KR102532925B1 - system for measuring the audio quality through wireless earphone - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an audio quality measurement system for wireless earphones that can objectively derive performance indicators of various Bluetooth devices by efficiently measuring audio quality through wireless earphones such as Bluetooth earphones.
The audio quality measurement system of the wireless earphone of the present invention includes an empty sound box; An earphone installed in the sound box and connected to a smart terminal outside the sound box through a local area network; A sound processing board installed in the sound box and storing test sound source files necessary for measuring audio quality, and measuring or calculating the quality of the collected test audio files; It is installed in the sound box and includes a microphone that collects sound output from the smart terminal through the earphone and a speaker that is installed in the sound box and reproduces the test sound source file output from the sound processing board and converts it into sound waves.

Description

Audio quality measurement system of wireless earphone {system for measuring the audio quality through wireless earphone}

The present invention relates to an audio quality measurement system for wireless earphones, and more particularly, to an audio quality measurement system for wireless earphones capable of efficiently measuring audio quality through a wireless earphone such as a Bluetooth earphone.

As is well known, a smart phone combines the strengths of a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA). , web browsing, Internet shopping or banking. It has broadcasting services such as TV and radio viewing/listening, camera, camcorder, MP3 function, and walkie-talkie function, and it is possible to create documents such as word processors and Excel. You can also use the Wi-Fi function to make phone calls over the Internet using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). It is also called a 'multi-function complex terminal' in that it can perform the functions of various terminals in a complex manner. It has a standardized or dedicated operating system (OS) for accommodating various functions.

The biggest advantage is that users can install, add, or delete various applications (applications) as desired. Not only can you directly access the Internet using the wireless Internet, but you can access it in various ways using various browsing programs, you can create your own applications, and you can implement an interface suitable for you through various applications. Points and the fact that applications can be shared between smartphones with the same operating system (OS) are also cited as advantages that existing mobile phones do not have.

Recently released smartphones are basically equipped with a Wi-Fi module, a Bluetooth module, a GPS module, an acceleration sensor, and a gyro sensor. Smartphones are currently used in a position where they are not separated from the body as a necessity of the whole people. On the other hand, a tablet PC adopts a larger screen than a smart phone to improve readability and performs functions similar to those of a smart phone. When a tablet PC is equipped with a mobile communication modem chip, it is possible to make a voice call through a mobile communication network. Hereinafter, smart phones and tablet PCs are collectively referred to as 'smart terminals'.

On the other hand, recently released smart terminals are often not equipped with ear jacks to which wired earphones can be connected. In line with this, wireless earphones, typically a Bluetooth communication network, a type of local area network having a communication radius of about 10 m. The number of people who use Bluetooth earphones to make voice calls or listen to music is gradually increasing. Hereinafter, earphones, headsets, and headphones are collectively referred to as 'earphones'. In this way, as the use of Bluetooth earphones increases, Bluetooth users' complaints about audio, such as call voice and music quality, are steadily increasing. The need to derive is being raised.

However, in order to measure the audio quality of Bluetooth earphones in a conventional way, the tester must disassemble various Bluetooth earphones and connect the microphone and speaker to the sound processing board by wire. This requires a lot of time and effort, Above all, there is a problem that the audio quality measured in this way may be different from the perceived quality experienced by a real person.

On the other hand, the present applicant has developed various technologies necessary for efficiently measuring the quality of voice or video calls, including call delay, when using a mobile phone against the ear without earphones intervening, and filed a patent application as shown in the following prior art documents. there is.

Prior Art 1: Publication No. 10-2007-0095061 (Title of Invention: MOS Measuring Equipment Remote Control Method)

Prior art 2: Publication No. 10-2005-0116362 (title of invention: MOS measuring equipment remote control method)

Prior Art 3: Registered Patent Publication No. 10-1513415 (Title of Invention: Call Delay Time Measurement Method)

Prior Art 4: Registered Patent Publication No. 10-0727424 (Title of Invention: System for Measuring Service Quality of Wireless Internet Phone)

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and the audio quality measurement system of wireless earphones can objectively derive performance indicators of various Bluetooth devices by efficiently measuring the quality of audio through wireless earphones such as Bluetooth earphones. It is intended to provide

The audio quality measurement system of the wireless earphone of the present invention for achieving the above object is an empty sound box; An earphone installed in the sound box and connected to a smart terminal outside the sound box through a local area network; A sound processing board installed in the sound box and storing test sound source files necessary for measuring audio quality, and measuring or calculating the quality of the collected test audio files; It is installed in the sound box and includes a microphone that collects sound output from the smart terminal through the earphone and a speaker that is installed in the sound box and reproduces the test sound source file output from the sound processing board and converts it into sound waves.

The local area network is a Bluetooth communication network, and the earphone is a Bluetooth earphone.

A soundproofing material or a sound-absorbing material is installed on the inner wall of the sound box.

A cover that can be opened and closed by a hinge is provided on the front or upper surface of the sound box.

The sound processing board is connected to a smart terminal through a USB cable, and a connector or through hole through which a USB cable can be connected is formed in the sound box.

The Bluetooth earphone is inserted and fixed into the ear-shaped cradle.

The ear-shaped cradle is fixed in the air inside the sound box while being supported by a vertical support.

The microphone and speaker are suspended in the air inside the sound box while being supported by vertical supports.

The sound processing board decompresses the test sound source file composed of memory and digital audio data in which the test sound source file to be played through the speaker and the test audio file collected through the microphone is stored according to the coding format, and then outputs it through the speaker and uses the microphone. It includes an audio codec that compresses digital audio data that has been input through and digitized, and a CPU that controls it.

Audio quality is measured by Mean Opinion Score (MOS) after being processed with the Perceptual Speech Quality Measurement (PSQM), Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) or Perceptual Objective Listening Quality Assessment (POLQA) algorithms.

A tablet PC for controlling call connection and time synchronization between the two smart terminals is further provided.

An audio quality measuring system of a wireless earphone according to another feature of the present invention includes an empty sound box; An earphone installed in the sound box and connected to a smart terminal for measuring sound quality outside the sound box through a short-range wireless communication network; A sound processing board installed in the sound box and storing test sound source files necessary for measuring audio quality and measuring or calculating the quality of the collected test audio files; A microphone installed in the sound box and collecting sound output through an earphone from a smart terminal for measuring sound quality;

It is installed in the sound box and includes a speaker for reproducing and converting the test sound source file output from the sound processing board into sound waves, and a control smart terminal installed outside the sound box to control the operation of the sound processing board.

In the configuration described above, the local area network is a Bluetooth communication network, and the earphone is a Bluetooth earphone.

The sound processing board is connected to a smart terminal for control through a USB cable, and a connector or through hole through which a USB cable can be connected is formed in the sound box.

The sound processing board decompresses the test sound source file composed of memory and digital audio data in which the test sound source file to be played through the speaker and the test audio file collected through the microphone is stored according to the coding format, and then outputs it through the speaker and uses the microphone. It includes an audio codec that compresses digital audio data that has been input through and digitized, and a CPU that controls it.

Audio quality is measured by Mean Opinion Score (MOS) after being processed with the Perceptual Speech Quality Measurement (PSQM), Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) or Perceptual Objective Listening Quality Assessment (POLQA) algorithms.

A sound processing board connected to a smart terminal for measuring sound quality from the outside of the sound box is further provided.

A tablet PC for controlling call connection and time synchronization between the two smart terminals for measuring sound quality is further provided.

According to the audio quality measurement system of the wireless earphone of the present invention, it is possible to objectively derive performance indicators of various Bluetooth devices by efficiently evaluating the audio quality of the wireless earphone connected to a smart terminal, in particular, the Bluetooth earphone.

1 is a basic configuration diagram according to an embodiment of an audio quality measurement system of a wireless earphone of the present invention.
2 is an overall configuration diagram of a voice call quality measurement system adopting the configuration of FIG. 1;
Figure 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the system of Figure 2;
Figure 4 is a basic configuration diagram according to another embodiment of the audio quality measuring system of the wireless earphone of the present invention.
5 is an overall configuration diagram of a voice call quality measuring system adopting the configuration of FIG. 4;

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the audio quality measurement system of the wireless earphone of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a basic configuration diagram according to an embodiment of an audio quality measurement system for a wireless earphone of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the basic configuration of the audio quality measurement system of the wireless earphone of the present invention is a sound box 200 in which various configurations of the system described later are accommodated, and a smart terminal 100 and a wireless connection through a Bluetooth communication network. A Bluetooth earphone 410, a sound processing board 300 that stores test sound source files necessary for measuring audio quality and measures or calculates the quality of the collected test audio files, and a Bluetooth earphone 410 from the smart terminal 100. It may include a microphone 500 that collects output sound and a speaker 600 that reproduces the test sound source file output from the sound processing board 300 and converts it into sound waves.

In the above-described configuration, a sound insulating material or a sound absorbing material having low reflectivity is installed on the inner wall of the sound box 200 to prevent the sound output from the Bluetooth earphone 410 or the speaker 600 from being reflected from the inner wall of the sound box 200. it is desirable

The sound box 200 may also be provided with a cover (not shown) that can be opened and closed on the front or top surface, preferably in the form of a cover that can be opened and closed by a hinge. The sound processing board 300 inside the sound box 200 may be connected to the smart terminal 100 through wired/wireless communication such as USB or Wi-Fi, preferably a USB cable, and for this purpose, the sound box 200 A connector or a hole through which a USB cable can be connected is formed at an appropriate place, for example, on a bottom or side wall.

