JPH034657A - TV doorbell - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain effective burglar proof by increasing or decreasing the frequency component of a voice communicated through a television intercom optionally depending on the opposite party so as to convert the male voice into the female voice or vice versa naturally for the purpose of conversation. CONSTITUTION:An analog voice signal entering from a microphone 21 of a handset of a master set is converted digitally at an A/D converter 22 and written in a 1st memory 23 by using a clock. When it is desired to increase the voice frequency, the 1st memory is read faster and when it is desired to decrease the voice frequency, the 1st memory is read slowly. In the case of lower voice where the memory readout speed slows down, the digital signal is interleaved in the unit of several ms to adjust the entire length and in the case of higher voice, the entire length is adjusted by spacing signals or adding the same data as the preceding data. Thus, the correspondence in matching with the call party is attained and effective burglar proof is attained.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a video door intercom capable of converting audio frequencies, and in particular, digital signal processing of one's own voice to arbitrarily change the frequency components of high and low voices. Regarding a video door phone that allows voice conversation.

[Conventional technology]

In recent years, voice door intercoms (also called intercoms) have been used to easily respond to visitors to a home and for security reasons, allowing conversations without opening the front door. With a door phone, a base unit inside the house is connected to a slave unit outside the entrance via a line, and a conversation can be made using the speaker and microphone installed on each base unit and slave unit.

Since this conventional doorbell transmits only audio, it is not possible to know who the other person is until you have a conversation with them, and it is not possible to judge in advance who you want to answer and who you do not want to respond to. Also,
Since it is not possible to confirm the other person's physical appearance using only a doorbell, it is easy to misidentify someone who has changed the tone of their voice, which can lead to crime prevention problems.

Therefore, recently, video door intercoms (also referred to as video intercoms) have been developed and are becoming popular, which are equipped with a television camera and monitor that can visually confirm the video of the person at the front door or the like along with the audio.

The handset side of this video door phone has a built-in TV camera that uses a solid-state image sensor, such as a MOS or CCD, to project a small, high-resolution image of the front door, as well as a microphone that picks up the voices of visitors. It is equipped with a speaker to emit audio from the machine, and a call button to notify the base machine of your visit.

On the other hand, the base unit, which is connected to the slave unit via a line, has a handset (with a built-in speaker and microphone) that allows conversation with the slave unit.
It is equipped with a monitor such as a cathode ray tube that displays images from the handset's television camera.

Although it is possible to connect the video signal, audio signal, and power supply using separate lines for connecting the handset and base unit, it is possible to use only two wires for the power supply and modulate and demodulate the audio and video signals. There is also a 2-wire system that connects the cable to two wires for power supply and sends each signal.

In the conventional video door intercom with the above configuration, when you first press the call button on the handset, power is supplied to the handset from the base unit through the line, and the handset's TV camera is turned on to display the image on the TV monitor on the base unit. indicate. To talk to a slave unit, pick up the base unit's handset, connect the voice line, and have a conversation.

If you just watch the video and don't pick up the handset, about 3
The monitor will automatically turn off in 0 seconds. If used continuously, it is designed to turn off automatically after about 3 minutes.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

As mentioned above, with conventional video door intercoms, you can see and talk to visitors while staying indoors, which makes it possible to more accurately identify visitors and is highly safe. This is convenient because you can selectively respond to the other person by looking only at the other person.

However, if you are a woman, depending on the person you are answering, it may be more convenient for you to use a male voice, or conversely, if you are a man, it may be better to use a female voice, but traditional video door phones In order to convey the speaker's voice as is,
I couldn't do anything like the above. Therefore, although it is possible to change the audio frequency by performing analog processing on the audio and play it back slower or faster, there is a problem in that high-pitched voices speak quickly, and low-pitched voices speak slowly and unnaturally.

The present invention was made with the aim of solving the above problems, and after confirming the other party on the video doorphone monitor, the user's voice can be changed from female to male or male to female depending on the other party. To provide a video door phone capable of communicating with visitors in a natural manner.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above problems, the video door intercom of the present invention includes an A/D converter that converts an analog audio signal input from a base handset into digital data, and an A/D converter that converts an analog audio signal input from a base handset into digital data.
A memory for storing digital data obtained by the /D converter, a readout means for reading out the contents stored in the memory at an arbitrary readout speed, a readout speed setting means for setting the readout speed in the readout means, and a readout speed setting means for setting the readout speed of the readout means; a pitch control unit that deletes or adds predetermined data to the read digital data and corrects the output time of the digital signal output from the memory due to a change in the read speed; It is characterized by comprising a D/A converter that converts output digital data into an analog signal, and a central control unit that controls each signal processing.

[Effect]

According to the video intercom according to the above means, the audio input from the base handset is converted into digital data by the A/D converter, and the digital data is stored in the memory. Then, the readout speed when reading out the contents of this memory is made variable to obtain digital data with a changed audio frequency. Then, the pitch control section corrects the generation time of the digital data by deleting or adding data to the digital data whose audio frequency has been changed, so that although the frequency component of the audio changes, the audio generation time remains approximately constant. Then, the digital signal whose audio frequency has been changed while maintaining the generated audio generation time is converted into an analog signal by a D/A converter.

From now on, you can arbitrarily lower or raise the frequency component of the voice you are having when talking through a video doorphone, depending on the person you are talking to, and the voice can be converted naturally from a woman to a man, or from a man to a woman. can do.

