JPH0635490A - Real-time environmental sound reproduction system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce a feeling of isolation from nature by reflecting the and variation of external environment in real time. CONSTITUTION:This system is equipped with detecting means 2-5 which detect the state of a living work space isolated from the outside and external environment and an arithmetic processing means B which selects and composes a natural sound 11 and an artificial sound 15 according to the output signals of the detecting means 2-5, and an environmental sound is reproduced and outputted to the living work space in real time corresponding to changes of the external environment. The detecting means 2-5 detect at least one of temperature, humidity, rain, wind, and sound and the natural sound 11 or artificial sound 15 is generated corresponding to the temperature, humidity, rain, wind, or sound.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a general office building,
The present invention relates to a real-time environmental sound reproduction system used for relaxation of techno stress and creation of a relaxation space in a living work space isolated from the outside such as a factory, a skyscraper, a deep underground space, and outer space.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, sounds that enter a living space include individual sounds such as human voices and car sounds, and artificial sounds that are heard as background buzz and brook murmurs. There are natural sounds such as sounds and wind sounds, waves, insects and birds, artificially generated noise, "environmental music", BGM and the like. Some of these sounds are, for example, mentally stressful or distracting,
Some of them are mentally relaxing, and their influence on the mental aspect varies depending on the environment and content.

[0003] Conventionally, in offices and the like, "environmental music", BG are used for the purpose of relieving tension, changing the mood of employees and improving efficiency.
M is used. In addition, stationary noise is used for the purpose of masking OA equipment noise, conversation, telephone noise, etc. in offices, and adjacent dwelling units in hotels, apartment buildings, etc.

That is, in an indoor space or the like, it has been conventionally devised to block out noise from the outside or use a sound absorbing material to eliminate harmful reverberant sounds inside and create a space according to the purpose of use. . However, it may not always be possible to create an indoor space or a comfortable space that suits the purpose of use simply by blocking noise from the outside or eliminating harmful echoes.

Therefore, it is BGM that instead of turning off the sound, on the contrary, the sound is actively emitted to mask external noise or to improve the work efficiency. But B
In GM, because the melody is tied to a particular sensitivity,
It is difficult to expect a common effect for all, and some people like and dislike it. In addition, there is a problem that I can't concentrate on my work because I am distracted by the melody, and it cannot be invariably accepted by most people. The artificial stationary noise is
It is an attempt to eliminate such a melody and reproduce a meaningless sound, but this has a problem that it is felt noisy in the long time because there are few macro fluctuations.

[0006] In addition, long-time reproduction of natural sounds such as birds' voices, river murmuring, and sea noises is generally limited to a maximum of about 2 hours according to existing recording / reproducing systems such as CDs and tapes. If there is more than that, it will be repeated, and the same problem as mentioned above will occur due to getting tired.

By the way, a phenomenon in which a physical quantity such as an amplitude, a frequency, a generation timing, etc. fluctuates with time is called "fluctuation", but a certain music or natural sound has a relaxing effect on a person. , It is known to have a deep relationship with this "fluctuation". In other words, natural sounds have irregularities. For example, the sound of babbling brooks and the sound of crickets also have fluctuations (fluctuations) in the loudness, pitch of sound, timing of occurrence, etc. There is no such thing.

From this, as one method of creating an environmental sound that avoids the above-mentioned problems of BGM in recent years, a change in the volume feeling familiar to human beings, that is, "amplitude fluctuation" is added to noise having no semantic information. An attempt to give is made. "Amplitude fluctuation noise" that adopts the 1 / f characteristic that exists widely in nature as the "fluctuation characteristic", that is, "the characteristic that the magnitude of fluctuation is inversely proportional to the frequency of fluctuation"
Have been found to be useful for improving the sound environment in a room or the like.

Generally, the timing of sound generation caused by ecological activities and natural phenomena is slightly changed. Recently, the fluctuation, that is, the fluctuation of the generation timing is an important factor that characterizes the nature of natural sound. Is being watched as.

Therefore, in the natural sound reproducing apparatus proposed by the present applicant (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-38698), the reproduced intermittent environmental sound and steady environmental sound are combined and output. By using natural sound material that has a limited amount of time, a non-repetitive environmental sound equivalent to the natural sound is created for an extremely long time. In these devices, it is possible to introduce a naturalness in a considerable part by setting the generation timing of the intermittent sound to the 1 / f characteristic.

[0011]

However, in a building space such as a skyscraper in recent years or a deep underground space expected in the future, weather, time, congestion situation, movement of people or vehicles, etc. Since it is cut off from the environment and information, it causes psychological and physiological stress on humans, which cannot be solved by the conventional environmental sound reproduction method.

Further, in a skyscraper or the like, it is difficult to perceive changes in the external environment due to high airtightness, high sound insulation, etc.
In particular, despite the presence of windows in the high-rise areas, the phenomenon that the external weather conditions are not well understood is actually occurring. This is because the buildings of recent years prevent humans from the riot of nature and at the same time have natural nature. This is due to the fact that the goodness of being cut off.

