This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-254910, filed Nov. 22, 2011, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Embodiments described herein relate generally to a sound collector and an electronic apparatus having the sound collector.
Conventionally, a cellular phone, a portable information terminal, or the like includes a microphone for inputting voice. In recent years, some personal computers, TV receiver sets (to be sometimes referred to as a TV set hereinafter), and the like can also be equipped with a microphone for bidirectional voice communication.
For a cellular phone and the like, various kinds of contrivances or proposals have been made to improve sound collection to guide a voice to a microphone or prevent howling because of the structural limitations. On the other hand, in a TV set and the like, as the display panel to reproduce a video has become thinner, the main body, and in particular, a frame called a bezel that holds the display panel is also becoming thinner (bezel narrowing). The TV set includes a loudspeaker for outputting a reproduced sound. The loudspeaker has higher power as compared to that of a cellular phone or the like. For this reason, when a microphone is attached to the TV set, the influence on howling is large.
An electronic apparatus such as a flat-screen TV set has only a limited space to physically arrange a microphone. In addition, the neighborhood of the loudspeaker is not appropriate as the place to arrange the microphone. Hence, in an electronic apparatus such as a flat-screen TV set, it is difficult to arrange a microphone in a space with a large sound collection effect and stably guide a voice to the microphone.
A general architecture that implements the various features of the embodiments will now be described with reference to the drawings. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate the embodiments and not to limit the scope of the invention.
Various embodiments will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In general, according to one embodiment, a sound collector includes a housing and a microphone holding member. The housing includes an opening portion. The opening portion is configured to receive a sound wave having a path. The housing is configured to be tightly closed except the opening portion. The microphone holding member is configured to be provided in the housing and hold a microphone that receives the sound wave propagating through the path at a predetermined position.
As shown in
The sound collector 10 according to this embodiment is attached on the upper side of the bezel 23. The sound collector 10 has, as its main body, a housing (case) that is tightly closed except an opening portion 11. The opening portion 11 has a slit shape and is designed to, for example, face the front surface side of the TV set 20 when the housing is attached on the upper side of the bezel 23.
As shown in
As shown in
In the sound collector 10, the microphone holding member 13 is arranged on the rear surface side of the display panel 21 (in the direction of the depth of the main body 22) while the opening portion 11 is arranged on the front surface side of the TV set 20. The microphone holding member 13 holds the microphone 15 such that the nondirectional microphone 15 is arranged on the same plane as that of the voice path 12, that is, in parallel to the depth direction. The length of the path 12, that is, the distance from the opening portion 11 to the microphone 15 is, for example, about 3 cm. The distance is designed based on acoustic characteristics such as the quality of a sound to be input to the microphone 15.
In the sound collector 10 of this embodiment, for example, the voice of the user who is viewing a video reproduced on the display panel 21 is introduced from the opening portion 11 of the housing. As shown in
The sound collector 10 according to this embodiment can cut off sounds (containing noise) from around the TV set 20 except the side of the display panel 21 to some extent because the housing is tightly closed except the opening portion 11. The microphone 15 is arranged inside the housing on the back side of the display panel 21. For this reason, the microphone 15 can suppress input of sounds other than the voice from the opening portion 11.
In addition, since the TV set 20 includes the loudspeaker 25 and the woofer 26, sounds generated by them cause howling with the voice input to the microphone 15 at a high probability. The sound collector 10 according to this embodiment is arranged on the upper side of the display panel 21 and can therefore ensure the distance from the loudspeaker 25 and the woofer 26. In general, a sound has a characteristic of attenuating in proportion to the square of the distance.
When the opening portion 11 of the sound collector 10 is directed not in the direction of the sound source such as the loudspeaker 25 or the woofer 26 but to the front surface side of the TV set 20, the influence of echoes from the sound sources can be suppressed. That is, the sound collector 10 can collect sounds at a high acoustic characteristic (signal-to-echo ratio [SER]) even if there are sound sources such as the loudspeaker 25 and the woofer 26.
Hence, the sound collector 10 according to this embodiment can implement an effective sound collection function and stable voice input to the microphone 15. Especially, for the TV set 20 that implements the thinner bezel 23 (narrower bezel) as the main body 22 becomes thinner, it is difficult to mount the microphone 15 inside the bezel 23. In the sound collector 10 of this embodiment, the microphone 15 can be attached to the bezel 23 as a kind of detachable adapter without being incorporated in the bezel 23.