〔Example〕

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the video door intercom according to the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a waveform state diagram after converting audio frequency characteristics.

As shown in FIG. 1, the video door phone of this embodiment has a slave unit (1o) equipped with a speaker (12) that emits the same sound as the base unit (1), and a television camera (11) that takes pictures. , a call button (13) for calling the base unit (1), and a microphone (14) for picking up audio from the slave unit (1o). Power to the slave unit is supplied from the base unit (1) using a pair of two-wire lines (5). The audio signal can be modulated by a modulation/demodulation unit (not shown) and sent onto the line (5), and then demodulated again by the modulation/demodulation unit and reproduced, and the video signal can be sent in the form of a video signal over the line (5). Therefore, the child device and the parent device can be easily connected with a pair of two wires. Of course, the line (5) may connect the video signal, the audio signal, and the power source using separate wiring.

The image sensor of the TV camera (11) of the slave device is M here.
Although an OS-type solid-state image sensor is preferably used, the present invention is not limited to this, and a COD or other image sensor may also be used.

The base unit (1) includes a handset (3) with a built-in speaker and microphone for communicating with the slave unit (10), and a monitor using a flat cathode ray tube that displays images from the TV camera (11) on the slave unit (10) side. (2), and an audio converter (4) that can arbitrarily convert the audio frequency.

As shown in the block diagram of FIG. 2, the configuration of the voice conversion section of this embodiment is as follows:
The analog audio signal input from the A/D converter (22
), and the first memory (23
) is written to.

Next, when reading from the first memory (23), the clock reading speed can be changed arbitrarily. The voice converter (4) provided in the base unit (1) in Figure 1
), the CPU (29) in FIG. 2 controls the read speed of the first memory (23) and writes data to the second memory (24). For example, looking at the waveform diagram shown in Figure 3, if the original voice waveform is "medium", if you want to make the voice higher, read the first memory quickly to make the waveform "high", and vice versa. If you want to lower the waveform, read it out later to get a lower waveform.

However, if things continue as they are, the "low" voice will sound delayed.
Since "high" voices are short, in order to make them sound natural, the pitch control section (25) needs to correct the digital signal so that only the frequency component changes. For example, in the case of a low voice with a slow memory read speed, the interval is long, so the digital signal is thinned out in units of several milliseconds to adjust the overall length while maintaining the frequency of the voice. Conversely, in the case of a high-pitched voice that has been read out from the memory at a faster speed, the overall length will be shorter, so the overall length is adjusted by increasing the interval between the signals or adding data that is the same as the preceding data. In this way, by processing digital signals, only the pitch of the voice sounds to the real ear as if it has changed, making it possible to have a natural-sounding conversation.

Here, the addition/deletion of this digital data takes a somewhat longer time than the audio frequency (needs to be longer than the time of at least one wavelength).

This allows the length to be adjusted without changing the frequency.

Digital signal processing in the pitch control section (25) is performed under appropriate control by the CPU (29) depending on the speed at which the first memory (23) is read.

The digital signal processed as described above is written to the third memory (26) and then transferred to the D/A converter (26).
7), it is converted to an analog signal and sent to the slave unit's speaker (
28). The voice emitted from the handset is emitted slightly later than the original voice because signal processing takes time. However, the delay time is l Qms~
Since it only takes about 100 ms, it is actually possible to have a conversation without worrying about it.

The operation of the video door intercom having such a configuration will be described below.

When a visitor arrives, press the call button (10) on the handset (10) in Fig.
13), the base unit (1) detects the call, supplies power to the slave unit (10), and turns on the television camera (11). The visitor's video signal is sent to the base unit (1) via the line (5).
) and checked on the monitor (2) from the base unit (1),
If you need to change your voice to converse, use the voice converter (4
) as appropriate, then pick up the handset (3) and speak.The tone of your voice will naturally rise or fall so that the other person can hear you.

In other words, it is possible to make a woman's or child's voice as low as a man's, and conversely, it is possible to respond to a man's voice by making it sound like a woman's.

In this way, the video door intercom of this embodiment can convert the frequency components in a natural way by processing the audio from the base unit into a digital signal, making it possible to answer calls tailored to the person being answered, and as a security measure. It is also effective.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the video door intercom according to the present invention, after confirming the other party on the monitor of the video door intercom, changes the voice on the base unit from female to male depending on the other party, or from male to female, with a natural sound. This makes it possible to interact with visitors by converting it into a more effective security measure, and it can also be used for fun.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a waveform state diagram after converting audio frequency characteristics. In the figure, (1) is the base unit, (2) is the monitor, (4) is the handset, (5) is the line, (10) is the slave unit, and (11) is the handset.
) is a television camera, and (12) is a speaker. Note that the same reference numerals in the figures indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In a video door intercom in which a handset equipped with a speaker and a television camera is connected to a base unit equipped with a handset and a monitor that displays images from the handset, input from the handset of the base unit is provided. An A/D converter that converts an analog audio signal into digital data, a memory that stores the digital data obtained by this A/D converter, and a reading means that reads the contents stored in the memory at an arbitrary reading speed. and readout speed setting means for setting the readout speed of the readout means, and a readout speed setting means for deleting or adding predetermined data to the digital data read out from the memory, and adjusting the readout speed setting means for setting the readout speed in the readout means. A pitch control section that corrects the output time of digital data, a D/A converter that converts the digital data output from the pitch control section into an analog signal, and a central control section that controls each signal processing. A video door phone that is characterized by: