JPH05336599A - Sound image localization headphone device and virtual reality audio-visual equipment using it - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the headphone so that the user can localize sound images. CONSTITUTION:Plural speakers 1-9 to be independently driven are provided in respective left and right headphones 10L and 10R so that sound images can be localized. Further, a means to successively detect the position/direction of the sound image static headphone device and a means to further supply driving signals to plural sound sources corresponding to the detected position/direction so as to apply real localized sound images to the user mounting the headphone device can be provided while being combined to the virtual reality audio-visual equipment as well. Otherwise, the plural microphones are respectively provided outside one headphone, plural speakers are provided at positions respectively corresponding to the microphones inside the headphone, and plural driving circuits are provided to amplify the electric signals of sounds received by the respective microphones and to drive the respective sound generating sources corresponding to those electric signals.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a headphone device, and more particularly to a headphone device in which a plurality of speakers that are driven independently of each other are provided in the headphone device to allow a user to perceive the localization of a sound image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional headphone device, one speaker is provided for each of the right and left headphones, and left and right audio signals are pre-processed in accordance with the distance and direction from the front, right, left, and left sound sources, that is, the amplitude and phase are changed. The headphone device user (hereinafter referred to as a human being) perceives the localization of the sound image by driving the headphones on the left and right by driving the headphone device.

Details of the signal processing will be described. In recent years, there has been a demand for enabling a human-computer interaction such as a man-machine interface, and an intuitive interaction method using the five senses of a human has been developed by a technique such as artificial reality or virtual reality. Came. However, most of the dialogs that have been developed so far are visual methods, and few use auditory senses.

Considering the recognition of human reality, the information from the eyes must be the most important, but the effective reality cannot be obtained only by the eyes. This is because human beings recognize the sense of reality with all five senses of information.

Considering a personal interactive device in the future, an audio device capable of localizing a sound image is required. By using this device, the direction of the sound and the surrounding environment can be realistically given to the human, and the sense of reality is improved. For example, by using a head-mounted stereoscopic device called a head-mounted display (HMD) as a visual device and an audio device capable of headphone-type sound image localization as a visual device, a virtual world that changes in real time (landscape simulation) , CAD / CAM
Etc.) can be intuitively operated by experiencing computer graphics (CG) and computer sound (CS).

Further, there has been proposed a method in which a headphone device is provided with a device for detecting the direction so that even if a person changes the direction, a signal input to the left and right headphones is processed based on the detected direction. ..

[0007]

In the conventional artificial hearing device described above, since ordinary stereo headphones are used, that is, the sound from one speaker is transmitted to each of the left and right ears, the head of the head is transmitted. Acoustic transfer characteristics (skeleton,
It is not possible to always reproduce the correct reality due to the influence of individual differences in the shape of ears, hair, etc. Further, for example, the sound in the front is localized in the head, and the sound in the rear is localized upward, which poses a problem that it is difficult to localize the sound image from any direction.

An object of the present invention is to provide a headphone device which can reliably localize a sound image in the above situation.

[0009]

In the first headphone device of the present invention, a plurality of sound sources (speakers) that are independently driven are provided in the left and right headphones, respectively. Furthermore, in the second and third headphone devices of the present invention, the position and / or
Alternatively, a drive for supplying drive signals to the plurality of sound sources is provided so as to provide a means for detecting directions one by one and further provide a person wearing the headphone device with a real sound image localization according to the detected position and / or direction. The circuit is the first
Installed in the headphone device. Further, in the fourth headphone device of the present invention, a plurality of microphones are provided outside the left and right headphones, respectively, and a plurality of speakers corresponding to the microphones are provided inside the headphones. A plurality of amplifiers for amplifying the electric signal of the sound received by each of the speakers and driving the corresponding speaker.

[0010]

That is, in the present invention, the sound from the front of the human being is input to the ear from the speaker on the front side in each headphone, and the sound from the rear of the human is similarly output from the speaker on the rear side in each headphone. Input to that ear. The same applies to the other upper, lower, left and right sides. Therefore, the sounds from the front, back, top, bottom, left, and right can be heard by each ear from the front, back, top, bottom, left, and right, and the human can perceive the localization of the sound image without being affected by the individual difference in the acoustic transfer characteristics of the head. ..

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 1A, L and R indicate left and right headphones, respectively, which form one set of headphones 10. FIG. 1 (b) shows a view of one of the headphones as seen from the inside, and a plurality of, for example, 13 small speakers are attached. Numbers 1-5 and 6, 7,
Reference numerals 3, 8, and 9 respectively represent five speakers arranged in the central upper and lower rows and five speakers arranged in the central lateral row. Figure 1
(c) shows a vertical sectional view of FIG. 1 (b). As shown in these figures, the speakers are arranged so as to surround their ears from above, below, left and right, and are spaced apart from each other so as not to directly contact the ears. The plurality of drive circuits 11 connected to each speaker are independent of each other, and independent signals are input from the outside.

