Intercom system

Abstract

Even when speaking voice commands while on a call with a visitor, it reduces the likelihood of the visitor feeling uncomfortable, and voice commands can be used to perform operations without the visitor hearing them. [Solution] The living room unit 3 is equipped with a voice decoding unit 40 that decodes voice, enabling voice operation. The living room unit 3 has a buffer circuit 38 that delays the transmitted voice for a certain period of time and an attenuation circuit 39 that silences the transmitted voice. When a communication path is formed between the entrance unit 2 and the living room unit 3, the transmitted voice transmitted from the living room unit 3 to the entrance unit 2 is delayed for a certain period of time before being transmitted. When the voice decoding unit 40 detects a voice command in the transmitted voice, it outputs a control signal corresponding to the voice command and activates the attenuation circuit 39 to silence the voice command portion of the voice, so that the voice command portion of the voice command is silenced when the resident's voice is announced from the entrance unit 2.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a voice-operable intercom apparatus. [Background Art]

[0002] There are intercom apparatuses that recognize voice and can be operated by voice. For example, in Patent Document 1, operation of an intercom monitor television serving as an indoor unit can be performed by voice. For instance, when the word "message" is input by voice, the apparatus recognizes the voice and performs control to switch to an operation screen for a voice memo function. [Prior Art Literature] [Patent Literature]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-219410 [Summary of the Invention] [Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

[0004] However, the above-described conventional voice operation enables voice operation of the indoor unit in a standby state where a call is not received, and voice operation cannot be performed during a call with a visitor. This is because if the entrance sub-unit installed at the entrance and the indoor unit are in a call state, and an operation voice is uttered during a call with the visitor, the conversation becomes unnatural, which makes the visitor feel uncomfortable. In addition, if a voice command is leaked to a malicious visitor, it is conceivable that the visitor who recognizes the voice command may misuse it for unlocking operations and the like.

[0005] In view of such problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an intercom apparatus that can reduce discomfort to a visitor even when a user utters a voice command during a call with the visitor, and that enables an operation by a voice command without the uttered voice command being heard by the visitor. [Means for Solving the Problems]

[0006] To solve the above problems, the first configuration of the present invention is an intercom device that can be operated by voice, comprising a calling means for a visitor to call and talk to a resident, and a room unit for responding to calls from the calling means, wherein the room unit is equipped with a voice decoding unit that decodes the sound collected by a microphone installed thereon and recognizes voice commands, wherein the room unit has a voice delay unit that delays the transmission of sound to the calling means by a certain period of time, and a voice mute unit that silences the transmitted sound, wherein when a communication path is formed between the calling means and the room unit, the transmitted voice transmitted from the room unit to the calling means is transmitted with a certain period of time delay, and when the voice decoding unit detects a voice command in the transmitted voice, it outputs a control signal corresponding to the voice command and activates the voice mute unit to silence the voice in the voice command portion, and the resident's voice that is announced from the calling means is announced with the voice in the voice command portion silenced. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to the present invention, the resident's voice, which is announced by the calling means, is announced with a certain delay after it is spoken by the resident. Therefore, even if a voice command is issued during a call, the entire voice command can be reliably silenced before the announcement. Thus, even if a voice command is issued during a conversation, the unnaturalness of the resident's voice announced by the calling means can be reduced, and the visitor will not hear the voice command. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0008] [Figure 1] This is a configuration diagram showing an example of an intercom system according to the present invention, with the main parts of the room unit shown in a block diagram. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 is a configuration diagram showing an example of an intercom device according to the present invention. The intercom device 1 has an entrance unit 2 (calling means) for visitors to call residents and a room unit 3 for residents to respond to calls. The room unit 3 shows the main part, the voice circuit 30, in a block diagram. The entrance unit 2 and the room unit 3 are connected by a transmission line L consisting of two wires.

[0010] The entrance station 2 is equipped with a call button, microphone, and speaker (none of which are shown in the image), and when the call button is pressed, a call signal is transmitted to the room unit 3.

[0011] The room unit 3 is equipped with a call button (not shown) for receiving and answering calls, a microphone 31 and a speaker 32 for making calls. The voice circuit 30 for transmitting voice is formed as shown in Figure 1. The audio circuit 30 includes a communication interface unit (communication IF unit) 34 for communicating with the door station 2 via a transmission line L, a first CODEC unit 35 that performs A / D conversion on the visitor's voice transmitted from the door station 2 and D / A conversion on the resident's voice, which has been collected by the speaker 32 and converted into a digital signal, for transmission to the door station 2, a second CODEC unit 36 ​​that performs D / A conversion on the digitized visitor's voice so that it can be announced from the speaker 32 and also performs A / D conversion on the resident's voice collected by the microphone 31, and an echo canceller circuit 37 positioned between the first CODEC unit 35 and the second CODEC unit 36 ​​to cancel out echoes caused by feedback from the speaker 32 to the microphone 31, etc.

[0012] Arrow B1 indicates the direction in which the transmission signal flows, and arrow B2 indicates the direction in which the reception signal flows. The communication IF unit 34 has a hybrid circuit (not shown) that separates and integrates the transmission signal transmitted from the living room unit 3 to the entrance unit 2 and the reception signal transmitted from the entrance unit 2 to the living room unit 3. Within the voice circuit 30, the transmission path S1 that transmits the transmission signal and the reception path S2 that transmits the reception signal are separated. However, the transmission signal and reception signal are transmitted between the living room unit 3 and the entrance unit 2 via a transmission line L consisting of two wires.