In the mainstream design of the flat-screen TV set 20, the loudspeaker 25 and the like are arranged at the lower portion of the display panel 21 with priority on the appearance. Since the influence of a reproduced sound from the loudspeaker 25 is large, and howling occurs, arranging the microphone 15 at the lower portion of the display panel 21 is not preferable from the viewpoint of the acoustic characteristics. In addition, the lower side of the main body 22 is not preferable as the place to arrange the microphone 15 because the sound collection effect deteriorates due to obstacles. The sound collector 10 according to this embodiment can ensure the space to arrange the microphone 15 with an excellent sound collection effect even in the flat-screen TV set 20 having only a limited space to mount the microphone 15.
The sound collector 10 of this embodiment has a structure to incorporate a plurality of microphones. As shown in
The sound collector 10 incorporating a plurality of microphones can also implement an effective sound collection function and stable voice input to a plurality of microphones 15. In addition, the sound collector 10 can be attached to a bezel 23 of the flat-screen TV set 20 as a kind of detachable adapter without incorporating the microphone 15 in the bezel 23.
As shown in
In the sound collector 10 according to this embodiment, voice (sound wave) introduced from the opening portion 11 propagates through the path 12 in the horizontal direction and then the path 12 in the vertical direction and is input to the microphone 15 held by the microphone holding member 13. The voice of the user is converted into a voice signal by the microphone 15 and sent to the voice processing module and the like in the TV set 20.
The sound collector 10 according to this embodiment can also cut off sounds (containing noise) from around the TV set 20 to some extent because the housing is tightly closed except the opening portion 11, as described above. In addition, the sound collector 10 is arranged on the upper side of the display panel 21 and can therefore ensure the distance from a loudspeaker 25 and a woofer 26 of the TV set 20.
When the opening portion 11 is directed not in the direction of the sound source such as the loudspeaker 25 or the woofer 26 but to the front surface side of the TV set 20, the influence of echoes from the sound sources can be suppressed. Hence, the sound collector 10 according to this embodiment can implement an effective sound collection function and stable voice input to the microphone 15.
As shown in
In the sound collector 10 according to this embodiment, voice (sound wave) 100 introduced from the opening portion 11 propagates through the path 12 in the horizontal direction and then through the path 12 in the vertical direction and is input to a microphone 15 held by the microphone holding member 13. The voice of the user is converted into a voice signal by the microphone 15 and sent to the voice processing module and the like in the TV set 20.
The sound collector 10 according to this embodiment can also cut off sounds (containing noise) from around the TV set 20 except on the side of the display panel 21 to some extent because the housing is tightly closed except the opening portion 11, as described above. In addition, since the microphone 15 is arranged on the lower side of the display panel 21 with respect to the opening portion 11, the influence of echoes from the sound sources such as a loudspeaker 25 and a woofer 26 can effectively be suppressed. Hence, the sound collector 10 according to this embodiment can implement an effective sound collection function and stable voice input to the microphone 15.
As shown in
In the sound collector 10 according to this embodiment, the voice (sound wave) 100 of the user on the front surface side of the display panel 21 is reflected between the inclined surface of the enclosure 80 and the back surface of the display panel 21 and input to the microphone 15 held by the enclosure 80, as shown in
In the sound collector 10 according to this embodiment, the voice 100 propagating from the front surface side of the display panel 21 is input to the microphone 15 while being reflected between the inclined surface of the enclosure 80 and the back surface of the display panel 21. For this reason, the voice 100 is amplified by reflection and then input to the microphone 15. Hence, the sound collector 10 can collect the voice on the front surface side of the display panel 21 at a high signal characteristic (signal-to-noise ratio [SNR]).
On the other hand, the microphone 15 is covered with the enclosure 80 so that the voice is input from the opening portion 81 on the back surface side of the display panel 21. This allows to suppress the influence of echoes from the sound sources such as a loudspeaker 25 and a woofer 26 of the TV set 20. Hence, the sound collector 10 according to this embodiment can implement an effective sound collection function and stable voice input to the microphone 15.
As shown in
In the sound collector 10 according to this embodiment, voice (sound wave) introduced from the opening portion 11 propagates through a path 12 in the horizontal direction and is input to the microphone 15 held by the microphone holding member 13. In this case, the voice readily propagates because the inclined surface 210 of the display panel 21 tilts in the direction of the depth. In addition, since the microphone 15 is arranged upward at a predetermined angle, the voice introduced from the opening portion 11 can easily be input. Hence, the sound collector 10 can easily collect the voice on the front surface side of the display panel 21.
