KR100542976B1 - A headphone apparatus with soft-sound funtion using prosody control of speech signal - Google Patents

Abstract

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a soft sound headphone device by voice signal conversion processing for improving the function of a headphone which is widely used for audio listening in real life.

To this end, the present invention, when using a headphone to talk to the speaker or to listen to the sound of the sound equipment, when the voice of the speaker is urgent and blunt, pressing the soft sound key button to make the voice soft and polite An accent conversion function for converting the signal into a part of an internal and external signal processing computer processor in the existing headphones; The phonological semantic information separation and rhyme intonation information extracting unit is connected to the maintaining unit and the intonation information changing unit, respectively, and the maintaining unit and the intonation information changing unit are characterized in that the earphone is connected through the voice synthesis processing unit.

Pitch intonation conversion, soft sound headphones, intonation information, rhyme information, soft-sound function, pitch intonation signal processing, advanced headphones

Description

Soft sound headphone device by voice conversion process of voice signal {A HEADPHONE APPARATUS WITH SOFT-SOUND FUNTION USING PROSODY CONTROL OF SPEECH SIGNAL}

1 is a configuration diagram for explaining the principle of the soft sound headphone device of the present invention;

2 is a block diagram illustrating an analysis and synthesis processing scheme in a soft sound headphone device according to the present invention;

3 is a hardware configuration diagram of intonation conversion processing in the soft sound headphone device of the present invention;

4 is a flowchart for explaining the functional processing of the soft sound headphone device of the present invention.
* Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings
101: soft sound key button 102: conventional headphone function
103: headset 104: intonation conversion function
105: headphone plug

The present invention newly proposes a method of listening to sound using a headphone in applications such as Internet telephony, general telephone call, mobile phone call, audio listening, and the like. A soft sound headphone device by voice conversion processing.
There are a variety of sounds that can be heard from acoustic audio devices through the currently developed mobile phones. Displeased listeners can be heard in a hurry, by swearing, by a mixed dialect, or by an unclear voice. Existing audio listening headphones, which are being used in this way, deliver the voice from the audio device to the ear via earphones or speakers.

In particular, the hearing impaired or elderly people are deaf, the hearing function is deteriorated due to the fact that the sound of a sudden change of accent is not well understood. However, the reception method of the earphone or the speaker has a disadvantage in that the character or the hardness contained in the sound is transmitted to the listener as it is, and the receiver sometimes feels a lot of discomfort or stress.

The present invention has been invented in view of the above circumstances, using a soft-sound key button and an intonation conversion processing unit to soften the sound of the speaker, which is heard from the earphone of the headphone, by applying the digital voice conversion processing technology. It is an object of the present invention to provide a soft sound headphone device by a voice conversion process of a voice signal, which is newly proposed.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a soft voice by pressing the soft sound key button when the voice of the speaker is urgently and bluntly in a call to the speaker or to listen to the sound of the audio device using headphones. An accent conversion function for converting into polite sound as part of an internal and external signal processing computer processor in existing headphones; The phonological semantic information separation and rhyme intonation information extracting unit is connected to the maintaining unit and the intonation information changing unit, respectively, and the maintaining unit and the intonation information changing unit are intact in the voice signal conversion process, characterized in that the earphone is connected through the voice synthesis processing unit. Is a soft sound headphone device.
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a configuration diagram for explaining the principle of the soft sound headphone device of the present invention. The soft sound headphone device of the present invention is a soft sound key button 101 (or a specific type) in which a listener is attached to the intonation converting function unit 104. Press the key button to invent the voice of the voice of the voice conversion process so that it sounds smooth and correct.
The headphone plug 105 and the microset of the headset 103 are respectively connected to the input headphone pen function unit 102, while the soft sound key button 101 and the headset are connected to the output side through the intonation converter function 104. The earphones of 103 are configured to be connected to each other.

Soft sound headphone device of the present invention analyzes the sound information heard through the headphones of the headphone plug 105, leaving the personality information and semantic information of the speaker as it is, changing the intonation rapidly changing by adjusting the pitch intonation information indicating the intonation You can change the sound slowly by making the sound change.

The soft sound headphone device of the present invention can listen to the headphones with a soft and emotional sound because the function of the soft sound can be selected according to the taste of the listener when the user hears the speech in a hurry or strong accent. Therefore, there is an effect that can avoid the stress in the urgent and blunt everyday conversation.

Even in this case, the soft sound headphone device of the present invention is an essential function in the field of welfare communication by controlling the intonation change of vocalization and making it sound soft and clear. In addition, related service workers such as offices, fire departments, and company guides who receive unspecified number of customers through wired and wireless telephone communication are stressed by various voices of customers. Even in this case, the soft sound headphone device of the present invention has the advantage of softly and calmly listening to the voice of the customer.

In the present invention constituted as described above, the human voice is generated by the vibration sound as the air from the lungs trembles in the vocal cords, and this vibration is generated while the resonance occurs through the saints. The vocal vocal tremor and vocal habits of the voice represent the personality of the vocalists, and the resonance characteristics of the vocal tracts represent phonological information that conveys the meaning of the message. In this way, the rhyme information indicating the individuality of the voice is transmitted as it is, but only the pitch intonation information is detected and the large change is limited and controlled so that the voice soft and soft voice conversion function is applied to the headphone listening.