[0013] Furthermore, a buffer circuit (voice delay section) 38 is provided in the transmission path between the echo canceller circuit 37 and the first CODEC section 35 to delay the transmission of the resident's voice signal, and an attenuation circuit (voice mute section) 39 is provided between the buffer circuit 38 and the first CODEC section 35 to mute the voice and make it silent. Furthermore, it is equipped with a voice decoding unit 40 that decodes text from the audio collected by the microphone 31. The voice decoding unit 40 obtains and decodes the voice of the resident collected by the microphone 31 via the second CODEC unit 36.

[0014] When the voice decoding unit 40 detects a voice command, it outputs a control signal corresponding to the content of the voice command to the control unit of the room unit 3 (not shown). The control unit of the room unit 3 receives this control signal and performs the corresponding control. Furthermore, the voice decoding unit 40, upon detecting a voice command, causes the attenuation circuit 39 to perform a mute operation.

[0015] The intercom system 1, configured as described above, will be explained below. However, this explanation will focus on the operation after a communication path has been established between the entrance unit 2 and the living room unit 3. When a communication path is established between the entrance unit 2 and the room unit 3, the voice circuit 30 is activated, and the voices of both the resident and the visitor are transmitted. However, the resident's voice is delayed for a certain period of time by the buffer circuit 38 before being transmitted to the entrance unit 2. This delay is, for example, 1.5 seconds. The length of the delay is set taking into account the length of the voice command and the processing time of the voice decoding unit 40 (for example, 100 msec). The visitor's voice is transmitted without delay and is announced by the room unit 3.

[0016] Then, when the voice decoding unit 40 recognizes a voice command during this call, it operates as follows: If the resident says, for example, "unlock it," the voice decoding unit 40 recognizes this as a voice command requesting the front door to be unlocked. Since the phrase "unlock it" is pre-registered in the voice decoding unit 40, it is recognized as a voice command to unlock the front door.

[0017] Furthermore, other examples of voice commands recognized by the voice decoding unit 40 during the call include phrases such as "turn up the volume" and "enlarge the image". "Turn up the volume" is recognized as an operation to increase the received volume, which corresponds to the visitor's voice output from the speaker 32. "Enlarge the image" is recognized as an operation to enlarge the image displayed on a monitor (not shown) when the entrance door station 2 is provided with a camera (not shown) and the indoor station 3 is provided with a monitor (not shown) for displaying the captured image. These phrases are also recognized as voice commands by being registered in the voice decoding unit 40 in advance.

[0018] When the voice decoding unit 40 recognizes a voice command from the voice uttered by a resident, it performs control to mute the entire voice of the voice command portion so that the wording of the voice command is not transmitted to the entrance door station 2. This is implemented by performing control to mute the audio signal transmitted from the buffer circuit 38 after a predetermined time delay, within the time width from the start timing to the end timing of the uttered voice command.

[0019] As described above, the resident's voice output from the entrance door station 2 is output with a predetermined time delay after being uttered by the resident. Therefore, even if a voice command is uttered during a call, the voice can be output after the entire voice command is reliably erased. Accordingly, even if a voice command is uttered during a conversation, the discomfort caused by the resident's voice output from the entrance door station 2 can be reduced, and the visitor will not hear the voice command.

[0020] Furthermore, although the above embodiment describes the operation when a voice command is uttered while a communication path is established, operation by voice command can be easily implemented by causing the voice decoding unit 40 to function even in a standby state where no communication path is established. In addition, although the audio information input to the voice decoding unit 40 is acquired from the second CODEC unit 36, it may alternatively be acquired from the output of the echo canceller circuit 37. Furthermore, although the explanation described a configuration consisting of one door station and one room unit, it can also be easily applied to an intercom system for an apartment building equipped with a main entrance unit and multiple room units, in which case the door station 2 shown in Figure 1 becomes the main entrance unit. [Explanation of symbols]

[0021] 1. Intercom device, 2. Door station (calling device), 3. Room unit, 30. Audio circuit, 31. Microphone, 32. Speaker, 37. Echo canceller circuit, 38. Buffer circuit (audio delay section), 39. Attenuation circuit (audio mute section), 40. Audio decoding section.

Claims

[Claim 1] An intercom system that can be operated by voice, comprising a calling means for visitors to call and speak with residents, and a room unit for responding to calls from the calling means, wherein the room unit is equipped with a voice decoding unit that decodes the sound collected by a microphone installed thereon to recognize voice commands, The aforementioned room unit includes an audio delay unit that delays the transmission of audio to the calling means for a certain period of time, and an audio mute unit that mutes the transmitted audio. When a communication path is established between the calling means and the room unit, the transmitted voice from the room unit to the calling means is sent with a delay of a certain period of time. When the voice decoding unit detects a voice command in the transmitted voice, it outputs a control signal corresponding to the voice command and activates the voice mute unit to silence the voice command portion. An intercom device characterized in that the voice of a resident announced by the calling means is announced with the portion of the voice command deleted.

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