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:
Jul. 14, 2015
Filed:
Jun. 24, 2011
Mitsuru Endo, Tokyo, JP;
Maki Yamada, Kanagawa, JP;
Koichiro Mizushima, Kanagawa, JP;
Abstract
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.