JPH11317631A - Voice processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the effects of wear or breakage, without using any mechanical controller by using one or more touch controllers for controlling the processing parameters in response to the movements of a touched user's hand. SOLUTION: Two groups of 10 channel strips 300 are vertically aligned at both sides of the display on a display screen, and each strip 300 typically shows the current states of a voice processing controller, a device and a controller which are placed on a signal processing line of each channel on the screen. A touch fader panel has a slender touch sensor for every strip 300. The sensor outputs three types of information to a control computer to show a specific touched position set along the length of the sensor, a position set along the length of a fader and a signal showing that the approach of a user's hand to the sensor respectively. Thus, the control computer controls the corresponding operation of a signal processor, in response to the received three types of information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to audio processing, and more particularly to a user interface for an audio processing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional audio processing devices, such as mixing consoles, often include a mechanical linear variable resistor, known as a fader, to allow a user to set gain and other parameters.

[0003] In addition to being controlled by the movement of the fader, the position of the fader provides useful visual feedback to the user about the current level of the controlled parameter.

[0004]

However, the conventional fader is not only expensive but also easily worn or broken because it is a mechanical instrument. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an audio processing device that does not have such a drawback.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An audio processing apparatus according to the present invention includes an audio processor operable to perform one or more audio processing operations on an input audio signal, and an audio processor responsive to movement of a user's hand during contact. One or more touch-sensitive controls for adjusting processing parameters associated with one of said voice processing operations, wherein one or more predetermined directions from an initial position of a user's hand touching one of said controls. The parameter is adjusted from the previous parameter according to the movement of the user's hand.

The present invention provides a new method for adjusting parameters such as gain in a speech processing device. Instead of a mechanical controller such as a fader or a variable resistor, a touch-sensitive controller is provided. Also, since the old type of controller does not provide a visual or tactile feedback of the current controller setting, the present invention provides a new parameter (e.g., gain ) Is adjusted from its current value using a new type of adjustment method.

This eliminates the need for the user to view the controller while making adjustments. The device as a whole provides a simple, mechanically strong (because there are no moving parts) convenient user interface for a speech processing device.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows a sound mixing console according to the present invention. In the figure, 10 is a touch-sensitive display (touch) screen, 20 is a control computer, 30 is a touch-sensitive fader panel, 40 is a subordinate display screen, and 50 is a signal processor.

The basic operation of this audio mixing console is as follows:
The signal processor 50 receives the audio signals in analog or digital form and processes them according to the parameters supplied by the control computer 20. The user can adjust the parameters generated by the control computer 20 by either touching the display screen 10 or operating the touch sensitive fader panel 30. Hereinafter, both of these parameter adjustment modes will be described in detail. The sub-screen 40 is for displaying various measurement information such as the audio signal level at different points in the audio mixing console.

FIG. 2 schematically shows a signal processor 50 which forms part of the audio mixing console of FIG. The digital signal processor 50 receives the parameter information and filter coefficients from the control processor 100 and the control computer 20 which control the flow of data and filter coefficients within the processor, and sends back the measurement information to the control computer 20 via input / output (I / O) buffer 110, a random access memory (RA) for storing the latest parameter data
M) 120, a programmable DSP (Digital Signal Processor) unit 130, an input analog / digital (A / A) for converting an input analog audio signal into a digital audio signal.
D) a converter 140 (if needed), and a digital-to-analog (D / A) converter 150 (if needed) that converts the digital audio signal to an output analog audio signal.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic configuration of a control computer 20 which forms a part of the audio mixing console of FIG. The control computer 20 has a central processing unit (CPU) 200 connected to a communication bus 210. The communication bus also has an input buffer 220 for receiving data from the fader panel 30 and a random access memory (RAM) 23.
0, program storage memory 240, BIOS color map 250, video card 260 including video card color map, input buffer 270 for receiving data from digital signal processor (DSP) 50, and output buffer 280 for sending data to digital signal processor 50. Is connected.

FIG. 4 schematically shows a display on a touch screen 10 which forms a part of the audio mixing console of FIG.
10 channel strips 30 on each side of the display
The two groups of zeros are arranged vertically in an arrangement similar to the physical arrangement of a conventional (hardware) audio mixing console. Each channel strip is identical to one another (apart from adjustment values for various parameters determined by the adjustments made by the user), and these channel strips will be described later with reference to FIGS.

In the center 310 of the display, the main fader 32
0, path selection / equalization controller 330 and display meter 340
Is provided. The channel strip includes a user-adjustable tactile control and a visual indication of the current state of the controller (the hardware rotary variable resistor is adjusted by the user to determine the current rotational position. Somewhat similar to providing visual feedback of adjustments.)
This feature is shown in detail in FIGS. That is, as the user adjusts the parameters, the control computer 20
Changes the display value of the display screen 10 in response to this and generates an alternative set of filters and control coefficients to control the corresponding processing operations performed by the signal processor 50.