Output signals from devices such as wired, cordless phones, cell phones, recorders, and audio components deliver sound to our ears through speakers or headphones. As such, the existing headphone functions as a handset that simply converts an electrical signal from a receiving sound device into sound waves, or a built-in high-performance computer chip provides a variety of services such as character display and audio control. There is.
The soft sound headphone device of the present invention comprises a functional headphone device in which an existing headphone function section 102 has an accent conversion function section 104 of a soft sound function performed through a computer chip for signal processing. When the headphone plug 105 of the headphone is connected to the existing headphone function unit 102, a sound is heard through the handset, and the intonation conversion function unit 104 is heard if the meaning of the sound is unclear because of a sudden or accent change. Press the soft sound key button 101. The soft sound key button 101 is a method of pressing a key button that is mounted as a separate key button or arbitrarily determined.

When the soft sound key button 101 is pressed, the computer chip is processed by software or firmware of the intonation converting function 104 to control the sudden change of the pitch intonation in the voice of the speaker so that the sound of the speech is softly heard. On the other hand, when the listener presses the soft sound key button 101 again, the listener returns to the original intonation.

Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating the analysis and synthesis processing method in the soft sound headphone device of the present invention, the soft sound headphone device of the present invention by analyzing the voice from the computer chip attached to the existing headphones in the internal and external type of the speaker It is composed of advanced processing functions such as soft sound function synthesized while maintaining voice characteristics. That is, in the voice conversion function unit illustrated in FIG. 1, the phonological semantic information separation unit and the rhyme intonation information extracting unit 202 are connected to the maintaining unit 205 and the intonation information changing unit 206, respectively, and remain as they are. 205 and the intonation information changing unit 206 are connected to the earphone 208 through the voice synthesis processing unit 207.

The voice is generated by the tremor of the vocal cords and the resonance in the throat. By using the principle of generating the voice, the voice characteristic and semantic information are left as it is in the holding unit 205, and in the intonation information changing unit 206. When only the pitch intonation information is extracted and adjusted through the voice synthesis processing unit 207, the earphone is changed into a soft and soft sound voice through the earphone 208. The soft sound headphone device core technology of the present invention automatically maintains the phonological meaning information separation and rhyme intonation information extracting unit 202 to automatically classify the rhyme information representing the meaning of the human voice and the rhyme information indicating the individuality. At the same time to preserve the meaning and personality at the same time by changing the pitch intonation information in the intonation information changing unit 206 is to increase the softness of the voice through the earphone 208.

An apparatus for receiving an analog voice signal output from a mobile phone or an audio device or the like and converting the voice signal into a soft sound voice is illustrated in FIG. 3. The digital signal processor (DSP) or the computer processor 304 of the general purpose CPU, to which the memory 305 and the peripheral device 309 are connected, may be an analog-to-digital converter (303: ADC), a low pass filter (LPF) and an amplifier (302). A transmitter analog input S (t) of 301 is configured, and a receiver analog output U (t) of the digital-to-analog converter 308 (DAC), the low pass filter 307, and the amplifier 306 is configured. The amplifiers 301 and 306 are provided with the balance regulators 311 and 312.
The voice signal waveform input in the analog form is amplified to the desired level in the amplifier 301 and then passed through the low pass filter 302 to remove the aliasing effect, and then quantization and coding. By passing through an analog-to-digital converter 303 that performs a digital signal in the form of linear pulse code modulation (PCM), it is processed by software or firmware in a computer processor 304 of a general purpose CPU or digital signal processor (DSP).

When the signal is processed, the computer processor 304 may refer to the peripheral device 309 installed inside or outside, or may refer to the peripheral memory 305 to store the input digital signal or the processing result.

The digital signal, which is voice-converted to soft sound by software or firmware in the CPU, is converted into a sampled analog signal form through the digital-to-analog converter 308. Passing this signal through the low pass filter 307 results in an analog signal from which quantization noise has been removed, and when properly amplified by the amplifier 306, an analog signal that can be heard through a handset, a speaker, or the like of a headphone. At this time, the overall sound level is controlled by the volume controllers 311 and 312 attached to the respective amplifiers 301 and 306.

4 is a flowchart for explaining the functional processing of the soft sound headphone device of the present invention, in which the soft sound headphone device of the present invention is a hardware system as shown in FIG. It is equipped with software or firmware with a soft sound function. Determines whether the soft sound key-button (or any key-button) is pressed in the existing headphone function, and if it is not pressed, sends the input sound to the output just like the existing headphones, or for digital control. (Step 402). The soft sound key-button is configured as a software toggle switch, press once to turn it on, and press again to turn it off.

When the function of the soft sound headphone device of the present invention is started, the data sample value (step 401) input from the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is simultaneously processed in units of one frame. First, it is determined whether the data value in the current frame is the voiced sound section, and if it is not the voiced sound section (step 404), the occupancy rate (Buffer Rate, BR) of the ring buffer is calculated. In order for the other party's voice to be heard softly, processing must be performed differently than the other party's actual voice uttering speed. The memory buffer required to wait for the processed data is called a ring buffer (step 409).

