In-vehicle communication support system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11956604-B2
Application number	US-202217858248-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 6, 2022
Priority date	Jul 14, 2021
Publication date	Apr 9, 2024
Grant date	Apr 9, 2024

Abstract

A right seat processing unit includes, assuming that a voice of a user in a right front seat is a right front seat voice, a filter HR that converts the right front seat voice being output from a left front seat microphone disposed on a headrest of a left front seat into the right front seat voice collected by a right seat virtual microphone that is a virtual microphone located on a left side of a headrest of the right front seat, a delay unit Z-TR that delays and outputs an output from a right front seat microphone located on a right side of the headrest of the right front seat, a filter WRA that extracts the right front seat voice being output from the filter HR, a filter WRB that extracts the right front seat voice being output from the delay unit Z-TR, and a right adder that adds outputs of the filter WRA and the filter WRB and outputs an added output as a right front seat speech voice signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An in-vehicle communication support system mounted on an automobile having a first seat and a second seat that are seats arranged right and left and a third seat that is a seat arranged, in a front-rear direction, with the first seat and the second seat, the in-vehicle communication support system comprising:
a first microphone disposed near the first seat;
a second microphone disposed near the second seat;
a speaker configured to output sound toward the third seat; and
a signal processing unit configured to generate a speech voice of a user in the first seat and a speech voice of a user in the second seat to be output to the speaker using an output of the first microphone and an output of the second microphone;
wherein a voice having a sound source position at a speech position of the user in the first seat is a first seat voice;
wherein the signal processing unit comprises:
a first filter configured to convert the first seat voice collected by the second microphone into the first seat voice collected by a first seat virtual microphone located at a position closer to the first seat than the second microphone, and outputs the first seat voice,
a second filter configured to extract and output a component of the first seat voice from an output of the first filter,
a delay unit configured to delay and output the output of the first microphone,
a third filter configured to extract and output a component of the first seat voice from an output of the delay unit, and
an addition unit configured to add an output of the second filter and an output of the third filter to generate the speech voice of the user in the first seat to be output to the speaker; and

wherein the delay unit is configured to delay the output of the first microphone such that delay times of the component of the first seat voice output from the second filter and the component of the first seat voice output from the third filter match.

2. The in-vehicle communication support system according to claim 1 , wherein:
a transfer function of the first filter is set in advance, by causing a third microphone that is a microphone disposed at a position of the first seat virtual microphone to collect a predetermined tuning sound while outputting the predetermined tuning sound from the speech position of the user in the first seat, causing a first adaptive filter to perform an adaptive operation with a difference between an output of the first adaptive filter having the output of the second microphone as an input and an output of the third microphone delayed by a predetermined time as an error, and setting a transfer function of the converged first adaptive filter as the transfer function of the first filter.

3. The in-vehicle communication support system according to claim 2 , wherein:
a transfer function of the second filter and a transfer function of the third filter are set in advance, by causing a second adaptive filter to perform an adaptive operation with a difference between an output of the second adaptive filter having the output of the first filter as an input and an output of the first microphone delayed by a predetermined time as an error while outputting a predetermined tuning sound from the speech position of the user in the first seat, and setting a transfer function of the converged second adaptive filter as the transfer function of the second filter, and by causing a third adaptive filter to perform an adaptive operation with a difference between an output of the third adaptive filter having the output of the first microphone delayed by the predetermined time as an input and the output of the first filter as an error while outputting the predetermined tuning sound from the speech position of the user in the first seat, and setting a transfer function of the converged third adaptive filter as the transfer function of the third filter.

4. The in-vehicle communication support system according to claim 3 , wherein:
the first microphone is disposed at a position away from a center in a right-left direction of the first seat by a predetermined distance in a direction opposite to the second seat, and
the position of the first seat virtual microphone is a position away from the center in the right-left direction of the first seat in a direction of the second seat by the predetermined distance.

5. The in-vehicle communication support system according to claim 4 , further comprising:
an audio device that outputs a sound of audio content toward the third seat.

6. The in-vehicle communication support system according to claim 1 , wherein:
a transfer function of the second filter and a transfer function of the third filter are set in advance, by causing a second adaptive filter to perform an adaptive operation with a difference between an output of the second adaptive filter having the output of the first filter as an input and an output of the first microphone delayed by a predetermined time as an error while outputting a predetermined tuning sound from the speech position of the user in the first seat, and setting a transfer function of the converged second adaptive filter as the transfer function of the second filter, and by causing a third adaptive filter to perform an adaptive operation with a difference between an output of the third adaptive filter having the output of the first microphone delayed by the predetermined time as an input and the output of the first filter as an error while outputting the predetermined tuning sound from the speech position of the user in the first seat, and setting a transfer function of the converged third adaptive filter as the transfer function of the third filter.

7. The in-vehicle communication support system according to claim 6 , wherein:
the first microphone is disposed at a position away from a center in a right-left direction of the first seat by a predetermined distance in a direction opposite to the second seat, and
the position of the first seat virtual microphone is a position away from the center in the right-left direction of the first seat in a direction of the second seat by the predetermined distance.

8. The in-vehicle communication support system according to claim 7 , further comprising:
an audio device configured to output a sound of audio content toward the third seat.

Assignees

• Alps Alpine Co Ltd

Inventors

• Tachi Ryosuke
• Taguchi Hiroyuki

Classifications

• H04R3/002 Primary

  Damping circuit arrangements for transducers, e.g. motional feedback circuits · CPC title

• H04R1/025

  Arrangements for fixing loudspeaker transducers, e.g. in a box, furniture · CPC title

• H04R1/406

  microphones · CPC title

• H04R3/04

  for correcting frequency response · CPC title

• H04R2201/401

  2D or 3D arrays of transducers · CPC title