The display meter 340 indicates a simple level of the left and right channels output from the DSP unit 130 (in this case, the level information indicates the DSP unit 1
30 to the control processor 100 and the I / O buffer 11
After that, it is sent to the input buffer 270 of the control computer. ). FIG. 5 shows the touch sensitive fader panel 30 which forms part of the audio mixing console of FIG.

The touch sensitive fader panel 30 is substantially an elongated linear touch sensitive (touch) sensor arranged substantially linearly. The touch sensor will be described in more detail later, but in brief, the following three pieces of information are output to the control computer. (A) whether the sensor was touched at any position along its length, or (b) if touched, the position along its fader length; (c) the user's hand approached the sensor. Signal

A suitable sensor is WO 95/31817
It is described in. The fader panel has one such sensor 350 for each channel strip on the display screen, as well as special sensors corresponding to the main fader controller 320 on the display screen.

The current level or state of panel control is thus displayed on the screen. The current level can be adjusted in either direction using the touchscreen and the fader's touch sensors, but only relative to the current level. That is, the position of a particular finger on the touch sensor of the fader does not correspond to a particular gain value for the corresponding channel, but instead the movement of the finger on the touch sensor corresponds to an adjustment of the gain value up or down. .

Thus, when trying to make adjustments on the fader panel, the user touches the appropriate touch sensor on the fader (when adjusting a particular channel or main fader). Then, the user moves his finger up and down the touch sensor. No matter where the user's finger starts from any linear position along the sensor, the adjustment is made with respect to the current level of gain control represented by the fader. FIGS. 6A and 6B are combined as in FIG. 6C to represent one channel strip.

A channel strip is a schematic representation of a number of audio processing controllers and devices located on the signal processing path of each channel on a display screen. From the top of FIG. 6A, an input preamplifier, a variable delay controller, a high-pass filter, a two-band split filter, three controllers for the output supply from that channel, the so-called panpot (potential potentiometer), the channel label And the channel fader are displayed. All of the controls shown in FIG. 6A, which process different attributes of the audio signal, can be displayed on the display screen in either conspicuous or blurred colors. If a controller is displayed in a prominent color, it indicates that the controller is "in circuit"; if the controller is displayed in a blurred color (so-called "grayed out"), the controller can still be adjusted Indicates that it is not currently in the audio circuit.

As an example of the functional feature in the case of “graying”, the top two channel strips (FIG. 6A)
Consider "delay" control at the th control position. The delay is independent of whether the delay processor is in the audio circuit or not.
For example, it can be set to a value of 0 to 1000 milliseconds (ms), but the delay period is applied to the audio signal only when the delay processor is in the circuit.

The channel strips of FIGS. 6A and 6B also show how visual feedback of the current control settings is provided to the user. All indications of the controller except for the channel fader are current settings (e.g., filter center frequency 60 Hz, gain 0.
0 dB), as well as a semicircle with a pointer that schematically shows the current set value within the settable range. It resembles a clock hand from the lowest possible value (the pointer is horizontal and on the left) to the highest possible value (the pointer is horizontal and on the right). The pointer indicating the center frequency of the upper band division filter in FIG. 6A is located at one third of the outer circumference of the semicircle, and the current value is 60 Hz.
Is closer to the lowest value than the highest value. The scale used to make the current set value correspond to the rotational position on the semicircle need not be linear, but may be logarithmic or other scale.

FIG. 7 illustrates how the approach and contact are displayed on the display screen with respect to the fader. When one of the sensors on the fader panel 30 is touched, the corresponding fader display on the display screen (in this example, the particular fader 400) will be a color contrasting with the color of the other screen, for example red. This indicates that the particular fader is currently touched and adjustment has begun.

Similarly, as the user's hand approaches one of the faders (as detected by the touch sensor; see above), the fader will have a more contrasting color of different shades. For example, it gradually becomes darker as the user's hand approaches the touch sensor of the fader. FIG. 7 shows such an example as a fader 410.

In this way, the user knows that his hand is close to a different fader on the screen, so he can move his hand across the fader panel 30 without looking down at the fader panel itself. You can move it. Also, since several approaches are displayed, it is possible to determine the position of the user's hand from the distribution of different colors representing different approaches.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show examples of so-called screen pop-up displays. FIG. 8A shows a portion of the display screen shown in FIG. 4, specifically a short vertical section of three channel strips. When a controller on the channel strip is touched on a touch-sensitive screen, the screen detects the touch position. This location is translated by the control computer (using a lookup table, not shown) into the identity of the corresponding controller in that channel strip. A pop-up display is shown that includes the control, and the control can be adjusted using the icons on the pop-up display.

