JPH09180093A - Audio road information providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To change the broadcasting speed corresponding to various conditions by changing the broadcasting speed by compressing/expanding recorded and edited digital audio data on the time base. SOLUTION: The broadcasting speed is decided corresponding to current road conditions and according to that decision, an instruction for changing the broadcasting speed is given from a message editor 2. In the case of initial system operation starting the provision of information to a road user, for example, the broadcasting speed is made into 0.9-0.8 fold speed as high as a standard broadcasting speed so as to decelerate the broadcasting speed. When the road user is accustomed to the provision of informant or the quantity of information to be provided is increased, the broadcasting speed is made into 1.1-1.3 fold speed as high as the standard broadcasting speed so as to be accelerated. Next, according to the instructed broadcasting speed, a broadcasting output switching device 7 or a telephone answering device 4 compresses or expands the digital audio data sent from a controller 9 on the time base.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a voice type road information providing system such as a highway radio or a highway telephone which provides a driver traveling on a highway or the like with road traffic conditions by voice broadcasting.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of audio road information providing system, the speed of audio for broadcasting road information is fixed to the speed at which digital audio data stored in a broadcasting device is recorded. The speed is generally set to an average speed required by a relatively large number of people.

[0003]

However, since the amount of information is small and the user is not accustomed to it at the initial stage of system operation, it may be better to broadcast at a slow speed. It may be difficult to hear road information within a limited time, and depending on the listener, you may feel that the broadcasting speed is fast or slow, and moreover, important information such as earthquake and disaster information is important. There is a case in which it is desired to broadcast information more slowly than usual so that information can be reliably transmitted, and there has been a problem that the conventional voice-based road information providing system cannot meet such various requests.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is intended to solve such a conventional problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an audio road information providing system capable of changing the broadcast speed according to various situations.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises means for changing the broadcast speed by compressing and expanding digital audio data on the time axis. The speed can be arbitrarily changed according to various situations.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is a voice type road information providing system for providing road traffic information through voice broadcasting, wherein digital audio data recorded and edited is compressed and expanded on a time axis. By doing so, the audio road information providing system is provided with means for changing the broadcast speed, and the broadcast speed can be changed according to various situations.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the voice-based information providing system stores the received road information in advance for each word or each phrase sentence unit based on the content of the road information. Connect the digital audio data to create the whole digital audio data, compress and encode this digital audio data, and output the compressed audio data. An audio road information providing system equipped with a processor that compresses and expands on the axis and outputs, and a codec section that converts the digital audio data output by this processor into analog audio data. Road information can be provided to system users.

The invention according to claim 3 of the present invention is provided with means for the system operator to arbitrarily set the broadcast speed, and the amount of information provided by the system operator, the system introduction timing, etc. The broadcast speed can be arbitrarily changed according to the operation status.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the system is provided with means for automatically setting the broadcast speed according to the content and amount of road information to be broadcast. Since the system automatically determines the broadcast speed from the amount, it is possible to provide the appropriate road information at the appropriate broadcast speed.

The invention according to claim 5 of the present invention is provided with means for arbitrarily setting the broadcast speed by a person who hears the road information. Since you can make your own choices, you can reliably transmit information.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the above-mentioned voice-based road information providing system is a highway radio system, and road information can be obtained from a vehicle running on the road.

In the invention according to claim 7 of the present invention, the above-mentioned voice-based road information providing system is a highway telephone system, and road information can be obtained from an external telephone.

(Embodiment of the Invention) FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a voice-based road information providing system by a recording / editing / synthesizing system according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which both a highway radio system and a highway telephone system are provided. It has both. In FIG. 1, 1 is an information exchange processing device that organizes road information collected from the outside as event information, and 2 is a system operator (operator) who manually inputs an event, confirms a created message, and broadcasts. A message editor for instructing speed change, 3 is a console for a system operator to monitor equipment and broadcast contents, and 4 is a telephone response for converting digital voice data into analog voice data and transmitting the data to a telephone line. A device, 5 is an exchange for exchanging a telephone line, 6 is a telephone connected to the exchange 5 through the telephone line, 7 is a broadcast output switching device for converting digital audio data into analog audio data and outputting the analog audio data, and 8 is a broadcast output switching device. A transmitter for wirelessly transmitting data from the device 7 and transmitting it to a vehicle traveling on a road, and 9 controls the entire system. The road information to be broadcast to record edit as digital audio data, a synthetic control device.

