturbing sound based on the voice of (see Fig. 1).

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a sound environment of an ATM corner and a sound created to mask the sound environment. When investigating the sound environment of the ATM corner, there is continuous noise such as air conditioning, and the guide sound of the device, the reaction sound of the touch panel, the bookkeeping sound, and the device sound of counting the bills are heard intermittently, which constitutes the sound environment. .. Since these sounds have a specific frequency distribution and are often perceived as jarring, they are a group of sounds with the same frequency tonality and are not jarring with respect to continuous noise and intermittent noise. The masking effect was given by presenting.

In the lobby and lounge, the combination of bright tonality and gentle continuous sound and sound that flows at an appropriate frequency constitutes the sound environment that determines the impression of the store, and elements such as the rustling of the wind through the natural grove are added to each. Incorporated into volume changes and movement of the sound image, consideration was given to not homogenizing the sound, and the sound environment was created so that the elapsed time on the spot was felt short.

FIG. 2 shows a method of generating a masking sound according to this embodiment. The point is a method of generating a non-obtrusive "masking sound" that matches the tonality of the music and the added sound designed to support the function of the target space and the creation of an impression.

When generating a masking sound that is not offensive to the ears, a "harmonic composition" with a frequency that is not incongruous with the additional sound and music (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "sound") that can be heard indoors is extracted from the conversation voice and the conversation is performed. The change in the speed and loudness of the voice is extracted as "speech timing" and converted into MIDI data. Based on the MIDI data, we design additional sounds that can be heard indoors and tones that match the music, and use them as masking sounds to ensure the privacy of conversations that we do not want to hear.

It can be said that the difference from the conventional part is that the masking sound is not generated alone, but can be combined with the additional sound and music that form the impression of space without any discomfort.

The present inventor calls this embodiment a "partition of sound and light", but as can be seen from this name, this embodiment is composed of two points, an auditory aspect and a visual aspect. It has a big feature. The description of the auditory aspect is as described above. On the other hand, the visual aspect plays a role in complementing the improvement of comfort by the above auditory aspect. Specifically, the color temperature and illuminance of the lighting are changed for each area to be divided in the space, and a lighting plan with a sharp edge is created so that the difference can be visually recognized between the areas. The lighting plan should also be comfortable and natural based on human circadian rhythm. By doing so, it produces the effect that the space is divided both audibly and visually to the person who comes to the place, so in addition to the stimulus from the auditory sense by the acoustic plan, the lighting The visual stimulus of the plan synergistically enhances the effect of the partition in the space.

In fact, this "sound and light partition" is a good example of evidence-based design, and there is novelty in it.

The present invention can be industrially used as a privacy system, a privacy improving method, a masking sound generation system, and a masking sound generation method.

The figure which shows the sound environment of the ATM corner and the masking sound of Example 1. FIG. The figure which shows the masking sound generation method by Example 2. FIG.

Claims (5)

A privacy system that generates sounds that are converted from environmental sounds or directing sounds to the frequencies of human voice. A privacy system that analyzes the frequency components of the generated sound generated in the target space, creates sound components that are effective in masking the analyzed frequency components, and outputs the created sound components. A privacy-enhancing method that generates a sound obtained by converting an environmental sound or a directing sound into a human voice frequency, and changes the color temperature or illuminance for each area to be classified. The harmony composition is extracted based on the conversation voice and the sound heard in the room, the utterance timing is extracted based on the change in the conversation speed or the volume of the voice, and the utterance timing is extracted based on the harmony composition, the utterance timing and the sound heard in the room. A masking sound generation system that generates masking sounds. A step of extracting a harmony composition based on a conversational voice and a sound heard in a room, a step of extracting an utterance timing based on a change in conversation speed or a change in voice volume, and a step of extracting the harmony composition, the utterance timing, and the room. A masking sound generation method that generates a masking sound based on the sound you hear.

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