For example, the delay controller 42 in FIG.
When a 0 is touched, a corresponding "pop-up" display appears, and the display is displayed until the user selects another control to make adjustments or until the grace period has elapsed since the pop-up was touched. Will be This is shown in FIG.

The pop-up display includes an icon representing the touched control, as shown as icon 430 in FIG. 8B, but diagonally lowers this icon to clearly indicate that the control is being adjusted. A little (for example, 1 to
10 pixels). The pop-up display also includes a fader 450 that can adjust the name of the channel, the channel number 440, and the value of a particular control.

The user can use two adjustment modes. In the first mode (mode), the user touches the controller and places his finger on the touch screen as it is. Once the pop-up appears, the vertical component of the user's finger movement from the location where he first touched the screen causes a corresponding movement of the schematic fader 450, and the attributes controlled by the controller correspond to this. Adjusted.

In a second mode of operation, the user can touch and release a particular control. Do not move your finger during that time. Then, a pop-up display appears.
The user can adjust the fader 450 by touching the screen in the pop-up display and moving his finger up and down. If the user touches the inactive area of the pop-up display, the pop-up display disappears.

The adjustment is performed in a so-called "trim" mode, and the adjustment is made relative to the current control setting value regardless of the position where the user's finger starts on the screen.

FIGS. 9 and 10 show the contact fader panel 30.
The outline of the circuit inside is shown. In FIG. 9, a specific fader sensor 500 is connected to each analog / digital converter (A / A / D converter).
D) Supply three outputs to 510, 520, 530.
These three outputs are an analog position signal when the fader is touched (when actually touched), an approach signal indicating the approach of the user's hand to the fader, and a touch status signal indicating whether the fader has been touched. .

The digital equivalents of these signals are multiplexed (parallel-serialized) together by multiplexer 540 with an identification signal indicating the identity of the channel to which fader 500 is associated. The multiplexed output of multiplexer 540 is a 3-byte serial data word.

All of these data words from the various channel faders are stored in the previous value buffer 550 (FIG. 1).
0). Each time a new serial word is received, compare and control logic circuit 560 compares it to a previously stored value. If a change is detected, the comparison and control logic circuit 560 causes the control computer 20 to send through the output circuit 565 three bytes representing the changed channel. That is, the 3-byte word is sent to the control computer 20 only when the status of the fader corresponding to the channel changes.

FIG. 11 schematically shows the format of a data word sent from the fader panel to the control computer. Each byte 570 of the 3-byte data word is composed of a byte header 580 and a payload (information transferred in a cell) 590 having information on the channel.
And The byte header 580 for each byte identifies which of the three bytes in the serial word the currently transmitted data represents. This allows the control computer 20 to detect when all three-byte data words have been received.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart summarizing the operation of the control computer. The control computer 20 operates in a repetitive loop starting with a check of the input buffer 220 (step 600). At step 610, the contents of the input buffer are examined to see if all 3-byte serial words (messages) are present. If such a word is present, the serial word is processed at step 620. The processing in step 620 will be described later in more detail with reference to FIG.

At step 630, the meter information from the signal processor 50 is read and the meter displayed on the display screen is redisplayed. At step 640, a detection is made whether the touch screen has been touched or a touch currently in progress has been removed or repositioned. If such a touch screen event is detected, the touch screen event is processed at step 650. The processing in step 650 will be described later in more detail with reference to FIG. Thus, if the attribute associated with the signal processing operation changes during the loop operation, step 660
The new value is the digital signal processor (DSP) 5
Sent to 0.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the processing of a serial word (message). At step 700, it is detected whether the approach or touch status of a certain channel has changed, ie, whether a previously untouched channel has been touched or the approach value has changed. If the answer is yes, the color map associated with the particular area of the fader corresponding to that channel is changed in step 710. This process will be described in more detail later with reference to FIG.

At step 720, it is detected whether a double click operation has been performed. That is, it is detected whether the touch panel has been touched and released twice within a predetermined time. If such an event is detected, step 7
At 30, the channel cut control is toggled, and the process ends. This channel cut control switches the output of the channel on or off. If the controller is currently off, it is turned on by toggling the control. The same applies hereinafter.

If no double click event is detected,
At step 735, it is detected whether the panel is currently touched. If the answer is yes, step 740
Is further detected whether the touch is a new touch.
This detection is performed by examining the touch attributes stored from the previous operation of the flowchart.

If the touch is a new touch, step 750 initiates the so-called trim mode. This mode involves storing a position at the fader where a new touch is made and mapping it to the current value of the gain parameter controlled by the fader. Therefore (in a subsequent operation of this flowchart)
As the user's hand moves up and down the fader, the fader controls and adjusts from the current gain attribute. If the touch is not a new touch, then if the user's finger has moved up and down the fader from the action immediately preceding the flowchart, then in step 760 it will be adjusted to the gain attribute controlled by the fader. Finally, the stored previous approach / touch status and level attributes are set at step 770 to those detected during the current operation of the flowchart.