Next, a general operation in the above embodiment will be described. When an event relating to road information such as traffic jam or accident is transferred from the information exchange processing device 1 or the message editor 2 to the control device 9, the control device 9
Determines which of these events is to be adopted, and edits the sentence based on the content of the adopted event. The text is edited by combining words and phrase sentences registered in the hard disk in advance. For example, edit by combining the clauses "At the beginning of the ○○ interchange", "due to an accident", "about 15 kilometers", and "traffic jam". When the editing of the sentence is completed, the control device 9 creates the entire message voice by connecting the digital voice data recorded for each word or phrase sentence unit.

Next, the control device 9 transfers the created digital voice data of the message voice to the telephone response device 4 or the broadcast output switching device 7. The telephone response device 4 converts the digital voice data of the message into analog voice data and responds to the incoming call from the telephone 6 through the exchange 5. The broadcast output switching device 7 also converts the digital audio data of the message into analog audio data, and broadcasts the analog audio data from the transmitter 8 to vehicles on the road by radio waves.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a voice data conversion unit for converting digital voice data into analog voice data in the telephone answering device 4 or the broadcast output switching device 7. In FIG. 2, 11 is a receiving unit that receives the compression-encoded digital audio data from the control device 9 together with a control signal, 12 is a memory unit that stores the received data, 1
A DSP 3 decodes the compression-encoded digital audio data and compresses and expands the data on the time axis.
An arithmetic unit such as (digital signal processor),
Reference numeral 14 is a CODEC (codec) unit for converting the decoded digital voice data into analog voice data, and 15 is a line control unit for controlling connection with a telephone line.

Next, the operation of the voice data conversion section will be described. When the receiving unit 11 receives the compressed and encoded digital audio data from the control device 9, the receiving unit 11 stores the data in the memory unit 12. When the storage of all the data is completed, the arithmetic unit 13 reads the digital audio data from the memory unit 12, decodes the audio data, and sends the decoded audio data to the CODEC unit 14. The CODEC unit 14 converts the digital audio data into analog audio data. Output.

The above is the general operation of the entire voice-based road information providing system in the present embodiment. Below, the individual operations when changing the broadcast speed will be explained.

(Embodiment 1) First, a case where the system operator changes the broadcast speed will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, the system operator determines what the broadcasting speed should be based on the current road conditions (step 21). Then, according to the determination, the message editor 2 gives an instruction to change the broadcast speed (step 22). For example, in the early stage of system operation when the provision of information to road users is started, or when the amount of information to be provided is small, the broadcast speed is set to 0.9 times the standard broadcast speed so as to reduce the broadcast speed.
~ 0.8 times. Further, when the road user becomes accustomed to providing information or the amount of information provided increases, the broadcast speed is set to 1.1 to 1.3 times the standard broadcast speed so as to increase the broadcast speed. Next, the broadcast output switching device 7 or the telephone response device 4 sets the instructed broadcast speed in the device (step 23), and according to the set broadcast speed, the digital audio data sent from the control device 9 is transmitted. Compression or expansion on the time axis is performed (step 24).

Next, the operation of the broadcast output switching device 7 or the telephone answering device 4 will be described. In FIG. 2, the data receiving unit 11 receives the digital audio data from the control device 9 and the magnification with respect to the standard broadcast speed input from the message editing machine 2, and stores it in the memory unit 12. The calculation unit 13 reads the magnification, repeats or thins out the pre-sampled digital audio data according to the magnification, expands or compresses the digital audio data on the time axis without impairing the sound quality, and then, Decoding is performed and converted by the CODEC unit 14 into analog audio data. For details of compression and decompression of digital audio data on the time axis, refer to, for example, the literature “Acoustic Society of Japan Proceedings, October 1986, pp.
149-150, "Expansion and compression of speech on time axis using overlap addition method (PICOLA) by pointer movement amount control and its evaluation", Naotaka Morita, Fumitada Itakura ".

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the system operator can arbitrarily set the broadcast speed from the message editor 2, so that the system operator can
The broadcast speed can be arbitrarily changed according to the amount of information to be provided and the operation status such as the time from the introduction of the system. The broadcast speed multiplying factor can be specified from either the message editor 2 or the console 3 or from both.