The Bluetooth earphone 410 includes a speaker and a microphone, and is inserted and fixed into an ear-shaped holder 400 similar to the actual human body use environment, preferably a silicone material and an open front ear-shaped holder 400. This ear-shaped holder 400 may be fixed in the air inside the sound box 200 by a vertical support (not shown).

The sound processing board 300 includes a memory 320 storing a test sound source file to be reproduced through the speaker 600 and a test audio file collected through the microphone 500, for example, a wave file, and digital audio data. Audio codec ( 330) and a CPU 310 controlling them. In addition, the sound processing board 300 may collect and store various DM (Diagnostic Monitoring) log data including RF environment data generated during a voice call from the smart terminal 100 .

The microphone 500 and the speaker 600 may be wired or wirelessly connected to the audio codec 330, and like the Bluetooth earphone 410, they are also Bluetooth earphones inside the sound box 200 by a vertical support (not shown). It is preferably fixed at the same height as (410).

The CPU 310 of the sound processing board 300 sequentially passes through the Bluetooth earphone 410, the microphone 500, and the audio codec 330 to transfer the collected test audio files to a sound quality measurement algorithm, for example, Perceptual Speech Quality (PSQM). Measurement), Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ), or Perceptual Objective Listening Quality Assessment (POLQA) algorithm to calculate Mean Opinion Score (MOS), that is, measure audio quality.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of a voice call quality measurement system adopting the configuration of FIG. 1, and the same reference numerals are given to the same components as those shown in FIG. 1, and detailed descriptions thereof are omitted. As shown in FIG. 2, the voice call quality measurement system of the wireless earphone of the present invention is provided with two sets of configurations shown in FIG. Tablet PC or notebook PC (hereinafter collectively referred to as It is referred to as a 'tablet PC') 700 is provided. The two smart terminals 100 and the tablet PC 700 may be connected through a wired/wireless communication network, preferably a Wi-Fi communication network.

According to the above configuration, during a voice call between the two smart terminals 100 through the mobile communication network, audio quality measurement in a section (section 1) between the smart terminal 100 on one side and the Bluetooth earphone 410 connected thereto, and the smart terminal 100 on one side, Audio quality measurement in the section (section 2) between the Bluetooth earphone 410 connected to the terminal 100 and the other smart terminal 100 and the audio quality in the section (section 3) between the Bluetooth earphones 410 connected to the smart terminals 100 on both sides All quality measurements can be performed.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the system of FIG. 2 . As shown in FIG. 3, when a call is connected through a mobile communication network between two smart terminals 100 under the control of the tablet PC 700, one smart terminal 100 is connected to the sound processing board 300 is instructed to reproduce the test sound source file (step S10), and accordingly, the audio codec 330 of the sound processing board 300 outputs a test sound through the speaker 600 (step S20).

Next, the test sound output in this way is transmitted to the Bluetooth earphone 410 in the inner space of the sound box 200 (step S30) and then wirelessly input to the smart terminal 100 (step S40), the smart terminal 100 Afterwards, the input packet (step S100) is converted into an audio file, for example, a wave file (step S110), and the MOS is calculated by processing it with the above-described sound quality measurement algorithm (step S120).

On the other hand, the test sound input to the smart terminal 100 on one side is transmitted to the smart terminal 100 on the other side via the mobile communication network (step S200), and then, inside the sound box 200 on the other side, the Bluetooth earphone 410 wirelessly connected therewith is transmitted. is output through (step S210).

Next, the test sound thus output is input through the microphone 500 inside the other party's sound box 200 (step S220) and then stored in the sound processing board 300 (step S230), and the sound processing board 300 processes it with a sound quality measurement algorithm to calculate MOS (step S240).

Of course, as described above, in order to measure the audio quality of the section (2 sections) between the Bluetooth earphone 410 connected to the one side smart device 100 and the other side smart device 100, the test sound collected from the other side smart device 100 MOS calculations can be performed.

4 is a basic configuration diagram of a voice quality measurement system for a wireless earphone according to another embodiment of the present invention, and the same reference numerals are given to the same parts as those in FIG. 1, and detailed descriptions thereof are omitted. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an overall voice call quality system adopting the configuration of FIG. 4 .

While the embodiments of FIGS. 1 and 2 cannot measure audio quality according to the distance between the smart terminal 100 and the Bluetooth earphone 410, according to the embodiments of FIGS. 4 and 5, the smart terminal 150 and the Bluetooth earphone ( 410), there is an advantage in that audio quality can be measured while moving the smart terminal 150 by 50 cm from the sound box 200, for example.