FIG. 14 schematically shows a color map. The color map is a table (mapped) in which the so-called logical colors (indexed from 0 to 255) correspond to the red, green, and blue values actually displayed on the screen. is there. For example, the logical color 1 is displayed by being mapped to 60R, 60G, and 60B. The values of R, G, and B are each adjustable within a range of 0 to 255 (that is, 8 bits). That is, the color map defines 256 of the combinations of 16.7 million R, G, B values.

The control computer 20 holds two copies of the color map. The first copy is a so-called "BIOS" copy, which can be changed by a control computer controlled by a program. The changes can be copied to a video card color map that is used to actually map the logical colors onto the display parameters of the display screen.

In this embodiment, one different logical color is assigned to a screen area such as each channel fader. However, the R, G, B values specified by those logical colors may all initially be the same.
For example, the touch or approach status of a fader changes,
When you want to quickly change the display color of a certain area,
Make a simple change to the colormap entry for the logical color used for a particular area of the screen instead of redrawing the area using the standard (but in this case) slower Microsoft Windows redraw instruction . This has an almost instantaneous effect on the colors actually displayed. As mentioned above, the change first
The changes are made to the OS color map, and the changes are then communicated (using standard instructions) to the video card color map.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing the processing related to step 650 of FIG. 12, that is, the processing of a touch screen event. At step 800, it is checked whether the screen has been touched now or previously (ie, in the operation immediately preceding the flowchart). If the answer is yes, processing proceeds to step 830. If the answer is no, step 8
At 10, it is checked whether the grace period has elapsed since the screen was previously touched. If not, the process ends. If so, step 820
Closes all open pop-ups and terminates the process.

At step 830, it is checked whether the current touch represents a new adjustment. If so, processing proceeds to steps 840 and 850, and any existing pop-ups are closed. At step 860,
A new pop-up for a new adjustment is opened and in step 870 the trim operation is started by mapping the current settings of the selected controller to the current finger position. Therefore, the adjustment is performed not in an absolute manner but in a relative manner as described above, and the process ends.

If this is an ongoing adjustment, that is, if the finger has not left the screen since the start of the trim mode (in the previous operation of the flowchart), step 88
At 0 the current value of the controller is changed (if the finger is moving) and at step 890 the corresponding display in the popup changes.

In another embodiment of the present invention, an average approach value (not shown) of a plurality of sensors for detecting approach of a user's hand can be detected. The sensitivity of this approach measurement may be adjusted as a result of this detection. If the average value indicates an extremely weak detection (indicating that the user's hand is away), the sensitivity may be increased.

[0048]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since a mechanical controller is not used, there is an effect that the risk of wear and breakage is reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a sound mixing console according to the present invention.

2 is a schematic diagram of a signal processor forming part of the audio mixing console of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a control computer forming a part of the audio mixing console of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a front view showing a display example on a touch-sensitive display screen which forms a part of the audio mixing console of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a touch sensitive fader panel forming part of the audio mixing console of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of one channel strip of the screen of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a front view showing a display of approach and contact on the screen of FIG. 4;

8 is a diagram showing an example of a pop-up display on the screen of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram (part 1) illustrating a circuit in the fader panel of FIG. 5;

FIG. 10 is a diagram (part 2) illustrating a circuit in the fader panel of FIG. 5;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a format of a data word sent from the fader panel to the control computer.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart summarizing the operation of the control computer.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the processing of a serial message.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing a color map.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing the processing of a touch screen event.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ‥‥ sensitive touch screen, 20 ‥‥ control computer, 30 ‥‥ sensitive touch fader panel, 40 ‥‥ dependent display screen, 50 プ ロ セ ッ サ signal processor

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Peter Damien Thorpe Oxfordshire, Oxford, Hodges Court 21 United Kingdom (72) Inventor Christopher Slight Oxfordshire, Chipping Norton, West Street 8

Claims (5)

[Claims] An audio processor operable to perform one or more audio processing operations on an input audio signal; and a process associated with one of the audio processing operations in response to movement of a user's hand during contact. Adjust parameters 1
The above-mentioned parameter, in response to the movement of the user's hand in one or more predetermined directions from the initial position where the user's hand touched one of the controllers, An audio processing device characterized by being adjusted from a value. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said parameter is a gain value.
Equipment. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a display screen for displaying a current parameter value. 4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said display screen is a touch-sensitive screen, said touch-sensitive screen acting as said touch-sensitive controller. 5. The display screen has a plurality of screen areas, each screen area being associated with control of various processing parameters, wherein the display screen includes means for detecting a location on the screen where a user has touched. 5. The device of claim 4, comprising the device.