Originally, people have lived in the natural environment while interacting with nature. In modern urban life, people live a life isolated from nature in every respect, which is one of the causes of great stress. Therefore, if it is possible to sense changes in the external environment such as temperature, humidity, and wind in the building, it is very useful for reducing the feeling of isolation from the natural world and the feeling of shielding in an artificially oriented space.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and provides a real-time environmental sound reproduction system capable of reducing the sense of isolation from nature by reflecting the state of the external environment and its changes in real time. The purpose is to provide.

[0015]

To this end, the real-time environmental sound reproduction system of the present invention is based on a living work space isolated from the outside, a detecting means for detecting the state of the external environment, and an output signal of the detecting means. And an arithmetic processing unit for selecting and synthesizing natural sound and artificial sound, and reproducing and outputting the environmental sound to the living work space in real time in response to changes in the external environment. The detection means is a temperature
It is a means for detecting at least one of humidity, rain, wind, and sound, and natural or artificial sound is stored corresponding to temperature, humidity, rain, wind, and sound. Further, the noise in the room and the noise from the outside may be given a fluctuation characteristic of 1 / f, or the noise noise may be masked by the noise of the sea noise.

[0016]

In the present invention, 1 / f fluctuation, temperature, and temperature are recorded from various sound sources including natural sounds, artificial sounds, synthetic sounds, etc., which are not recorded as CDs, tapes, etc., but are stored in the computer. In response to changes in the external environment such as humidity, rain, wind, and time, sounds are selected in a composite manner and played in real time as sounds that change continuously without repetition.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a real-time environmental sound reproduction system of the present invention, where A is an input unit, B is an arithmetic processing unit, and C is an audio synthesis unit. In the figure, dotted arrows indicate digital signals and solid arrows indicate analog signals.

The input section A comprises a 1 / f fluctuation generating section 1, a temperature sensor 2, a rain / humidity sensor 3, a wind speed sensor 4, a sound sensor (microphone) 5, and a time timer 6. The 1 / f fluctuation generation unit 1 changes the sense of volume that is familiar to humans.
That is, it causes "amplitude fluctuation" and frequency change, that is, "frequency fluctuation".
As 1 / f characteristic widely existing in the natural world, that is, "the property that the magnitude of fluctuation is inversely proportional to the frequency of fluctuation"
Has been adopted. The 1 / f fluctuation generator 1 and the time timer 6 may be provided inside the computer.

The arithmetic processing section B converts the signal from the input section 1 into a digital signal in the interface 7, and the environmental data analysis section 9 and the sound generation processing section 10 have the following purpose based on the signal of the input section 1. The arithmetic processing for reproducing the environmental sound is performed. The arithmetic processing section B is provided with a natural sound reproduction data section 11 and an artificial sound reproduction data section 15 for storing digitized sound material data, and tempo data 12, 16 and volume data 13, 17, respectively.
The sound quality type data 14 and 19 are prepared, each data is selected based on the instruction of the sound generation processing unit 10, and the selection data of a plurality of sound materials is generated and stored in the environmental sound synthesis interface 20. Control selection.

The output signal of the environmental sound synthesizing interface 20 is converted into an analog signal in each of the natural sound generating source 21 and the artificial sound generating source of the sound synthesizing section C, and is converted into 4CH.
They are combined by the mixer + equalizer 23 and output to the power amplifier 25.

Next, the specific processing performed by the environmental data analysis unit 9 and the sound generation processing unit 10 will be described.

Realization of a resting space by a sound environment having a 1 / f fluctuation characteristic A stream of the stream, a breeze of the wind, a sound of the sea noise, etc. are typical natural sounds having a 1 / f fluctuation characteristic and are in a relaxed state. There is an effect that brings about the effect that the 1 / f fluctuation characteristic is reflected, and the combination of artificial sound and natural sound makes use of environmental sounds and music to relieve stress and start to change the mood. The sound that does not come can be expected to have an effect such as obtaining a sufficient rest for a long time.

Realization of a comfortable environment based on the sound of the sea noise with a masking effect The sound of the sea noise has similar sound elements as air-conditioning noise, traffic noise, etc. as an acoustic component, and thus the sound of the sea noise is masked. By using it as a material, general office space,
By masking background noise (air conditioning noise and surrounding noise) such as refresh spots, and combining masking sounds (sound of sea noise) with environmental sounds and music, a comfortable sound environment is realized.

By reflecting changes in the external environment in real time, the sense of isolation from nature is reduced. Normally, environmental sounds and music used in an indoor space are reproduced regardless of changes in the external environment, but in the present invention, in response to the external environment where the building is placed, The sound itself changes.

-A Outside Temperature Processing By changing the sound of the musical instrument or the musical composition that plays the environmental music depending on the outside temperature, the outside temperature is felt by the music. Therefore, for example, as shown below, a correspondence table of the outside temperature T and the musical instrument is created.

T = 10 to 12 ° C .... Piano T = 13 to 15 ° C .... Violin T = 16 to 18 ° C .... Guitar And the output of the temperature sensor 2 is an environmental data analysis unit via the interface 7. When the ambient temperature T is recognized and the ambient temperature T is recognized, environmental music data is selected from the correspondence table, converted into environmental sound selection data, and the environmental sound synthesis interface 2 is selected.
Output to 0. At this time, music suitable for the outside temperature flows from the artificial sound source 22, and if T = 14, for example, environmental music is played with the tone color of the violin. The correspondence table is also presented on the floor where music is played.

When the outside air temperature changes and exceeds the threshold value of the correspondence table, for example, T = 15.9 in the above example is 16.
When it becomes 0, the environmental music data is changed from the violin to the guitar according to the correspondence table, but if this switching is performed instantly, it will cause discomfort to the listener.
The violin can be changed from the guitar to the guitar momentarily over a certain period of time (for example, 30 seconds) to create a change that does not cause discomfort. Also, when the outside air temperature fluctuates near the threshold value, too frequent changes similarly cause discomfort. Therefore, the process of switching the environmental music data has a hysteresis characteristic for a certain time (for example, about 2 minutes). If is held, the switching process is performed.

-B Processing at the time of rainfall The "sound of rain" is made to flow by rainfall. At this time, for example, as shown below, three states are considered and a correspondence table is created.

A: No rain. R = 0 B: It's raining but not so much as holding an umbrella. R = x to y C: It is raining and requires an umbrella. R = y or more When the rainfall sensor output is input to the environmental data analysis unit 9 through the interface 7 and the rainfall amount R is recognized, natural sound reproduction data is selected from the correspondence table and converted into environmental sound selection data. Output to the environmental sound synthesis interface 20. At this time, a sound of rain corresponding to the amount of rainfall flows from the natural sound source 21, and for example, in the case of state B, the sound of light rain is reproduced so as to be added to the environmental music.

In the above example, when the value of R is y or more, the "sound of light rain" is changed to the sound of heavy rain. Therefore, the natural sound reproduction data is changed from "sound of light rain" to "heavy rain" according to the correspondence table. Sound. At this time, similarly to the switching of the environmental music data, processing is performed so that a sudden change in sound does not occur at the time of change.

Humidity, wind, and external sound are the same as in the case of rain. Other processing Music for time signal is played every hour. At this time, if the time signal music and the environmental music are played at the same time, the listener is uncomfortable. Therefore, the volume of the environmental music should be set to 0 before the time signal music is played. Therefore, the environment music is faded out (the volume is reduced to zero every moment) before every hour. This processing can be realized by changing the volume data of the environmental sound selection data from 127 to 0 every moment. Also, when the performance of the time signal music is finished, the environmental music is played as it was. At this time, if it enters instantly, it will make the listener uncomfortable, so the environmental music will fade in (volume increases moment by moment). This process is the reverse of the fade out process.

[0032]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the sense of isolation from nature can be reduced by reflecting the state of the external environment and its change in real time.

Also, by combining environmental sound utilizing the 1 / f fluctuation characteristic, music and natural sound, effects such as stress relief, mood change and sufficient rest for a long time can be expected.

Further, by designing the sound environment centering on the noise of the sea noise, a comfortable sound can be reproduced while masking the background noise (air conditioning noise and surrounding noise) such as the refresh spot.

Further, by accumulating external environmental changes as data, a comfortable environmental sound can be reproduced any number of times over a long period of time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a real-time environmental sound reproduction system according to the present invention.
Configuration diagram showing an embodiment

[Explanation of symbols]

A ... Input unit, B ... Arithmetic processing unit, C ... Sound synthesis unit, 1 ... 1
/ F fluctuation generation unit 2 ... Temperature sensor, 9 ... Environmental data analysis unit, 10 ... Sound generation processing unit 11 ... Natural sound reproduction data unit, 15 ... Artificial sound reproduction data unit 20 ... Environmental sound synthesis interface

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A living work space isolated from the outside, a detecting means for detecting the state of the external environment, and an arithmetic processing means for selecting and synthesizing a natural sound and an artificial sound based on an output signal of the detecting means. A real-time environmental sound reproduction system, comprising: reproducing and outputting environmental sounds to the living work space in real time in response to changes in the external environment. 2. The detecting means is means for detecting at least one of temperature, humidity, rain, wind and sound, and a natural sound or an artificial sound is generated corresponding to the temperature, humidity, rain, wind and sound. The real-time environmental sound reproduction system according to claim 1, wherein the system is stored. 3. Noise in the room and noise from the outside
The real-time environmental sound reproduction system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a one-half fluctuation characteristic is added. 4. The real-time environmental sound reproduction system according to claim 1, wherein the noise in the room and the noise from the outside are masked by the noise of the sea noise.