To this end, in the configuration of FIGS. 4 and 5, the sound processing board 350 is directly connected to the one side smart terminal 150 located outside the sound box 200, for example, by connecting through a USB cable to the other smart terminal 100 MOS can be calculated by processing test sound source packets wirelessly collected in one side smart terminal 150 through the Bluetooth earphone 410 during a voice call with a sound quality measurement algorithm. Of course, without such a sound processing board 350, the sound source packet of the test sound wirelessly collected in the one side smart terminal 150 through the Bluetooth earphone 410 is processed by the sound quality measurement algorithm mounted on the one side smart terminal 150 to obtain MOS could also be calculated.

In this case, the smart terminal 100 wired to the sound processing board 300 inside the sound box 200 connected to the one side smart terminal 150 through Bluetooth communication directly controls the sound processing board 300, for example For example, it represents a smart terminal for instructing the sound processing board 300 to reproduce test sounds or calculate MOS.

In the above, the preferred embodiment of the audio quality measurement system of the wireless earphone of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but this is only an example, and various modifications and changes will be possible within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention will be determined by the description of the claims below.

For example, in this specification, singular forms also include plural forms unless specifically stated otherwise in a phrase. As used herein, “comprising” and/or “comprising” does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other components, steps, operations and/or elements in which the stated components, steps, operations and/or elements are present. .

As used herein, "embodiments" and the like are not to be construed as indicating that any aspect or design described is preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs.

Also, the term 'or' means an inclusive OR rather than an exclusive OR.

Also, the singular expressions used in this specification and claims should generally be construed to mean “one or more,” unless indicated otherwise or clear from context to refer to the singular form.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used in this specification may be used in a meaning commonly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs. In addition, terms defined in commonly used dictionaries are not interpreted ideally or excessively unless explicitly specifically defined.

Meanwhile, in describing the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description will be omitted.

100, 150: smart terminal, 200: sound box,
300, 350: sound processing board, 310: CPU,
320: memory, 330: audio codec,
400: earphone holder, 410: Bluetooth earphone,
500: microphone, 600: speaker,
700: Tablet PC

Claims (18)

an acoustic box whose interior is hollow;
A Bluetooth earphone installed in the sound box and integrally equipped with an earphone microphone and an earphone speaker for Bluetooth communication with an external smart terminal;
A microphone installed in the sound box and collecting sound output from an external smart terminal through the earphone speaker;
A sound processing board installed in the sound box, connected to an external smart terminal via a USB cable, storing and outputting a test sound source file necessary for measuring audio quality, and measuring or calculating the quality of the test sound source file collected through a microphone;
A speaker installed in the sound box and configured separately from the microphone to play the test sound source file output from the sound processing board and convert it into sound waves;
A test set for measuring sound quality having the external smart terminal that controls the sound processing board to output a test sound source file, receives the test sound source file collected by the earphone microphone from the speaker through Bluetooth communication, and measures or calculates the quality. Audio quality measurement system of a wireless earphone made of including. delete The method of claim 1,
two test sets for measuring the sound quality and
A system for measuring audio quality of a wireless earphone including a tablet PC that simultaneously controls two external smart terminals to automatically connect a call between the two external smart terminals and maintain synchronization of call time. The method of claim 3,
The tablet PC is connected to the two external smart terminals through a wired/wireless communication network, and receives and displays MOS (Mean Opinion Score) calculation results or RF information during a voice call from the external smart terminals. Audio quality measurement system. delete delete delete delete delete delete delete A sound box, a Bluetooth earphone installed in the sound box and integrally equipped with an earphone microphone and an earphone speaker for Bluetooth communication with a smart terminal for measuring sound quality outside the sound box, installed in the sound box, and the earphone speaker from a smart terminal for measuring sound quality outside the sound box A microphone that collects the sound output through the microphone, a sound processing board that is installed in the sound box and stores and outputs the test sound source file necessary for measuring audio quality, measures or calculates the quality of the test audio file collected through the microphone, and the sound box It is installed inside the speaker and configured separately from the microphone to play the test sound source file output from the sound processing board and convert it into sound waves, and the earphone microphone receives the test sound source file collected from the speaker through Bluetooth communication and measures or calculates the quality. A test set for measuring sound quality having the external smart terminal for measuring sound quality and
An audio quality measurement system for wireless earphones including a control smart terminal installed outside the sound box and connected to the sound processing board through a USB cable to control the operation of the sound processing board to output a test sound source file. delete The method of claim 12,
two test sets for measuring the sound quality and
An audio quality measurement system for wireless earphones including a tablet PC that simultaneously controls the two external smart terminals for measuring sound quality and maintains synchronization of automatic call connection and call time between the two external smart terminals for measuring sound quality . The method of claim 14,
The tablet PC is connected to the two external smart terminals through a wired/wireless communication network, and receives and displays MOS (Mean Opinion Score) calculation results or various RF information during voice calls from the external smart terminals. audio quality measurement system. delete delete delete

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