JPH07162989A - Selective processor of voice signal - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the selective processor of voice signal which normally reproduces one voice signal. CONSTITUTION:An input discrimination processing part 23 monitors the input level and the input time of the voice signal from a microphone and selects a microphone (a) whose input level reaches the input discrimination level L first as a microphone with the priority. In the time tx whose voice input level of the selected microphone (a) is deteriorated from the input discrimination level L, the start signal is outputted. An I/O control part 24 inputs a signal specifying the microphone (a) with the priority and outputs a command signal to be amplified to the high level set for an amplifier part 25a corresponding to this. Then it outputs a command signal to be amplified to the low level set for the amplifier part corresponding to other microphones. A timer processing part 28 inputs the start signal and sets a time T for preventing the lapse of right for speaking priority.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an audio signal selection processing device, and more particularly to an audio signal selection processing device used in a conference device adopted in ordinary conferences, video conferences and other conferences.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conference device will be described with reference to FIG.
In the conference apparatus using a plurality of microphones shown in FIG. 4, the audio signals picked up by the plurality of microphones a, b, and c are individually amplified, mixed in a mixer 3, and then an amplifier 4 and a speaker 5 are provided. Play through other electroacoustic transducers. The priority to speak in a conference using this conference device is ambiguous because it is obtained by the moderator's instruction or artificially based on the common sense of the attendees. For example, although the speaker of the microphone a has the speaking priority, when the discussion is heated, the speaking priority is ignored and the speaker of the microphone b or the microphone c speaks freely. May cause the proceedings to stop. Then, when the speaker of the microphone a and the speaker of the microphone b or the microphone c speak at the same time, a composite of a plurality of voices is reproduced from the speaker 5, and the speech contents may be difficult to hear.

FIG. 5 is a view for explaining a conventional example of a TV conference device to which a sound image localization device for matching a video position and a sound image position is added. The perspective view of FIG. 5A shows the partner video displayed on the screen when the group M and the group N are conducting a video conference between two points. The group M and the group N are three in the front row and three in the rear row, respectively. Three people make up one group.

In FIG. 5 (b), 6 is the position of the speaker A and the microphone a for collecting the utterance, 7 is the position of the speaker B and the microphone b for collecting the utterance, and 8 is the speaker C. The position of the microphone c that collects the utterance, 9 is the position of the speaker D and the microphone d that collects the utterance, 1
0 is the position of the other speaker of group M and the microphone that picks up their utterance, 10 'is the position of the other speaker of group N and the microphone that picks up their utterance, 11 is the speaker of group M, Reference numeral 11 'is a speaker of group N, 12 is a sound image localization device of group M, and 12' is a sound image localization device of group N.

The T having the sound image localization device shown in FIG.
In a video conference using a V conference device, a group M
On the group N side, the sound image of the speaker A at position 6 is located at the far left of the screen, and the sound image of the speaker B at position 7 is located at the front right of the screen and reproduced. The sound images of the speakers of group N are also localized and reproduced at the position displayed on the screen on the side of group M, but from the state where no one is speaking, group M
When both the speaker A and the speaker B of Speak at the same time, the attendees on the side of the other party group N can hear both the speech content of the speaker A and the speech content of the speaker B. It is divided into two groups, those who hear the speech contents of A and those who hear the speech contents of speaker B. In this case, speaker A
It is not the case that both the content of the statement made by the group B and the content of the statement made by the speaker B could be heard by the group M and the group N as a whole,
Difficulty in proceeding with the meeting.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an audio signal selection processing device which solves the above problems.

[0007]

