Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America

Pansonic Corporation

Maki Yamada

Mitsuru Endo

Tomohiro Konuma

Kazuya Nomura

Koichiro Mizushima

Noriaki Horii

Kotaro Sakata

Shigenori Maeda

Shinichi Yoshizawa

Yoshihisa Nakatoh

Makoto Nishizaki

Masakatsu Hoshimi

Chizu Habukawa

Katsumi Murakami

Yukio Nagasaka

Taisuke Watanabe

Katsuyuki Niyada

Keiko Morii

Yasuhiro Terada

Mitsuru Engdo

A bioacoustic sound testing device includes a band power calculator that calculates a band power in a predetermined period for each of a plurality of predetermined frequency bands on the basis of a bioacoustic sound, a reference power calculator that calculates a respiratory airflow reflecting power on the basis of a band power of a band reflecting a respiratory airflow, calculates a specific change reflecting power on the basis of a band power of a band reflecting a specific change in a living body, and calculates a reference power on the basis of the respiratory airflow reflecting power and the specific change reflecting power, and an index value calculator that calculates at least one index value on the basis of the reference power and the band powers of the plurality of predetermined frequency bands.

Bioacoustic sound testing device and bioacoustic sound testing method

Disclosed is a respiratory phase determination apparatus enabling a respiratory phase determination robust to personal differences in respiration among subjects and fluctuations in respiration of subjects in person without any need for calibration. The apparatus includes a first period feature value extraction section that extracts a first period feature value representing a feature of a first breath sound in a respiratory period, a second period feature value extraction section that extracts a second period feature value representing a feature of a second breath sound in the respiratory period, a feature value relativization/combining section that relativizes the first and the second period feature values and calculates a combined feature value, and a respiratory phase determination section that compares combined feature values of two neighboring respiratory periods and determines whether the two respiratory periods are each an inspiratory phase or expiratory phase based on the comparison result and a predetermined datum.

Respiratory phase determination apparatus, respiratory phase determination method and respiratory phase determination program

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 speech processing device which can accurately extract a conversation group from among a plurality of speakers, even when a conversation group formed of three or more people is present. This device () comprises: a spontaneous speech detection unit () and a direction-specific speech detection unit () which separately detect, from a sound signal, uttered speech from the speakers; a conversation establishment level calculation unit () which calculates a conversation establishment level for each separated segment of the time being determined, for all of the pairings of two people, on the basis of the detected uttered speech; an extended-period characteristic amount calculation unit () which calculates an extended-period characteristic amount for the conversation establishment level of the time being determined, for each pairing; and a conversation-partner determination unit () which extracts a conversation group which forms a conversation on the basis of the calculated extended-period characteristic amount.

Speech processing device and speech processing method

A bioacoustic processing apparatus capable of outputting information that represents the current state of attachment of a bioacoustic sensor. The bioacoustic processing apparatus (), which processes acoustic signals from a bioacoustic sensor () attached to a body surface, comprises: a noise-extracting unit () for extracting the noise component contained in an acoustic signal from the acoustic signal, and a noise type classification unit () for classifying the extracted noise component into one of a plurality of noise types that correspond to different respective states of attachment of the bioacoustic sensor () and outputting information that corresponds to the results of said classification.

Bioacoustic processing apparatus and bioacoustic processing method

Provided is a lifestyle collecting apparatus that collects information for determining a lifestyle of a user, and includes: an object information detecting unit configured to detect object information representing an object around the user; a relevance degree calculating unit configured to calculate a relevance degree of the user to the object, using the object information; an appearance information extracting unit configured to extract appearance information from the object information, and add the relevance degree to the extracted appearance information, the appearance information representing an appearance of the object; and a lifestyle database which stores the appearance information to which the relevance degree has been added, as the information for determining the lifestyle of the user.

Lifestyle collecting apparatus, user interface device, and lifestyle collecting method

A physiological sound examination device which supports estimation of a state of a living body includes a first physiological sound measurement unit; a second physiological sound measurement unit; a power ratio calculation unit which calculates a power ratio which is a ratio of first physiological sound signal power to second physiological sound signal power; and an illness-related gain calculation unit which calculates a transfer-characteristic of the physiological sound in the living body by computing the power ratio. A power calculation unit which calculates first power which is the second physiological sound signal power in a first frequency band; and an illness-related high frequency power ratio calculation unit which calculates a sound-source-characteristic of the physiological sound by computing the first power. The computing is performed to reduce an influence of the respiratory flow velocity and/or the size of the living body.

Physiological sound examination device and physiological sound examination method

A sound processing apparatus, a sound processing method and a hearing aid efficiently emphasize the sound of an utterer regardless of the distance between microphones. The sound processing apparatus outputs a first directivity signal in which the main axis of directivity is formed in the direction of the utterer and outputs a second directivity signal in which the dead zone of directivity is formed in the direction of the utterer. The sound processing apparatus calculates the level of the first directivity signal and the level of the second directivity signal, and determines the distance to the utterer based on the level of the first directivity signal and the level of the second directivity signal. The sound processing apparatus derives a gain to be given to the first directivity signal according to the result of the determination and controls the level of the first directivity signal by using the gain.

Sound processing apparatus, sound processing method and hearing aid

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

A call other than a conversion partner call and various sounds are detected by input audio signals from plural microphones without deteriorating a voice recognition precision. A hearing aid apparatus according to the present invention corrects a frequency characteristic of the call voice other than the conversation partner voice based on an arrival direction of the call voice other than the conversation partner voice, which is estimated based on the audio signal converted by the plural microphones, checks a call word standard pattern representing features of a phoneme and a syllabic sound based on other voice data picked up by using the microphones having one characteristic against a call voice other than the conversation partner voice in which the frequency characteristic is corrected by the frequency characteristic correction processing unit to determine whether the call voice is a call word, and forms a directivity in the direction other than the arrival direction of the voice of the conversation partner. Then, the hearing aid apparatus according to the present invention corrects the frequency characteristic of the call voice other than the conversation partner voice so as to provide the same characteristic as that of the microphones at the time of creating the audio standard pattern.

Hearing aid apparatus

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

Provided is a viewing terminal apparatus that can present an appropriate result of statistics on viewing of a content for diversified viewing modes. The viewing terminal apparatus includes: a category determining unit that determines, as a viewer category, a relationship between viewers who are viewing a content displayed on a display; a transmitting unit that transmits, to the viewing statistics-gathering apparatus, first viewing status information indicating the content that is being viewed by the viewers and the viewer category determined by the category determining unit, the content being associated with the viewer category; and a viewing statistics presenting unit that obtains viewing statistics information from the viewing statistics-gathering apparatus, and presents a result of statistics that is (i) indicated by the obtained viewing statistics information and (ii) a result of statistics on viewing of a content only by viewers who belong to a predetermined viewer category.

Viewing terminal apparatus, viewing statistics-gathering apparatus, viewing statistics-processing system, and viewing statistics-processing method

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.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Maki Yamada