(Second Embodiment) Next, a case where the system automatically changes the broadcast speed will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 4, when the control device 9 receives road information such as a traffic jam, a traffic jam, or an accident from the information exchange processing device 1 or the message editor 2 (step 31), the road information to be provided is selected from the road information (step 32). ), The ratio of the speed to be broadcast to the standard broadcast speed is automatically determined based on the selected type and amount of road information (step 33), and the value is broadcast output switching device together with the standard speed digital audio data. 7 or to the telephone response device 4. The broadcast output switching device 7 or the telephone response device 4 sets the instructed broadcast speed in the device (step 34), and executes the digital audio data sent from the control device 9 according to the set broadcast speed as described above. The compression or expansion is performed on the time axis in the same manner as the above (step 35).

The multiplying factor of the broadcasting speed in the present embodiment is predetermined in the control device 9 according to the information to be broadcast. For example, when the amount of information is large, the broadcast speed is set to 1.1 to 1.3 times the standard, as in the above embodiment,
When the amount of information is small, it is 0.9 to 0.8 times the standard.
Also, when it comes to standard expressions such as normal traffic congestion information,
It is 1.1 to 1.3 times the standard, and 0.9 to 0.8 times the standard when expressing unexpected information such as a disaster caused by an earthquake.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the broadcast speed can be automatically set by the control device 9 of the system according to the content and amount of road information to be broadcast. Appropriate road information can be provided.

(Third Embodiment) Next, a case of changing the broadcast speed from an external telephone 6 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, the road user makes a call to this system from the telephone 6 (step 41). When the line is connected, the broadcast speed is specified numerically by using the push button of the telephone so that the broadcast speed is the easiest for the user to hear (step 42). For example, if you enter "1" or "0", it will be 10% slower and "*"
If you input "1" or "0", it will be set 10% faster. When listening at standard speed, do not operate it.
The line control unit 15 of the telephone response device 4 analyzes this push button signal and sends it to the calculation unit 13 of FIG. Arithmetic unit 13
Then, as described above, the pre-sampled digital audio data is expanded or compressed on the time axis without degrading the sound quality by repeating or decimating the digital audio data according to the magnification, and then decoding the digital audio data. At step 43, the CODEC unit 14 converts the analog voice data to provide the road information to the telephone 6 through the line.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the broadcast speed can be arbitrarily set by the person who hears the road information by using the push button of the telephone 6, so that the person who hears the road information can easily understand the situation. You can choose the broadcasting speed that is easy for you to do, and you can reliably transmit information.

[0027]

As is apparent from the above embodiments, the present invention compresses and expands recorded and edited digital audio data on a time axis in an audio road information providing system for providing road traffic information through audio broadcasting. By providing a means for changing the broadcast speed by doing so, there is an effect that the broadcast speed can be changed appropriately according to various situations.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a voice road information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a voice data conversion unit in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow showing an example of changing a broadcast speed by an operator in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of changing the broadcast speed by the system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of changing a broadcast speed by a user according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Information Exchange Processing Device 2 Message Editing Machine 3 Operator's Desk 4 Telephone Response Device 5 Exchange Machine 6 Telephone 7 Broadcast Output Switching Device 8 Transmitter 9 Control Device 11 Data Receiving Section 12 Memory Section 13 Computing Section 14 CODEC Section 15 Line Control Section

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A means for changing broadcast speed by compressing and expanding digital audio data that has been recorded and edited on a time axis in an audio road information providing system by a recording and editing synthesis method for providing road traffic information through audio broadcasting. A voice-based road information providing system. 2. Digital audio data stored in advance for each word or each phrase sentence unit is connected to the received road information based on the contents of this road information to create the whole digital audio data, and this digital audio data is created. A control device that compresses and encodes audio data and outputs it, a processor that decodes the compressed and encoded digital audio data, compresses and expands the digital audio data on the time axis, and outputs the processor. A voice-based road information providing system including a codec section for converting digital voice data into analog voice data. 3. A voice road information providing system according to claim 1, further comprising means for allowing a system operator to arbitrarily set a broadcasting speed. 4. The audio road information providing system according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising means for the system to automatically set the broadcasting speed according to the content and amount of the road information to be broadcast. 5. The voice-based road information providing system according to claim 1, further comprising means for allowing a person who listens to the road information to arbitrarily set the broadcasting speed. 6. The voice-based road information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the system is a highway radio system. 7. The voice type road information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the system is a highway telephone system.