Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Koichiro Mizushima

Mitsuru Endo

Maki Yamada

Takeo Kanamori

Tsuyoki Nishikawa

Che-Ming Lin

Keiko Morii

Chia-Shin Yen

Mitsuru Engdo

A hearing aid, signal processing method and program enables TV sound to be made easier for a hearing aid user to hear when wishing to watch TV, and a person's voice to be made easier to hear when wishing to converse with that person. The hearing aid includes another-person's speech detection section that detects speech of a speaker other than the wearer using detected sound source direction information, an own-speech detection result, and a TV sound detection result, and a per-sound-source frequency calculation section that calculates the frequency of each sound source using an own-speech detection result, TV sound detection result, other-speaker's speech detection result, and sound source direction information. A scene determination section determines a scene using sound source direction information and a per-sound-source frequency; and an output sound control section controls hearing of the hearing aid according to a determined scene.

Hearing aid, signal processing method, and program

A conversation detection apparatus uses a head-mounted microphone array to accurately determine whether a speaker in front is a conversing person or not. A conversation detection apparatus () includes a self-speech detection section () that detects a speech of a wearer of a microphone array (), a front speech detection section () that detects a speech of a speaker in front of the microphone array wearer as a speech in front direction, a side speech detection section () that detects a speech of a speaker residing at at least one of right and left of the wearer as a side speech, a side direction conversation establishment degree deriving section () that calculates a conversation establishment degree between the speech of the wearer and the side speech, based on detection results of the speech of the wearer and the side speech, a front direction conversation detection section () that determines presence/absence of conversation in front direction based on a detection result of the front speech and a calculation result of the side direction conversation establishment degree, and an output sound control section () that controls directivity of speech heard by the hearing aid wearer, based on the determined presence/absence of conversation in front direction.

Conversation detection apparatus, hearing aid, and conversation detection method

A signal processing method includes separating a mixed sound signal in which a plurality of excitations are mixed into the respective excitations, and performing speech detection on the plurality of separated excitation signals, judging whether or not the plurality of excitation signals are speech and generating speech section information indicating speech/non-speech information for each excitation signal. The signal processing signal also includes at least one of calculating and analyzing an utterance overlap duration using the speech section information for combinations of the plurality of excitation signals and of calculating and analyzing a silence duration. The signal processing signal further includes calculating a degree of establishment of a conversation indicating the degree of establishment of a conversation based on the extracted utterance overlap duration or the silence duration.

Signal processing method

Disclosed is a hearing aid system capable of increasing the clearness of sound spoken by a speaker while reproducing the incoming direction of the sound spoken by the speaker without using an inverse mapping rule. The hearing aid system includes a sound source input section which receives sounds coming from sound sources as input to convert the input sounds to first acoustic signals, a sound source separating section which separates the first acoustic signals converted by the sound source input section into sound source signals corresponding to the sound sources, a binaural microphone which is disposed on left and right ears, and receives the sounds coming from the sound sources as input to convert the input sounds to second acoustic signals, a directional sense component calculating section which calculates directional sense components representing the directional sense of the sound sources with the binaural microphone as a base point from the left and right second acoustic signals converted by the binaural microphone, an output signal generating section which generates left and right output acoustic signals on the basis of the sound source signals and the directional sense components, and a binaural speaker which outputs the left and right output acoustic signals generated by the output signal generating section.

Hearing aid system

A recording medium is provided that records a separating step of separating a mixed sound signal in which a plurality of excitations are mixed into the respective excitations, and a step of performing speech detection on the plurality of separated excitation signals, judging whether or not the plurality of excitation signals are speech and generating speech section information indicating speech/non-speech information for each excitation signal. The recording medium also includes at least one of a step of calculating and analyzing an utterance overlap duration using the speech section information for combinations of the plurality of excitation signals and a step of calculating and analyzing a silence duration. The recording medium further includes a step of calculating a degree of establishment of a conversation indicating the degree of establishment of a conversation based on the extracted utterance overlap duration or the silence duration.

Recording medium

A signal processing apparatus and signal processing method capable of correctly detecting that a conversation is established even in a daily environment are provided. In signal processing apparatus (), excitation separation section () separates a mixed sound signal in which a plurality of excitations are mixed into the respective excitations. Speech detection section () performs speech detection on the plurality of separated excitation signals, judges whether or not the plurality of excitation signals are speech and generates speech section information indicating speech/non-speech information for each excitation signal. Identification parameter extraction section () extracts an identification parameter indicating a feature value of a daily conversation based on a plurality of excitation signals or speech section information. Conversation establishment degree calculation section () calculates and outputs a degree of establishment of a conversation based on the extracted identification parameter. Conversation partner identifying section () judges which excitation is a conversation partner using the degree of establishment of a conversation.

Signal processing apparatus and signal processing method

A hearing aid device includes a plurality of microphones which converts picked sound to audio signals, an inter-signal phase difference calculation unit which calculates a phase difference between a first audio signal and a second audio signal, a hand placement determination unit, a directivity sound pickup unit which generates an output signal, a nonlinear amplification unit which controls the signal level of the output signal acquired from the directivity sound pickup unit, and a hearing aid process control unit which, when the hand placement determination unit determines that a state where a phase difference is equal to or smaller than a first threshold value continues for a first time, controls the directivity sound pickup unit such that at least one of the sensitivity-frequency characteristic and the frequency characteristics of the audio signals becomes nondirective, and controls the nonlinear amplification unit to amplify the signal levels of the acquired audio signals.

Hearing aid device and hearing aid method

A multichannel echo canceller according to the present invention includes an echo cancellation section which receives loudspeaker input signals sp, spincluding a second acoustic signal to be respectively inputted to a plurality of loudspeakersprovided in a first location and detection signals m, mdetected by a plurality of microphonesprovided in the first location; separates a first acoustic signal and a second acoustic signal, which are included in the detection signals m, m, by performing signal processing based on an independent component analysis; cancels as an echo the second acoustic signal, which is included in the detection signals m, m, by outputting only the separated first acoustic signal to a plurality of loudspeakersprovided in a second location.

Multichannel echo canceller

A sound classification system for adding and correcting a sound type is disclosed. When the add/correct command processor receives a command to add or correct a sound type, the data in the first database is stored in the second database, and the type adding/correcting device adds the feature of the sound to the first database, and re-calculates the statistical values. Besides, the classifier re-classifies the sample sounds, and the precision calculator calculates a ratio of accurate classification. When the ratio is high, the type adding/correcting device stores, in the feature database, the feature of the sound for which a type is to be added or corrected. When the ratio is low, the second database restores the data back to the first database.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Koichiro Mizushima