Biometric Sound Masking Control for User Discomfort
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sound masking systems do not consider the user's condition when controlling noise levels, leading to ineffective concentration enhancement.
Innovation Solution
An information processing device that acquires biological information and sound signals to detect discomfort conditions, determining whether to output masking sound based on both user and acoustic features, allowing for personalized sound masking control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If sound masking control is based only on volume level of sound acquired by a microphone, then the control system is simple, but the user's condition is not taken into consideration making the control ineffective
Solution Approach 1:
The sound masking control system transitions from a static volume-level-based control to a dynamic control that adapts to the user's real-time condition. The system dynamically adjusts masking sound parameters based on biologically-detected user states (such as concentration level, stress level, or sleepiness), thereby maintaining effectiveness while preserving operational simplicity through automated adaptation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces feedback loops where biological information about the user's condition is continuously acquired and fed back to the sound masking control. This feedback mechanism enables the system to adjust masking sound parameters based on the user's actual state, ensuring that the sound masking remains effective without requiring complex manual intervention.
2Reliability
If biological information acquisition devices are added to detect user condition, then sound masking control becomes personalized and effective, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs biological information acquisition devices that serve multiple functions: detecting user condition for sound masking control, monitoring user state for adaptive adjustments, and potentially other health or productivity monitoring purposes. This multi-functionality justifies the added complexity by providing comprehensive benefits beyond just sound masking.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an information processing device as an intermediary that bridges the biological information acquisition devices and the sound masking system. This intermediary processes biological information, determines appropriate masking parameters, and controls the sound output, thereby distributing complexity across multiple components rather than concentrating it in one place, making the overall system more manageable.
3Measurement precision
If multiple judgment execution units are used to assess both biological information and acoustic features, then the control accuracy is improved, but the processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The judgment execution functionality is segmented into multiple specialized units: one that processes biological information to assess user condition, another that analyzes acoustic features of the environment, and a third that integrates these assessments to determine discomfort conditions. This segmentation allows each unit to focus on specific tasks, improving accuracy while making the overall processing architecture more modular and manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs multiple separate judgments (biological condition assessment, acoustic feature analysis, discomfort condition determination) rather than attempting a single comprehensive judgment. This partial action approach allows each judgment to be optimized independently, improving overall precision while distributing computational complexity across multiple simpler processing steps.
Data Source
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AI summary
An information processing device (100) includes a first acquisition unit (120) that acquires biological information on a user, a first judgment execution unit (130) that executes a first judgment on whether a first discomfort condition as a discomfort condition corresponding to the biological information is satisfied or not based on first discomfort condition information (111) specifying the first discomfort condition and the biological information acquired by the first acquisition unit (120), a second acquisition unit (140) that acquires a sound signal, an acoustic feature detection unit (150) that detects an acoustic feature based on the sound signal, a second judgment execution unit (160) that executes a second judgment on whether a second discomfort condition as a discomfort condition corresponding to the acoustic feature is satisfied or not based on second discomfort condition information specifying the second discomfort condition and the acoustic feature detected by the acoustic feature detection unit (150), and an output judgment unit (170) that judges whether first masking sound should be outputted or not based on a result of the first judgment and a result of the second judgment.