The occupancy rate of the ring buffer (BR) represents the time rate at which data processed by the soft sound function is waited in the ring buffer. The occupancy rate of the time when the current frame is a non-voiced sound and the waiting time for the ring buffer is determined (for example, 0.8 < If it is out of BR &lt; 1.2, duration adjustment is performed to change the phonation speed (step 416). This makes it possible to eliminate fluctuations in the uttering time caused when the soft sound function is performed. In other words, in step 418, this data is processed to be sounded only in the voiced sound section, but since the voice speed may be different from that of the original voice, the voice delay is adjusted in the non-voice sound section to eliminate the overall time delay. .

A method of measuring whether the current frame is a voiced sound section or a non-voiced sound section (step 403) has been suggested in a text processing textbook. For example, the energy level can be easily determined by measuring an energy level.

That is, if the average energy of the current frame exceeds a predetermined threshold and lasts 5 frames (100 ms), for example, this section becomes a voiced sound section.

If the data of the current frame is the voiced sound section (step 418), the soft sound function processing is performed on the data. The soft sound function detects the pitch intonation in the data of the current frame (step 406), and considers the pitch-accent gradient (PAC) in the unit of frame to determine the range of change in which the PAC is defined (for example, 1.5 times). If out, the pitch intonation is changed (step 407). The change of the pitch intonation is processed in units of one block of voiced sound, which represents one block section of the voiced sound frame which is continuously detected.

For a block of voiced sound, the pitch-inhibition change (step 407) is performed in units of pitch periods. For example, if the PAC exceeds a predetermined change range, the pitch change is performed to maintain the pitch period within a given maximum range. . Pitch Synchronous Overwrap and Add (PSOLA) is a method of changing the pitch period so far. For example, the speech waveform is reconstructed by broadly segmenting the speech waveform in the pitch period unit in the time domain and then superimposing it in the changed pitch period unit. There is a pitch change method.

At this time, it is necessary to accurately detect the pitch period, and a number of methods have been proposed in the past 40 years for the pitch period detection method of a voice signal. For example, pitch detection is mainly used for the autocorrelation function, and there is a method for detecting the period of a repetitive waveform by calculating a correlation between adjacent voice waveforms.

Since the processed data becomes unnatural and unnatural in the waveform, it is necessary to perform the energy amplitude change adjustment (step 408) so that the change in amplitude naturally follows. For example, the change in energy amplitude is processed in units of pitch periods, and is performed by multiplying the waveform by the average energy amplitude of one pitch period.

The processed voice data are stored in the ring buffer (step 409), and are output through the digital receiver (DAC) through the receiver or speaker of the headphone in units of voice data through the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) (step 410). The function of the soft sound headphones is handled in real time. That is, the processing of the soft sound headphone function (step 410) must be completed until the data of one frame is received from the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) until the data of the next frame is received.

As described above, according to the present invention, the characteristics of the voice signal are extracted to smoothly adjust the accent pitch information of the speaker while maintaining the speaker's characteristic information and the semantic information of the message. Implement a listening function to limit the range of change of voice tone, observe the amplitude change of vocal energy so as not to be out of a certain range, or divide the delay compensation of vocal duration into voiced and non-voiced sound sections It is a headphone method with soft sound function that implements the voice conversion processing method of the headphone so that the voice of the speaker can be heard softly and tenderly.

The present invention is a technology that assists the human senses in terms of technology, and as everyone ages, the sensation function becomes aging, and the function gradually slows down. Soft sound headphones are the practical use of welfare technology that complements these sensory functions. Unusual. Therefore, its applicability is unique as a headphone technology for the welfare state that can softly provide the voice tone of the other party to the elderly or the disabled who are hearing impaired.

And the soft sound headphone device of the present invention is a core technology necessary to achieve a society with emotion. Societies are highly advanced and humans are increasingly isolated, so conversations that ignore each other are very common even in everyday voice communication. The atmosphere of this society can be changed through soft sound headphones. This is because by changing the speaker's urgent and accenting voice so as to speak softly, it can calmly stabilize the listening mood that may cause emotion.

The speech conversion technology applied to the soft sound headphone device of the present invention can be used as a listening assistant system of a professional shorthand for recording the contents of a conversation, can be applied to a language learner to develop English listening ability, and to request emergency or distress rescue. It is a practical invention technology that can be used even when you need to listen to the sound softly or politely, and its ripple effect is great.

Claims (1)

In the existing headphone function unit 102 that can listen to the sound of the talker or the audio device, the intonation conversion function unit 104 with the soft sound key button 101 is installed, The phonological meaning information separation and rhyme intonation information extracting unit 202 is connected to each other and maintains the voice feature and semantic information as it is, and the tonal information changing unit 206 for extracting and adjusting only the pitch intonation information, respectively. Soft sound headphone apparatus by the voice conversion processing of the voice signal, characterized in that by sequentially connecting the known voice synthesis processing unit 207 and the known earphone 208 to a soft and soft soft sound.

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