Sound outputting apparatus, sound outputting method, sound outputting system and sound output processing program

• US 8,340,323 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2007
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Asada, Kohei, Kawanishi, Hiroki
• Primary Examiner(s): Mei, Xu
• Assistant Examiner(s): TON, DAVID L
• Application Number:
  US11/936,894
• Publication Number:
  US 20080170725A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,874 Days
• Field of Search: 381/74.6, 381/93, 381/57, 381/107, 381/74, 381/103, 381/83, 381/94.1, 381/106
• US Class Current: 381/107
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1041 Mechanical or electronic switches, or control elements switches in general H01H
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/15 Determination of the acoustic seal of ear moulds or ear tips of hearing devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/033 Headphones for stereophonic communication details thereof, e.g. relating to batteries, cables or control elements H04R1/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/04 Circuit arrangements, e.g. for selective connection of amplifier inputs/outputs to loudspeakers, for loudspeaker detection, or for adaptation of settings to personal preferences or hearing impairments combinations of amplifiers H03F3/68; stereophonic systems H04S

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a sound outputting apparatus, including: an electro-acoustic conversion section disposed in a housing and configured to acoustically reproduce a first sound signal; a sound collection section configured to collect sound outside said housing and output a second sound signal; a surrounding noise evaluation section configured to evaluate surrounding noise outside said housing based on the second electric signal; and a control section configured to perform predetermined control based on a result of the evaluation of said surrounding noise evaluation section.

Claims

1. A sound outputting apparatus, comprising:

an electro-acoustic conversion section disposed in a housing and configured to acoustically reproduce a first sound signal;

a sound collection section configured to collect sound outside said housing and output a second sound signal;

a surrounding noise evaluation section configured to evaluate surrounding noise outside said housing based on the second sound signal; and

a control section configured to perform predetermined control based on a result of the evaluation of said surrounding noise evaluation section, the control section determining whether the surrounding noise outside said housing results from, based on an evaluation by the surround noise evaluation section;

(1) sound leakage from the reproduction of the first sound signal, and

(2) a noisy listening environment,

such that the predetermined control includes maintaining an output sound volume when both (1) and (2) are relatively high, and lowering the output sound volume when only (1) is relatively high.

2. The sound outputting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control section controls the amount of sound to be acoustically reproduced and outputted by said electro-acoustic conversion section from the first sound signal.

3. The sound outputting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control section issues a warning based on the result of the evaluation of said surrounding noise evaluation section.

4. The sound outputting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said surrounding noise evaluation section includes:

a multiplication section configured to multiply the first sound signal supplied to said control section by a coefficient according to a transfer characteristic from said electro-acoustic conversion section to said sound collection section;

a difference value calculation section configured to determine a difference value between the second sound signal and the sound signal from said multiplication section;

a decision section configured to decide the magnitude of the surrounding noise outside said housing from the difference value determined by said difference value calculation section; and

a control signal production section configured to produce a control signal for controlling the amount of the sound to be supplied to said control section based on a result of the decision of said decision section.

5. The sound outputting apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said control section decreases the acoustic reproduction sound amount of the first sound signal when it is decided by said decision section that the difference value is lower than a predetermined value.

6. The sound outputting apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said control section performs a compressor process or a limiter process for the first sound signal by limiting the first sound signal to an upper limit when said decision section decides that the difference value is equal to or lower than a predetermined value.

7. The sound outputting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said surrounding noise evaluation section includes:

a first conversion section configured to convert the first sound signal in a time domain into a third signal in a frequency domain;

a multiplication section configured to multiply the first sound signal controlled by said control section by a coefficient according to a transfer characteristic from said electro-acoustic conversion section to said sound collection section;

a second conversion section configured to convert a signal from said multiplication section into a fourth signal in the frequency domain;

a difference value calculation section configured to determine a difference value between the third signal and the fourth signal for each frequency;

a decision section configured to decide the magnitude of the surrounding noise outside said housing from the difference values determined by said difference value calculation section; and

a control signal production section configured to produce a control signal for performing control of the volume of the sound to be supplied to said sound output control section based on a result of the decision of said decision section.

8. The sound outputting apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said control section decreases the acoustic reproduction sound amount of the first sound signal when it is decided by said decision section that the difference value is lower than a predetermined value.

9. The sound outputting apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said control section performs a compressor process or a limiter process for the first sound signal by limiting the first sound signal to an upper limit when said decision section decides that the difference value is equal to or lower than a predetermined value.

10. The sound outputting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said surrounding noise evaluation section executes the evaluation in response to a determination that the momentary amplitude value or the energy value of the first sound signal or the second sound signal exceeds a fixed level or in response to a determination that the frequency amplitude value exceeds a fixed level as a result of a frequency analysis performed with regard to the first sound signal or the second sound signal.

11. The sound outputting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a noise reduction circuit configured to produce a noise reduction sound signal for reducing the noise outside said housing from the second sound signal obtained by the sound collection of said sound collection section and add the produced noise reduction sound signal to the second sound signal.

12. A sound outputting method, comprising the steps of:

acoustically reproducing a first sound signal, the step being executed by an electro-acoustic conversion section disposed in a housing;

collecting sound outside the housing and outputting a second sound signal, the step being executed by a sound collection section;

evaluating surrounding noise outside the housing based on the second sound signal;

performing predetermined control based on a result of the evaluation at the surrounding noise evaluation step; and

determining whether the surrounding noise outside said housing results from, based on an evaluation by the evaluating step;

(1) sound leakage from the reproducing of the first sound signal, and

(2) a noisy listening environment,

such that the predetermined control includes maintaining an output sound volume when both (1) and (2) are relatively high, and lowering the output sound volume when only (1) is relatively high.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium on or in which a program is recorded, the program causing a computer to execute the steps of:

acoustically reproducing a first sound signal, the step being executed by an electro-acoustic conversion section disposed in a housing;

collecting sound outside the housing and outputting a second sound signal, the step being executed by a sound collection section;

evaluating surrounding noise outside the housing based on the second sound signal;

performing predetermined control based on a result of the evaluation at the surrounding noise evaluation step; and

determining whether the surrounding noise outside said housing results from, based on an evaluation by the evaluating step;

(1) sound leakage from the reproducing of the first sound signal, and

(2) a noisy listening environment,

such that the predetermined control includes maintaining an output sound volume when both (1) and (2) are relatively high, and lowering the output sound volume when only (1) is relatively high.

14. A sound outputting system, comprising:

a headphone apparatus; and

a sound outputting apparatus to which said headphone apparatus is connected;

said headphone apparatus including

an electro-acoustic conversion section disposed in a housing of said headphone apparatus and configured to acoustically reproduce and output a first sound signal from said sound outputting apparatus, and

a sound collection section configured to collect sound outside said housing of said headphone apparatus, said sound outputting apparatus including

a surrounding noise evaluation section configured to evaluate surrounding noise outside said housing based on the second sound signal obtained by the sound collection by said sound collection section, and

a control section configured to perform predetermined control based on a result of the evaluation of the surrounding noise outside said housing by said surrounding noise evaluation section, the control section determining whether the surrounding noise outside said housing results from, based on an evaluation by the surround noise evaluation section;

(1) sound leakage from the reproduction of the first sound signal, and

(2) a noisy listening environment,

such that the predetermined control includes maintaining an output sound volume when both (1) and (2) are relatively high, and lowering the output sound volume when only (1) is relatively high.