Acoustic control apparatus and acoustic control method

• US 9,967,690 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2011
• Issued: 05/08/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Tsurumi, Shingo
• Primary Examiner(s): Saunders, Jr., Joseph
• Application Number:
  US13/274,802
• Publication Number:
  US 20120114137A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,395 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/303 Tracking of listener position or orientation

Abstract

Disclosed herein is an acoustic control apparatus including: a speaker-position computation section configured to find the position of each of a plurality of speakers located in a speaker layout space on the basis of a position computed as the microphone position in the speaker layout space based on a taken image of at least any of the microphone and an object placed at a location close to the microphone position, and a result of sound collection to collect a signal sound each generated by one of the speakers; and an acoustic control section configured to control a sound generated by each of the speakers by computing a user position in the speaker layout space based on a taken image of the user, computing the distance between the user position and the position of each of the speakers, and controlling sounds generated by the speakers according to the computed distances.

Claims

1. An acoustic control apparatus comprising:

a speaker-position computation section configured to find the position of each of a plurality of speakers located in a speaker layout space on the basis of a position of a microphone in the speaker layout space based on an image of a user and sound collection carried out by the microphone, wherein the image includes at least one of the microphone and an object placed at a location close to the position of the microphone, and wherein a result of the sound collection is carried out by the microphone to collect a signal sound generated by each one of the speakers;

an image processing section configured to process the image, wherein the image processing section extracts metadata of the user in the image, and wherein the metadata of the user includes information indicating at least one of a gender of the user and an age of the user extracted based on detected characteristic portions of a face of the user in the image; and

an acoustic control section configured to carry out control of a sound generated by each of the speakers by computing the position of the user in the speaker layout space on the basis of the image of the user, computing the distance between the position of the user and the position of each of the speakers, and controlling sounds generated by the speakers according to the computed distances,

wherein the acoustic control section makes use of the distance between the position of the user and the position of each of the speakers in order to dynamically change positions used for setting sounds generated by the speakers,

wherein the acoustic control section is further configured to adjust the quality of the sounds generated by the speakers in accordance with the extracted metadata of the user,

wherein adjusting the quality of the sounds comprises carrying out predetermined surround sound equalizing with respect to the plurality of speakers in accordance with the extracted metadata of the user, and

wherein the speaker-position computation section, the image processing section, and the acoustic control section are each implemented via at least one processor.

2. The acoustic control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the speaker-position computation section finds the position of each of the speakers located in the speaker layout space on the basis of the position of the microphone, and the distance between the position of the microphone and the position of each of the speakers computed by making use of the volume of the signal sound generated by each of the speakers and collected by the microphone.

3. The acoustic control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the image processing section is configured to process the image of at least the microphone and the object placed at the location close to the position of the microphone;

the image processing section detects the face of the user approaching the microphone as the object placed at the location close to the position of the microphone.

4. The acoustic control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the image processing section is configured to process the image of at least the microphone and the object placed at the location close to the position of the microphone;

the image processing section detects the microphone or a visual marker provided on the microphone.

5. The acoustic control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the speaker-position computation section finds the position of each of the speakers on the basis of a result of collection of signal sounds output from the speakers and collected by making use of one of a monaural microphone, a stereo microphone and a multi-channel microphone.

6. The acoustic control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detected characteristic portions of the face of the user include brows, eyes, nose, and mouth of the user.

7. The acoustic control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing section further extracts a gesture made by the user shown in the image.

8. The acoustic control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing section further extracts metadata of a plurality of users shown in the image.

9. The acoustic control apparatus according to claim 8, wherein adjusting the quality of the sounds further comprises carrying out predetermined surround sound equalizing with respect to the plurality of speakers in accordance with the extracted metadata of the plurality of users.

10. An acoustic control method, implemented via at least one processor, the method comprising:

computing the position of a microphone in a speaker layout space, in which a plurality of speakers are laid out, based on an image of a user and sound collection carried out by the microphone, wherein the image includes at least one of the microphone and an object placed at a location close to the position of the microphone;

finding the position of each of the plurality of speakers laid out in the speaker layout space based on the computed position of the microphone and a result of the sound collection carried out by the microphone to collect signal sounds, each signal sound generated by one of the speakers;

processing the image to extract metadata of the user in the image, wherein the metadata of the user includes information indicating at least one of a gender of the user and an age of the user extracted based on detected characteristic portions of a face of the user in the image; and

controlling a sound generated by each of the speakers in accordance with the computed position of the user and the distance from the position of the user to the position of each of the speakers using the distance between the position of the user and the position of each of the speakers in order to dynamically change positions used for setting sounds generated by the speakers and setting sounds generated by the speakers; and

adjusting the quality of the sounds generated by the speakers in accordance with the extracted metadata of the user,

wherein adjusting the quality of the sounds comprises carrying out predetermined surround sound equalizing with respect to the plurality of speakers in accordance with the extracted metadata of the user.

11. The acoustic control method according to claim 10, wherein the characteristic portions of the face of the user include brows, eyes, nose, and mouth of the user.

12. The acoustic control method according to claim 10, wherein the image processing section further extracts a gesture made by the user shown in the image.

13. The acoustic control method according to claim 10, wherein the image processing section further extracts metadata of a plurality of users shown in the image.

14. The acoustic control method according to claim 13, wherein adjusting the quality of the sounds further comprises carrying out predetermined surround sound equalizing with respect to the plurality of speakers in accordance with the extracted metadata of the plurality of users.