The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 01, 2026
Filed:
Aug. 06, 2021
Ntt, Inc., Tokyo, JP;
NTT, Inc., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A masking technology is provided for curbing discomfort at the time of a change in a masking sound by presenting a video corresponding to the masking sound at the time of the change in the masking sound. A masking device includes: a spoken voice volume evaluation unit configured to generate an evaluation value for a volume of a spoken voice (hereinafter referred to as a spoken voice volume evaluation value) from a spoken voice signal by using, as the spoken voice signal, a sound collection signal output by a microphone installed for collecting the spoken voice which is a voice of a speaking person; a masking sound signal generation unit configured to generate a signal for emitting a masking sound from a speaker (hereinafter referred to as a masking sound signal) corresponding to the spoken voice volume evaluation value, the masking sound preventing the spoken voice from being heard by surrounding persons other than the speaking person; and a masking video signal generation unit configured to generate a signal for presenting a video corresponding to the masking sound (hereinafter referred to as a masking video signal) from a video presentation device.