Electronic device and method for controlling electronic device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9374057-B2
Application number	US-201314378493-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 22, 2013
Priority date	May 22, 2012
Publication date	Jun 21, 2016
Grant date	Jun 21, 2016

Abstract

An echo caused by sound leakage from a housing that vibrates due to a vibrating body is reduced. An electronic device ( 1 ) according to the present invention includes a piezoelectric element ( 30 ), a vibrating plate ( 10 ) that vibrates due to the piezoelectric element ( 30 ), microphones ( 42, 43 ), and an equalizer ( 44 ), the electronic device ( 1 ) causing the vibrating plate ( 10 ) to generate air-conducted sound and vibration sound that is transmitted by vibrating a part of a human body. The equalizer ( 44 ) makes a low-range emphasis setting, to emphasize a low frequency range more than a high frequency range of the air-conducted sound, when the volume of the air-conducted sound collected by the microphones ( 42, 43 ) exceeds a predetermined threshold.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electronic device comprising:
a piezoelectric element;
a vibrating plate configured to vibrate due to the piezoelectric element;
a first microphone configured to collect speech of a user;
a second microphone configured to collect surrounding sound; and
an equalizer,
the electronic device causing the vibrating plate to generate air-conducted sound and vibration sound that is transmitted by vibrating a part of a human body, and
the equalizer making a low-range emphasis setting, to emphasize a low frequency range more than a high frequency range of the air-conducted sound, when a volume of the air-conducted sound collected by the first microphone exceeds a first threshold or when a volume of the air-conducted sound collected by the second microphone exceeds a second threshold.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the vibrating plate is positioned in an expected contact region of a housing where an ear of a user is expected to contact, and the first microphone is provided in a mouth-neighboring region of the housing near a mouth of the user.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1 , wherein the vibrating plate is positioned in an expected contact region of a housing where an ear of a user is expected to contact, and the second microphone is provided on an opposite face from the vibrating plate of the housing.

4. A method for controlling an electronic device that includes a piezoelectric element, a vibrating plate configured to vibrate due to the piezoelectric element, a first microphone configured to collect speech of a user, a second microphone configured to collect surrounding sound, and an equalizer, the electronic device causing the vibrating plate to generate air-conducted sound and vibration sound that is transmitted by vibrating a part of a human body, the method comprising the step of:
making a low-range emphasis setting, for the equalizer to emphasize a low frequency range more than a high frequency range of the air-conducted sound, when a volume of the air-conducted sound collected by the first microphone exceeds a first threshold or when a volume of the air-conducted sound collected by the second microphone exceeds a second threshold.

5. An electronic device comprising:
a piezoelectric element;
a vibrating plate configured to vibrate due to the piezoelectric element;
a main microphone;
a sub-microphone; and
a control unit,
the electronic device causing the vibrating plate to generate air-conducted sound and vibration sound that is transmitted by vibrating a part of a human body, and
the control unit controlling the piezoelectric element so as to suppress or reduce vibration of the vibrating plate when a difference between a volume of the air-conducted sound collected by the first microphone and a volume of the air-conducted sound collected by the second microphone exceeds a predetermined threshold.

6. A method for controlling an electronic device that includes a piezoelectric element, a vibrating plate configured to vibrate due to the piezoelectric element, a main microphone, a sub-microphone, and a control unit, the electronic device causing the vibrating plate to generate air-conducted sound and vibration sound that is transmitted by vibrating a part of a human body, the method comprising the step of:
controlling, via the control unit, the piezoelectric element so as to suppress or reduce vibration of the vibrating plate when a difference between a volume of the air-conducted sound collected by the first microphone and a volume of the air-conducted sound collected by the second microphone exceeds a predetermined threshold.

Assignees

• Kyocera Corp

Inventors

• Nabata Toshihisa
• Mizuta Satoshi
• Miyano Tomoaki
• Sato Kiyokazu
• Kihara Akio
• Kazama Shun

Classifications

• H04R2440/07

  Loudspeakers using bending wave resonance and pistonic motion to generate sound · CPC title

• H03G5/165 Primary

  Equalizers; Volume or gain control in limited frequency bands · CPC title

• H04R1/46

  Special adaptations for use as contact microphones, e.g. on musical instrument, on stethoscope (throat mountings H04R1/14) · CPC title

• H04R17/02

  Microphones · CPC title

• H04R2440/05

  Aspects relating to the positioning and way or means of mounting of exciters to resonant bending wave panels · CPC title