JPH0330876Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] This invention relates to a sound alarm device for a small electronic device that generates an alarm sound in the form of voice.

[Prior art and its problems]

BACKGROUND ART In recent years, electronic watches have become more and more multi-functional, and some are known that have an alarm function that audibly generates an alarm time notification sound and a time signal function that audibly generates a notification sound every hour on the hour. Some electronic watches of this kind are equipped with a repeat function that repeatedly generates the same sound when a repeat switch is operated after the sound is generated for the purpose of confirming the content of the notification.

However, even if the same voice is repeatedly generated using the repeat function, for example, in a noisy environment, there is a risk that the same voice may not be audible or may be mistakenly recognized.

[Purpose of invention]

This invention was developed against the background of the above-mentioned circumstances, and its purpose is to reliably recognize repeated voices based on the repeat function, and to improve the effectiveness of the repeat function by using a small electronic device. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a sound alarm device for equipment.

[Key points of the idea]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose, this invention
The gist is that each time the external switch of the repeat function is operated, the number of operations is counted, and the volume of the repeatedly generated sound is increased in accordance with the count value each time the external switch is operated. It is something.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, this invention will be specifically explained based on an example in which this invention is applied to an electronic timepiece. In the figure, 1 is a clock circuit that counts the reference clock signal to obtain time information, etc. The time information output from the clock circuit 1 is as follows.
The signal is input to the coincidence detection circuit 3 together with the alarm time information stored in advance in the alarm setting circuit 2, and is also input to the time signal detection circuit 4. The coincidence detection circuit 3 detects the coincidence of both input time information and outputs an alarm signal (binary logic level "1") a for a predetermined time.
Further, the time signal detection circuit 4 detects every hour on the hour and outputs a time signal signal (binary logic level "1") b for a predetermined time. The alarm signal a and the time signal b are input to the sound generation circuit 7 as operation designation signals via the OR gates 5 and 6 in sequence. At the same time, the alarm signal a is input to the input terminal S of the SR type flip-flop (SR-FF) 8, and the time signal b is input to the input terminal R of the SR-FF8. The set output Q of the SR-FF 8 is sent to the audio generating circuit 7 and is input as a switching signal for generating a notification sound for the alarm function or a notification sound for the time signal function. The audio generation circuit 7 is RAM (Random Access Memory)
For example, by inputting the meaning of the alarm time ("meeting", "meeting", etc.) through a microphone (not shown) in response to the alarm time, a digital amount of audio data is stored. It also stores a digital amount of audio data that generates the time audibly every hour on the hour. At the same time, the corresponding audio data is addressed. Thus, the sound generation circuit 7 performs a read operation according to the output of the OR gate 6, and selectively reads the sound data of the alarm time or the sound data of every hour on the hour according to the set output of the SR-FF8. The signal is output and input to a D/A (digital/analog) conversion circuit 9. The analog audio signal output from this D/A conversion circuit 9 is
The signal is sent to the sound generating unit drive circuit 11 via the volume control circuit 10, and the sound is generated from the speaker 12.

Next, the configuration of a repeat function that repeatedly generates the same sound will be explained. The operation signal of the repeat switch S, which is an external switch, is given to the one-shot circuit 13, and the one-shot circuit 13 outputs a pulse signal every time the repeat switch S is operated. This pulse signal is sent to a repeat counter 14 and counted. Therefore, the repeat counter 14 counts the number of times the repeat switch S is operated (the number of repeats), and this count value is sent to the volume control circuit 10. in this case,
The volume control circuit 10 controls the volume according to the count value of the repeat counter 14, and is designed to increase the volume every time the count value of the repeat counter 14 increases. The contents of the repeat counter 14 are reset in accordance with the output of the OR gate 5. On the other hand, the output pulse of the one-shot circuit 13 is transmitted to the delay circuit 15.
After a predetermined time delay, the signal is sent to the sound generation circuit 7 via the OR gate 6 as an operation command signal. In this case, the delay circuit 15 is used to operate the sound generation circuit 7 by skipping several stages of increasing the volume by successive operations of the repeat switch S.