The operation of the pair of headphones 10 will be described with reference to FIG. Figure 5 (a)
In FIG. 1, the direct sound shown by the arrow from the front is reproduced as a signal delayed by the arrival time on both the left and right sides from the speaker 6 on the front side as shown by the arrow. Figure 5 (b)
The sound from the front is reflected by hitting the wall on the right side as shown by the arrow, and the first-order reflected sound is delayed by the arrival time and is reproduced from the speaker 7 on the right front side as shown by the arrow as a signal attenuated by the amount absorbed by the wall. Indicates that In Fig. 5 (c), the sound from the front indicated by the arrow hits the right and rear walls and is reflected
It is shown that the next reflected sound is delayed by the arrival time, attenuated by the amount absorbed by the wall, and reproduced from the right speakers 3 and 8 as indicated by arrows. The sound source and the wall do not actually exist but are virtually synthesized by the electronic computer 12.
The drive signal is input to each drive circuit 11 after the monaural sound signal input thereto is processed by the electronic computer 12 as described above.

A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, a position / direction detector 13 is further attached to the pair of headphones 10. The position / direction detector 13 receives radio waves from a plurality of radio wave sources provided outside, for example, and receives the spatial position information component (x, y, z) of the detector 13 and the spatial direction information component. (Yaw, pitch,
roll) to detect a total of 6 pieces of information. This can utilize what has been conventionally used for creating the virtual reality visual signal of the above-mentioned head mounted display (HMD). Based on the above information obtained from the detector 13, the electronic computer 12
The virtual visual signal is sent to the head mount display 14,
The corresponding sound signal is output to the drive circuit 11. Therefore, this set of headphones 10 'and HMD14
By additionally providing, the human can simultaneously perceive the virtual reality that changes following the movement of the head, both visually and acoustically. As a result, when the person shakes his / her head while listening to the sound from a certain point in the real space with his eyes closed, the resolution of the sound source position is higher than that when he / she does not shake it. You can perceive the feeling better.

In the above description, the position / direction detector 13 detects the position and the direction, but it may detect only one of the position and the direction as required.

A third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4 (a) shows a pair of headphones 10 'composed of left and right headphones L'and R', and FIG. 4 (b) is shown in FIG. 1 (c).
The longitudinal sectional view corresponding to is shown. The left and right headphones L'and R'are provided with the same number of microphones 1 "to 5" as the speakers outside the speakers 1 to 5 of FIG. 1 (c). The received sound of each microphone 1 "to 5" is amplified by each driving circuit 1'to 5 ',
Each speaker 1-5 is driven.

The headphone user can amplify and listen to the real sound without losing its directivity (sound image) as in the case of not using the headphone. In other words,
It operates as a hearing aid that does not lose the localization of the sound image.

In addition, a microphone 1 "is placed at another unmanned point.
By arranging a plurality of microphones having the same shape as that of ˜5 ″, the position / direction detector 13 provided there and a video camera (not shown) are operated by remote control so that the same movement as a human head is made. If the received sound is reproduced by the headphone set 10 on this side, it is possible to provide a manipulator (magic hand) having a sense of direction and an audiovisual sense and a higher sense of reality.

In the description of the third embodiment, the drive circuit 1'-
Although it has been described that 5'is provided inside the headphones, the gist of the present invention is not lost even if these drive circuits 1'-5 'are provided outside the headphones. In addition, drive circuit 1'-
5'may be processed not only by amplification but also by sound.
These sound signals may be recorded simultaneously.

[0019]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the headphone device of the present invention, it is possible to provide a headphone which can easily and surely localize a sound image with a simple structure. Further, although humans have different ears, the sound image localization has individual differences. Therefore, according to the headphone device of the present invention, individual differences in ears are maintained without crushing the ears having individual differences. It is possible to provide headphones that can localize the sound image as it is. Furthermore, by using it together with the head mounted display, it becomes possible to provide a virtual reality audiovisual device with a higher sense of reality.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing headphones according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a first exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a second exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing headphones according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the first embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1-9 are speakers, 1'-5 'are drive circuits, 1 "-5"
Is a microphone, 10 is a pair of headphones, 11 is a drive circuit, 12 is a computer, 13 is a position / direction detector, and 14 is
Is a head mounted display, L, L ', R, R'are left and right headphones.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of sound sources (1 to 9) driven independently of each other are provided to the left and right headphones (L, R), respectively.
A sound image localization headphone device, which is provided inside to enable sound image localization. 2. A means (13) for detecting the position and / or direction of the sound image localization headphone device one by one is provided, and further according to the detected position and / or direction,
2. The sound image localization headphone device according to claim 1, further comprising means (11, 12) for supplying drive signals to the plurality of sound sources so as to give an actual sound image localization to a person wearing the headphone device. 3. The sound image localization headphone device according to claim 2, a head-mounted stereoscopic device (14), and a virtual reality visual signal is output to the head-mounted stereoscopic device to output virtual reality to the headphone device. A virtual reality hearing / visual device, comprising: an electronic computer (12) for outputting an auditory signal. 4. A plurality of microphones (1 "to
5 ") is provided outside each of the headphones (L, R), and a plurality of sound sources (1 to 5) are provided inside the headphones at positions corresponding to the microphones. A sound image localization headphone device comprising: a plurality of drive circuits (1'-5 ') for amplifying an electric signal of a sound received by each and driving each corresponding sound generation source.