A plurality of microphones a, b, c ... Are provided, an input determination processing section 23 is provided, an input / output control section 24 is provided, and a plurality of microphones a, b are provided. , C ... Amplifying units 25a, 2 corresponding to each
6b, 27c ... And a timer processing unit 28, in which the input determination processing unit 23 monitors the input level and the input time of the voice signal of the microphone, and the input level is the highest at the input determination level L. Microphone a that arrived early
Is selected as the microphone having priority, and the voice input level of the selected microphone a is the input determination level L.
The start-up signal is output at the lower time tx, and the input / output control unit 24 has the microphone a with priority.
And a corresponding amplification unit 25a
It outputs a command signal to be amplified up to the set high level, and outputs a command signal to be amplified up to the set low level to the amplifiers corresponding to other microphones. The unit 28 constitutes an audio signal selection processing device which inputs the activation signal from the input determination processing unit 23 and sets the utterance priority right prevention time T.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, a, b and c
Is a microphone, 3 is a mixer, 4 is an amplifier, 5 is a speaker, and 13 is an audio signal selection processing device according to the present invention. In the audio signal selection processing device 13, 23 is an input determination processing unit and 24 is an input / output control unit. Reference numeral 25a is an amplification unit of the microphone a, 26b is an amplification unit b of the microphone b, 27c is an amplification unit of the microphone c, and 28 is a timer processing unit. Reference numeral 29 is a volume for setting the input determination level L in the input determination processing unit 23. Reference numeral 30 is a volume for setting the amplification level of the microphone having priority in the input / output control unit 24, and 31 is the input / output control unit 24.
This is a volume for setting the amplification level of a microphone that does not have priority. Reference numeral 32 denotes a timer processing unit 28 which indicates a speech priority extinguishing prevention time T set when the voice level from the microphone falls below the input determination level L.
This is the volume set in.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the processing method of the audio signal selection processing device 13 according to the audio signal levels of the microphones a and b of FIG. 1 and the input time, and the vertical axis represents the input audio signal level. And the horizontal axis represents time. The input determination level L is arbitrarily set by the volume 29 as described above. T is a speech priority extinguishing prevention time arbitrarily set by the volume 32, ta is _a time when the input level of the microphone a reaches the input determination level L, and t _b is an input level of the microphone b reaches the input determination level L. , T _x is the time when the input level of the microphone a is smaller than the input determination level L while the microphone a is speaking with priority, and t _y is the input level of the microphone a t _x
After that, the time when the input judgment level L is reached again, t _z is the time when the microphone a finishes speaking and becomes smaller than the input judgment level L, and t is the time when the comment priority extinction prevention time T set in t _z expires. , M _a is the time during which microphone a has priority.

First, the input determination processing unit 23 sets the input determination level L by the volume 29, the input / output control unit 24 sets the amplification level for the microphone for which priority is given by the volume 30, and the input / output control unit 2
4 sets the amplification level for the microphone for which the priority is not obtained by the volume 31, and the timer processing unit 28
At, the utterance priority right prevention time T is set by the volume 32. By the way, the level setting modes set by the volume 31 include (a) a mode in which the output of the amplification unit is set to 0 and only the microphone having priority is heard, and (b) the output of the amplification unit exceeds 0. , Volume 30
The level set by the volume 30 is set so that the audio level from the microphone having no priority is set to an arbitrary level lower than the audio level from the microphone having priority as being lower than the level set by Are set to be the same as those of a normal conference device.

The form (a) will be described below. The input determination processing unit 23 monitors the input level and the input time for each of the microphone a, the microphone b, and the microphone c, and the input level is the input determination level L.
The microphone a which has reached the earliest is selected, and the fact that the microphone a has the priority is output to the input / output control unit 24. The input / output control unit 24 uses the microphone a that has the priority right.
A command signal to be amplified up to the level set by the volume 30 is output to the amplification unit 25a corresponding to, and the amplification unit 26b and the amplification unit 27c that are amplification units other than the amplification unit 25a corresponding to the microphone a are output. A command signal to be amplified to the level set by the volume 31 is output. The amplifier 25a amplifies the audio signal of the microphone a to a level set by the volume 30, and the amplifiers 26b and 27c adjust the audio signals of the microphone b and the microphone c with a volume 31.
The signal is amplified to a level set by, and these amplified audio signals are output to the mixer 3. The audio signal after the microphone selection processing is mixed in the mixer 3, amplified by the amplifier 4, and the audio signal of the microphone a having priority is reproduced through the speaker 5 at a normal level. The audio signals of the microphones b and c which do not have the audio signals are reproduced with the attenuated level as described above.

Next, the input determination processing unit 23 ensures that the priority does not disappear due to interruption of the speech due to sentence breaks or the like while the microphone a is speaking with the priority. In order to achieve the above, the activation signal is output to the timer processing unit 28 at the time t _x when the voice input level is lower than the determination level L. When the activation signal is input, the timer processing unit 28 sets the utterance priority extinction prevention time T set by the volume 32. The condition for preventing the exemption of the speak priority right at this time is expressed by Expression (1), and the condition for extinguishing the speak priority right is expressed by Expression (2).