Next, the sound alarm operation of the above embodiment will be explained. First, when the alarm time comes, the alarm signal a is output from the alarm setting circuit 3. As a result, the operation command signal is input to the sound generation circuit 7 at the same time as the SR-FF 8 is set. As a result, digital audio data corresponding to the alarm time is read out from the audio generation circuit 7, and this audio data is sent to the D/A conversion circuit 9, where it is converted into an analog audio signal, and the volume control circuit Sent to 10. At this time, the output of the coincidence detection circuit 3 is applied to the reset terminal of the repeat counter 14, and since the contents of the repeat counter 14 have been reset, the volume control circuit 10 outputs the audio signal from the D/A conversion circuit 9 as is. do. Therefore, when the alarm time is detected, the meaning of the alarm time is audibly generated at a normal volume.

In this case, if the user misses or cannot hear the content of the sound report, the repeat switch S is operated once. As a result, a pulse signal is output from the one-shot circuit 13, so that the content of the repeat counter 14 becomes "1". Also,
The output of the one-shot circuit 13 is input to the delay circuit 15 and then sent to the sound generation circuit 7, so that the sound generation circuit 7 waits for a predetermined time (the set time of the delay circuit 15) after the repeat switch S is operated.
For example, after one second has elapsed, the same audio data read out when the alarm time was detected is output. The audio data is converted into an audio signal by the D/A conversion circuit 9 and applied to the volume control circuit 10. In this case, the volume control circuit 10 receives the count value "1" from the repeat counter 14. Since it is input, the volume control circuit 10 amplifies the amplitude of the audio signal according to the count value and inputs it to the sounding body drive circuit 11.
As a result, the second sound generated in response to the operation of the repeat switch S will be generated at a louder volume than the first sound generated when the alarm time is detected.

Therefore, if the content of the warning sound cannot be heard sufficiently even after the second occurrence when the volume is increased,
Operate repeat switch S once again. As a result, the same sound is generated again, but in this case, the count value of the repeat counter 14 becomes "2", so that the sound is generated at an even louder volume than the second sound. In this way, the volume of the sound generated each time the repeat switch S is operated is increased in stages. It should be noted that if the repeat switch S is operated continuously, the voice will be emitted with several stages of increasing volume skipped.

Also, when a time signal is output from the time signal detection circuit 4, the same alarm operation as described above is executed.
That is, the time is emitted as a sound every hour on the hour, and the same sound is repeatedly emitted each time the repeat switch S is operated, and the volume is increased step by step.

Note that this invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and can be modified and applied in various ways without departing from this invention. For example, the volume control circuit 10 may double the volume each time the count value of the repeat counter 14 is counted up, or may increase the volume in small increments.

Further, as means for changing the volume according to the count value of the repeat counter, a digital signal such as calculating a digital signal from the audio generation circuit 7 and a count value from the repeat counter 14 and applying it to the D/A conversion circuit 9 can be used. It is also possible to perform the process using Furthermore, a method of changing the amplification degree of the sounding body drive circuit 11 or a method of changing the power supply voltage of the output stage of the drive circuit 11 may be used.

Furthermore, although the above-mentioned embodiment shows the case where it is applied to an electronic watch, it may be applied to other small electronic devices, such as a learning device with a voice generation function.

[Effect of idea]

As explained in detail above, this device is a small electronic device that generates a notification sound and repeatedly generates the same sound by operating an external switch after the sound is generated, each time the external switch is operated. In addition to counting the number of operations,
Since the volume of the repeatedly generated voice is increased every time the external switch is operated, the repeatedly generated voice can be reliably recognized based on the repeat function, and the effect of the repeat function can be enhanced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawing is a block circuit diagram of an electronic timepiece showing an embodiment of this invention. 7...Audio generation circuit, 10...Volume control circuit,
11...Sounding body drive circuit, 12...Speaker, 1
4...Repeat counter, S...Repeat switch.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] a sound generation means that stores sound data and reads out the sound data and produces the sound; an external operation switch that repeatedly generates the sound produced by the sound generation means each time it is operated; and the external operation switch. a counting means for counting the number of times the switch is operated; and a volume control means for increasing the volume of the sound generated by the sound generating means in accordance with the count value of the counting means each time the externally operated switch is operated. A sound alarm device for a small electronic device, characterized by comprising: