JPH07298154A - Closed caption decoder and video signal reproduction device provided with the closed caption decoder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the caption decoder and the video signal reproduction device provided with the caption decoder recognizing clearly a character and a voice signal so as to hear a voice signal together with a character in matching with the capability of a person when a television signal with caption information is received. CONSTITUTION:Caption information of a television signal obtained from a tuner 1 is extracted by a caption decode circuit 5 and mixed with a video signal by a mixer circuit 3 and the mixed signal is displayed. On the other hand, the voice signal is given to a speech speed conversion circuit 7, in which the voice signal is reproduced slowly to obtain a voice signal easily heard and outputted from a speaker 9. In this case, an operation section 11 is used to command a control section 10 as to whether the speech speed conversion is operated manually or the speech speed conversion is operated automatically when the caption information is in existence.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a closed caption (Closed Capti) in which character data is multiplexed on lines 21 and 284 of a television signal.
The present invention relates to a closed caption decoder which reproduces a character multiplex broadcasting television signal called "on)" and a video signal reproducing device equipped with the closed caption decoder, which is used for reproducing an audio signal of the television signal. Equipped with a closed caption decoder and its closed caption decoder that can easily recognize the character and the voice of the character signal by converting the voice signal into a slow and easy-to-listen voice by the voice speed conversion device. Video signal reproducing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, in the United States, character-based multiplex broadcasting by closed caption is being broadcast in order to make hearing-impaired people understand and enjoy broadcasting, and this closed-caption decoder is installed in a television receiver of 13 inches or less. Are obliged to do so.

This closed caption is a 16-bit N in 21H and 284H of a television signal on the broadcast side.
RZ signal caption information is multiplexed,
By obtaining the multiplexed caption information, the same contents as the audio signal are displayed as characters on the screen of the television receiver and can be recognized. Nikkei Electronics September 30, 1991
Japanese issue (NO. 537), pages 149 to 158.

On the other hand, this closed caption service is added not only to broadcasting but also to video software, video discs, etc., and by using these software, English can be recognized by voice and characters, so that English conversation can be learned. Attempts have been made to use it as a teaching material.

By the way, when a hearing-impaired person is watching a television receiver or uses it for language learning, the audio signal in the reproduction signal of television broadcasting or video software is usually sent by a native speaker. There was a problem that I could not hear clearly because I was being spoken.

On the other hand, in order to make the audio signal easier to hear, a method of reproducing a certain period of the audio signal late has been proposed. This method is a speech speed conversion method in which a silent section is distinguished from a speech section, the silent section is deleted, and the speech section is expanded in pitch period units. This technology is, for example, the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers published by The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, SP9-56, HC92-33 (1992-09) titled "One Method for Absorbing Time Extension Associated with Speech Rate Conversion".
2-150 (1993-03) Title "Evaluation of speech speed conversion method by hearing-impaired person" Proposed by the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers.

However, even if such a speech rate conversion method is used, there is a difference in understanding character recognition and voice in the same way in the presence of this caption information due to a difference in individual ability. In some cases, the fixed speech rate conversion cannot recognize the reproduction of the audio signal. Further, there is a problem that the contents cannot be grasped because the video and audio signals are deviated from each other.

Further, depending on the operator, if there is caption information and there is a desire to always activate the speech speed conversion function, a troublesome operation of having to activate the speech speed conversion function is required.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and when a television signal containing caption information is received, a voice signal as well as a character is given to an individual's ability. An object of the present invention is to provide a caption decoder capable of clearly recognizing characters and voices so that they can be heard together, and a video signal reproducing device provided with the caption decoder.

[0010]

The present invention has the following constitution.

Means for receiving a character signal multiplexed television signal obtained by multiplexing character data indicating a character signal for each field or frame of a television signal, means for extracting character data from the received signal, and A means for converting the character data obtained from the extracting means into a television signal into a character signal, a superimposing means for superimposing the character signal on the received television signal, and reproducing an audio signal corresponding to the image of the television signal. Audio signal reproduction means, A / D conversion means for digitally converting the audio signal from the reproduction means, and speech speed conversion processing means for performing speech speed conversion processing on the audio signal from the A / D conversion means. A memory for storing the voice output from the speech speed conversion means, and a D / A conversion means for converting the voice signal from the memory into an analog signal It is possible to detect when the character data is present and control the speech speed conversion processing means to operate, and also to control the speech speed conversion processing means to operate according to an operator's instruction. A closed caption decoder comprising a means and a video reproduction device including the closed caption decoder.

[0012]

According to the present invention, with the above-described configuration, when the television signal containing the caption information is reproduced, it is possible to operate whether the speech speed converting means is automatically operated or the speech speed converting means is manually operated. It has a function that the operator can arbitrarily select, and the operator can select it so that the audio signal can be easily heard.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment in which a television receiver includes a caption decoding circuit and a speech speed conversion circuit. A concrete circuit configuration of the caption decoding circuit and the speech speed conversion circuit is shown in FIG. .

First, in FIG. 1, 1 is a tuner, 2 is a video signal processing circuit for processing a television signal from the tuner 1 into a video signal, and 5 is a character signal by extracting the caption information contained in the television signal. A caption decoding circuit 3, a mixing circuit 3 for mixing the character signal and the video signal from the caption decoding circuit 5, 4 a cathode ray tube (CRT), 6 an audio processing circuit for processing an audio signal, 7 slows down the audio signal Is a voice speed conversion circuit, 8 is an amplifier, 9 is a speaker, 10 is a control circuit for controlling the voice speed conversion circuit 7, and 11 is an operation unit for the operator to control.

Next, the operation will be described. The television signal received from the tuner 1 is processed by the video signal processing circuit 2. In addition, the caption decoder circuit 5 extracts the caption information from the television signal, outputs a character signal based on the caption information, and outputs the mixed circuit 3
The video signal and the character signal are mixed with each other, and the character signal is displayed together with the video signal on the CRT 4.

On the other hand, the sound of the television signal is processed by the sound processing circuit 6 to output the sound signal, and the sound signal is input to the speech speed conversion circuit 7 to reproduce the input sound signal slowly. Then, the audio signal is amplified by the amplifier 8 and output to the speaker 9.

By the way, the caption decoding circuit 5 sends a signal with caption information to the control unit 10 when the television signal contains the caption information. In addition, the operation unit 11 can instruct the conversion speed of the speech speed conversion circuit 7 and ON / OFF or automatic switching of the speech speed conversion circuit 7, and the control unit 10 can be instructed and controlled.

Next, the relationship among the caption decoding circuit 5, the speech speed converting circuit 7, the control unit 10 and the operation unit 11 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, the caption decoding circuit 5 displays a data slicer 51 for extracting the caption information of the 21H line and the 284H line, a data memory 53 for holding the data, a CPU 52 for processing the data as character information, and a screen for the character information from the CPU 52. The screen display circuit 54 outputs a character signal that can be displayed on the screen.

On the other hand, the speech speed conversion circuit 7 is an amplifier 71, an A / D conversion circuit 72 for converting a voice signal into a digital signal, and a compression / expansion of the voice signal. The unvoiced section and voiced section of the voice signal are expanded / compressed. DSP (Digital Signal Proce)
ssor) 73 and a voice data memory 77 for temporarily storing the voice output of the DSP 73, a D / A conversion circuit 74 for converting a digital voice signal into an analog signal, an LPF (low pass filter) 75, and various types in the voice speed conversion circuit 7. It is composed of a controller 76 for controlling and a clock generating circuit 78 for generating a reference clock to the controller 76.

This operation will be described. First, the caption information of the television signal is extracted by the data slicer 51, and the data is stored in the data memory 53 via the CPU 52. Then, the CPU 52 outputs a character signal corresponding to the character information to the screen display circuit 54 by the control code determined in advance. And CPU5
2 supplies the control unit 10 with information that there is caption information.

On the other hand, the processing operation of the speech speed conversion circuit 5 is as follows. The reproduced audio signal is sent to the amplifier 71.
Is converted into a digital signal by the A / D conversion circuit 72 via. Then, the DSP 73 discriminates the unvoiced section B and the voiced section A of the audio signal, and extends only the voiced section A.

That is, as shown in FIG. 8, the voice signal a has a voiceless section B and a voiced section A. Since the length of the voiceless section B varies from person to person, the length is kept as it is to maintain individuality. Leave the state. On the other hand, in the voiced section A, it becomes easier to hear by extending the waveform of the sound. Then, when this is done, the voice signal becomes as shown in (b), and voice signals called voiced section A ′ and unvoiced section B are obtained from the DSP 73.

Next, the audio signal B from the DSP 73 is once written into the audio data memory 77 and then read out. At this time, by changing the reading speed, the entire audio signal is compressed (two) or expanded (c). The output from this audio data memory 77 is D / A
The conversion circuit 74 converts the signal into an analog signal, and the LPF 75 is used to obtain a voice signal whose speech speed is converted. And the amplifier 8
The speaker 9 outputs the sound.

Further, the controller 76 receives the reference clock from the clock generation circuit 78 and receives the reference clock from the A / D conversion circuit 72.
Sampling clock is supplied to
While sending out the reference clock to operate SP73,
A control signal capable of variably controlling the compression or expansion rate of the voiced section A is transmitted. Furthermore, the voice data memory 7
A clock for controlling the timing of writing and reading is supplied to 7, and a clock synchronized with the reading of the audio data memory 77 is supplied to the D / A conversion circuit 74.

Next, the operation unit 11 is provided with keys as shown in FIG. 7 in addition to the operation of selecting a channel. That is, if there is a key 111 for slowing down the voice signal for voice speed conversion and a key 111 for slowing down the voice signal for voice speed conversion and the caption information, the automatic mode for automatically changing the voice speed is set. Repeat key 11 that repeats the same audio signal as key 112 and key 113 that turns voice speed conversion on and off
4 is provided.

In the television receiver thus constructed, the control section 10 operates as follows. That is, FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the control unit 10. First, when the automatic mode key 112 is pressed, it is determined whether or not there is caption information in S1 (caption information is sent from the CPU 52). Will come). Then, if it is determined that there is a voice speed conversion forced mode, it is determined whether or not the voice speed conversion forced mode is S2 (this voice speed conversion forced mode is set by the ON / OFF key 113 of the operation unit 11). The operator performs the voice speed conversion S3 at the voice speed conversion speed set by the UP key 110 and the DOWN key 111 of the operation unit 11.

If there is no caption information and it is not in the voice speed conversion forced mode, the voice speed conversion ON / OFF key 1
It is determined whether 13 is turned on, S4, if it is on, the voice speed is converted, and if it is off, a normal voice signal is reproduced at S5.

When the automatic mode key 112 is turned off, the above-mentioned operation is not performed, the normal reproduction is continued, and the ON / OFF key 113 can be used to select whether or not to convert the voice speed.

Next, there is a second embodiment shown in FIG. This embodiment differs from the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 in that a second audio data memory 79 is added to reproduce an audio signal whose speech speed is repeatedly converted. Here, the operation will be described, but the operation described in FIG. 2 will be omitted and only the points regarding the second audio data memory 79 will be described.

First, the audio signal processed by the DSP 73 is output to the audio data memory 77 and also to the second audio data memory 79. At this time, the operation unit 1
If the repeat key 114 is turned on in 1,
The control unit 10 controls the controller 76 to store the audio signal after the ON is pressed in the second audio data memory 79. The storable period is the second voice data memory 7
The larger the capacity of 9, the longer. A memory having a capacity of 1 Mbit can store a range from 32 seconds to 2 minutes 54 seconds, depending on the sampling rate.

When the stored audio signal becomes full, the audio signal stored in the second audio data memory 79 is repeatedly reproduced. This repeated reproduction is repeated until the repeat key 114 is turned off.

By the way, the second audio data memory 79
As a storage method for the, the reproduced voice signal is always stored, and when the capacity is full, the old stored voice signal is updated to the new voice signal, and when the repeat key 114 is turned on, Stop remembering at that point,
The audio signal stored in the past may be repeatedly read from the second audio data memory 79 and reproduced.

Next, the operation of the controller 10 will be described. Figure 6
A flow chart showing the operation is shown in FIG. First, it is determined whether or not the repeat mode is set, and S
6. In the repeat mode, the second voice data memory 7
The audio signal stored in the audio signal 9 is read out S7. If it is not the repeat mode, S6, it is determined whether it is the voice speed conversion forced mode, S8, and if it is the forced mode, the voice speed is converted at S9. However, if it is not the forced mode, S8, voice speed conversion O
If the N / OFF key 113 is turned on, S10 is performed, the voice speed is converted and S9 is performed, and if it is turned off, S10 is performed and normal voice is reproduced at S11.

Further, in the above-mentioned example, the embodiment is shown in which the television receiver is built in, but this is reproduced by a VTR (video tape recorder) or an LDP (laser recorder) for reproducing software containing caption information. It may be configured to be built in a disc player).

By incorporating the caption decoding circuit 5 and the speech speed conversion circuit 7 configured as described above in a television receiver, a person who learns a language or a hearing-impaired person can freely select a range of use. .

In the above example, the television receiver is built in, but FIG. 4 shows an embodiment in which the speech speed conversion circuit 7 is built in the caption decoder 15. In this case, the video signal and the audio signal containing the caption information are input from the VTR (Video Tape Recorder) 12 to the caption decoder 15. Then, the video signal is mixed with the through signal and the signal to which the character signal from the caption decoding circuit 5 is added, and is output to the television receiver 13, and the voice signal is subjected to voice speed conversion by the voice speed conversion circuit 5. The audio signal is output to the television receiver 13. As described above, the speech rate conversion circuit may be built in the caption decoder alone.

[0037]

According to the present invention, by adopting the above-mentioned configuration, the audio signal is surely converted by converting the audio signal containing the caption information into an audio signal which can be easily heard by the hearing impaired person or the person learning the language. The effect is that you can hear.

If the caption information is automatically provided, the function of activating the speech speed conversion function is provided, so that the troublesome operation can be eliminated, and the operator can change the speech speed at any time. Since it also has a function to operate the conversion function, it can be selected according to the usage condition of an individual, so there is a degree of freedom in use.

Further, since the speech speed conversion can be repeatedly reproduced, it is possible to listen to a small omission of hearing again and prevent omission of omission. By repeating the listening, it is expected that learning effect such as language learning is greatly improved. Has the effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram when an embodiment of the present invention is incorporated in a television receiver.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram when the embodiment of the present invention is incorporated in a caption decoder.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control unit according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for detailed description of the operation unit of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a voice speed conversion operation of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Tuner 2 Video signal processing circuit 3 Mixing circuit 4 CRT 5 Caption decoding circuit 6 Audio signal processing circuit 7 Speech rate conversion circuit 8 Amplifier 9 Speaker 10 Control unit 11 Operation unit

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A means for receiving a character signal multiplexed television signal obtained by multiplexing character data indicating a character signal for each field or frame of a television signal, and means for extracting character data from the received signal. , A means for converting the character data obtained from the extracting means into a character signal into the television signal, a superimposing means for superimposing the character signal on the received television signal, and an audio signal corresponding to the image of the television signal. Signal reproducing means for reproducing the audio signal, and an A / D for digitally converting the audio signal from the reproducing means.
A conversion unit, a voice speed conversion processing unit for performing a voice speed conversion process on a voice signal from the A / D conversion unit, a memory for storing a voice output from the voice speed conversion unit, and a voice from the memory. D to convert signal to analog signal
/ A conversion means and the time when the character data is detected can be controlled to operate the speech speed conversion processing means, and the speech speed conversion processing means can also be operated according to an operator's instruction. A closed caption decoder comprising control means capable of controlling. 2. The closed caption decoder according to claim 1, wherein the memory sequentially stores voice signals whose real-time voice speed has been converted, and outputs the first memory and the real-time voice speed-converted voice signal as they are. And a second memory for repeatedly outputting the closed caption decoder. 3. The closed caption decoder according to claim 1, wherein the memory sequentially stores and outputs a voice signal whose real-time voice speed has been converted, and holds a first memory which outputs the voice signal and a voice signal whose voice speed has been converted after real time. And a second memory for repeatedly outputting the closed caption decoder. 4. The closed caption decoder according to claim 1, wherein a voice signal obtained by sequentially converting the real-time speech speed of the memory is sequentially stored and outputted, and a speech speed conversion that is temporally past the real time. A closed caption decoder comprising: a second memory for holding and repeatedly outputting the generated audio signal. 5. The closed caption decoder according to claim 1, wherein the control means is capable of variably adjusting the speech speed of the speech speed converting means. 6. A means for receiving a character signal multiplexed television signal obtained by multiplexing character data indicating a character signal for each field or frame of a television signal, and means for extracting character data from the received signal. , A means for converting the character data obtained from the extracting means into a character signal into the television signal, a superimposing means for superimposing the character signal on the received television signal, and an audio signal corresponding to the image of the television signal. Signal reproducing means for reproducing the audio signal, and an A / D for digitally converting the audio signal from the reproducing means.
A conversion unit, a voice speed conversion processing unit for performing a voice speed conversion process on a voice signal from the A / D conversion unit, a memory for storing a voice output from the voice speed conversion unit, and a voice from the memory. D to convert signal to analog signal
/ A conversion means and the time when the character data is present can be detected and controlled to operate the speech speed conversion processing means, and the speech speed conversion processing means can also be operated according to an operator's instruction. A video signal reproducing device characterized by comprising a closed caption decoder characterized by comprising control means capable of controlling. 7. A television receiver comprising the closed caption decoder according to claim 6, wherein:
The memory is provided with a first memory for sequentially storing and outputting a real-time voice speed-converted voice signal and a second memory for holding the real-time voice speed-converted voice signal as it is and repeatedly outputting it. A video signal reproducing device comprising a closed caption decoder. 8. A video signal reproducing apparatus comprising a closed caption decoder according to claim 6, wherein a first memory for sequentially storing and outputting a voice signal obtained by real-time voice speed conversion of the memory and a real-time or later memory A video signal reproducing device comprising a closed caption decoder, which comprises a second memory for holding and repeatedly outputting a voice speed-converted audio signal. 9. A video signal reproducing apparatus comprising the closed caption decoder according to claim 6, wherein the memory is sequentially stored with and outputs audio signals whose real-time speech speed is converted, rather than the first memory and the real-time memory. A video signal reproducing apparatus comprising a closed caption decoder, comprising: a second memory for holding and repeatedly outputting an audio signal whose speech speed is temporally past. 10. A video signal reproducing apparatus comprising the closed caption decoder according to claim 6,
A video signal reproducing apparatus comprising a closed caption decoder, wherein the control means is capable of variably adjusting the speech speed of the speech speed converting means.