On the other hand, since the opening portion 11 of the sound collector 10 is directed to the front surface side of the display panel 21, the influence of echoes from the sound sources such as a loudspeaker 25 and a woofer 26 can be suppressed. That is, the sound collector 10 can effectively collect the voice of the user on the front surface side of the display panel 21 even if there are sound sources such as the loudspeaker 25 and the woofer 26.
As shown in
In the sound collector 10 of this embodiment, for example, the voice of the user who is viewing a video reproduced on a display panel 21 enters the housing via the opening portion 11 and the path 12 formed in the bezel 23. The voice that has propagated to the housing is input to the microphone 15 held by the microphone holding member 13. The voice of the user is converted into a voice signal by the microphone 15 and sent to the voice processing module and the like on a board 24 included in a main body 22 of the TV set 20.
The sound collector 10 according to this embodiment can also cut off sounds (containing noise) from around the TV set 20 and effectively suppress the influence of echoes from the sound sources such as a loudspeaker 25 and a woofer 26 because the housing is tightly closed except the opening portion 11 formed in the bezel 23, as described above. Hence, the sound collector 10 according to this embodiment can implement an effective sound collection function and stable voice input to the microphone 15.
Additionally, in this embodiment, since the opening portion 11 and the path 12 are formed in the bezel 23, the sound collector 10 can be attached as a kind of detachable adapter without incorporating the microphone 15 in the bezel 23. Hence, it is possible to make the bezel 23 thinner (narrower) and also arrange the sound collector 10 on the back surface side of the display panel 21. This allows to design the flat-screen TV set 20 with priority on the appearance.
As shown in
The back cabinet 22B serves as the main body member that constructs the back surface side of the main body, as shown in
In the sound collector 10 of this embodiment, for example, the voice of the user who is viewing a video reproduced on the display panel 21 is introduced from the slits 31 formed in the back cabinet 22B. The introduced voice propagates through the path 12 and is input to the microphone held by the microphone holding member 13. The voice of the user is converted into a voice signal by the microphone and sent to the voice processing module and the like included in the main body of the TV set 20.
The sound collector 10 according to this embodiment is tightly closed by the back cabinet 22B of the TV set 20 except the slits 31. It is therefore possible to cut off sounds (containing noise) from around the TV set 20 and effectively suppress the influence of echoes from the sound sources such as a loudspeaker 25 and a woofer 26. Hence, the sound collector 10 according to this embodiment can implement an effective sound collection function and stable voice input to the microphone.
As shown in
The sound collector 10 according to this embodiment is also tightly closed by the back cabinet 22B of the TV set 20 except the slits 31. It is therefore possible to cut off sounds (containing noise) from around the TV set 20 and effectively suppress the influence of echoes from the sound sources such as a loudspeaker 25 and a woofer 26. Hence, the sound collector 10 according to this embodiment can implement an effective sound collection function and stable voice input to the microphone. Especially, in this embodiment, since the slits 31 are directed to the front surface side of the display panel 21, for example, the voice of the user who is viewing a video reproduced on the display panel 21 can effectively be introduced.
As described above, the sound collector 10 according to each embodiment can be used as a kind of adapter detachable from the bezel or the back cabinet of the TV set 20. In a microphone built-in type TV set having the sound collection microphone incorporated in the bezel, the bezel and the display panel 21 are often integrated. Hence, the production process is complex, the production cost is expected to be relatively high. However, the sound collector 10 according to each embodiment enables to attach the microphone to a TV set without a built-in microphone. As a result, a TV set having a sound collection function can be provided at a relatively low production cost. That is, it is possible to implement an effective sound collection function and stable voice input to the microphone even in an electronic apparatus having only a limited space to arrange the microphone.
In the embodiments, the electronic apparatus to which the sound collector 10 is attached is assumed to be a TV set. However, the electronic apparatus is not limited to this, and the sound collector is also applicable to a personal computer or the like. The sound collector is also applicable to any other apparatus such as an air conditioner if it is operated by voice.
The various modules of the systems described herein can be implemented as software applications, hardware and/or software modules, or components on one or more computers, such as servers. While the various modules are illustrated separately, they may share some or all of the same underlying logic or code. While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2011-254910 | Nov 2011 | JP | national |