[0013] (t _y -t _x) In _{≦ T (1) (t y} -t x)> T or _{(t-t z)> T} (2) example shown in FIG. 2, speaking priority disappearance prevention The time T is set at the time of tx, but the microphone a
The voice level of reaches the input determination level L again at t _y and satisfies the condition of the expression (1), so that the priority of the microphone a does not disappear.

Finally, at time t _Z , the microphone a
When the utterance by the user is finished, the utterance priority right prevention time T is set again. However, when the time t is reached, the condition of the equation (2) is satisfied.
Reference numeral 8 outputs a speech priority right extinguishing signal to the input / output control unit 24. The input / output control unit 24 erases the priority right of the microphone a by this speech priority right disappearance signal. In other words, speak priority M _a microphone a is generated at time t _a, it disappears at time t. After that, the input / output control unit 2
4 returns to the initial state and monitors the input level and time of each of the microphone a, the microphone b, and the microphone c.

As described above, by providing the audio signal selection processing device 13, the microphone can be selected so as to give the speaking priority right to only one of the plurality of conference attendees, and the priority right is obtained. Even if another attendee makes an interrupted speech while the attendee is speaking, this can be substantially prevented from being reproduced. By setting the utterance priority right extinguishing prevention time T, the utterance priority right can be retained even if the pronunciation level may be lower than the input determination level L due to sentence breaks.

Audio signal selection processing device 13 according to the present invention
3 is applied to a TV conference device to which the sound image localization device shown in FIG. 5 is added, and will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 12 denotes a sound image localization apparatus of group M, 12 '.
Is a sound image localization device of group N, and 13 is the audio signal selection processing device described above. Note that these microphones may be installed on a table, hung on the ceiling, or equipped with a wireless microphone.

Here, as in FIGS. 1 and 2, the audio signal selection processing devices 13 of the groups M and N have the input determination level L, the amplification level for the priority microphones, and no priority right. Amplification level for microphone and time T for preventing extinction of speaking priority
Set and monitor the input level and input time of the audio signal from the microphone.

When the speaker a and the speaker b in the group M speak at the same time, the voice signal selection processing device 13 determines which of the two reaches the input determination level L first, and the input determination level L is first set. A voice signal selection process for giving priority to the reached voice signal of the microphone is performed, and this is output to the sound image localization device 12. The sound image localization device 12 transmits the audio signal subjected to the audio signal selection processing to the group N via the communication line.
To the sound image localization device 12 '. On the side of the group N, the voice signal subjected to the voice signal selection process is reproduced using the sound image localization device 12 'and the speaker 11', and only the voice of the speaker having priority in the group M is heard at a normal level. can do.

[0019]

As described above, the audio signal selection processing device of the present invention monitors the input level and the input time of the audio signal picked up by a plurality of microphones, and selects any one of them. The audio signals that have been selected and are given priority are reproduced with the normal level, and the audio signals without priority are reproduced with the attenuated level. By applying this audio signal selection processing device to a normal conference device, a TV conference device, and other conference devices, interruption speech in the conference can be blocked and the conference can proceed smoothly.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an application example of the audio signal selection processing device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a general audio conference apparatus.

5A and 5B are diagrams illustrating a TV conference device to which a sound image localization device is added, FIG. 5A is a diagram showing a partner image displayed on the screen, and FIG. 5B is a block diagram of the TV conference device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 a, b, c microphone 23 input determination processing unit 24 input / output control unit 25a, 26b, 27c amplification unit 28 timer processing unit L input determination level T utterance priority extinction prevention time

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of microphones are provided, an input determination processing unit is provided, an input / output control unit is provided, an amplification unit corresponding to each of the plurality of microphones is provided, and a timer processing unit is provided. Here, the input determination processing unit monitors the input level and the input time of the voice signal of the microphone, selects the microphone whose input level reaches the input determination level earliest as the priority microphone, and selects the voice of the selected microphone. The start signal is output when the input level is lower than the input determination level, and the input / output control unit inputs the signal designating the microphone having priority and is set to the corresponding amplification unit. While outputting a command signal to be amplified to a high level,
It outputs a command signal that should be amplified to the set low level to the amplifiers corresponding to other microphones. The timer processing unit inputs the activation signal from the input determination processing unit and prevents the speech priority from disappearing. An audio signal selection processing device characterized by: