KR20060060772A - Automatic change of audio output in personal portable terminal and personal portable terminal with automatic change of audio output - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are a personal handheld terminal and an automatic change method of audio output which can automatically change the audio output according to the surrounding environment. The method of automatically changing the audio output includes providing a distance measuring unit adjacent to the speaker, measuring a distance to an adjacent object using the distance measuring unit, and outputting audio gain from the speaker corresponding to the distance measured by the distance measuring unit. You can change the output to. Although your personal handheld may not be able to hear ringtones or alerts due to obstacles in your bag or other obstacles, your personal handset may automatically detect the distance to an adjacent object and detect the presence of obstacles. Can be automatically increased so that the user can hear ringtones or alerts.

Personal Handset, Audio Gain, Distance Measurement

Description

PERSONAL PORTABLE DEVICE CAPABLE OF AUTOMATICALLY MODIFYING AN AUDIO OUTPUT AND METHOD OF AUTOMATICALLY MODIFYING AN AUDIO OUTPUT IN A PERSONAL PORTABLE DEVICE}

1 is a rear perspective view illustrating a personal portable terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a side view for explaining the audio output of the personal portable terminal without changing the audio gain.

3 is a side view illustrating an audio output in a personal portable terminal in a state in which audio gain is changed.

4 is a configuration diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a personal mobile terminal and a method of changing an audio output.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of changing an audio output in a personal mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: personal portable terminal 110: terminal body

120: Speaker 130: Distance measuring part

132 ： caller 134 ： receiver

140: control unit 142: memory

150: Audio output part

The present invention relates to an audio output of a personal portable terminal, and more particularly, to a personal portable terminal and a method for changing the audio output of a personal portable terminal capable of changing the size of the audio output according to the surrounding environment.

If a terminal such as a mobile phone is in a bag or pocket of clothes or the speaker is blocked by other obstacles, the sound of the speaker may not be transmitted well to the user. In particular, in such a case, a ringing sound for notifying an incoming call or an alarm sounding for receiving a text message may not be heard well, causing frequent inconvenience to the user.

To solve this problem, it may be assumed that the user sets the audio output of the ringing or alarming sound to prepare in advance, but it may be cumbersome to change the audio output each time. In addition, there is a limit that the user cannot fundamentally solve the problem because the user may set a large audio output to put it in a bag and then forget that the audio output is set large, and then be amazed by the loud sound suddenly occurring under normal circumstances. .

In order to solve the above-described problems, an object of the present invention is to detect the presence of obstacles in the surroundings, such as in a bag or a pocket of clothes, and to automatically adjust the audio output personal portable terminal and personal portable It is to provide a method of changing the audio output in the terminal.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object of the present invention, a method for automatically changing the audio output in a personal portable terminal comprises the steps of providing a distance measuring unit adjacent to the speaker, to the adjacent object using the distance measuring unit Measuring a distance, changing an audio gain output from the speaker corresponding to the measured distance, and outputting an audio signal through the speaker.

In response to a received signal such as a call reception or a text message reception, the controller can query the distance from the distance measurement unit to an adjacent object. If it is determined that the adjacent object can interfere with sound transmission according to the measured distance, the controller The audio gain may be increased, and the audio output unit may output a large set sound to assist the user in immediately recognizing the incoming call.

The personal handset measures distances on its own to determine whether audio gain is adjusted, so users don't have to change their audio settings each time, and they don't change their audio gains themselves in the absence of any obstructions. Work can be prevented.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object of the present invention, the personal portable terminal includes a terminal body, a speaker, a distance measuring unit, a control unit and an audio output unit.

The speaker is mounted on the terminal body, and the distance measuring unit may detect the presence of an obstacle around the speaker using a distance measuring method. The distance measuring unit may use a conventional apparatus and method for measuring the distance in a non-contact manner, such as a laser, an ultrasonic wave, or an infrared ray, and may return the measured distance to the control unit at the request or inquiry of the control unit.

The controller may change or maintain the audio gain output from the speaker according to the measured distance, and the audio output unit may output a voice signal through the speaker under the control of the controller.

In the present specification, a personal portable device (Personal Portable Device) refers to a portable electric and electronic device such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a smart phone, a handheld PC, a mobile phone, an MP3 player, and the like. A predetermined communication module such as a Division Multiplexing Access module, a Bluetooth module, an infrared communication module (IrDA), a wired / wireless LAN card, etc., and a terminal having a predetermined computing power by mounting a predetermined microprocessor for performing a multimedia playback function Can be used as a generic concept.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited or limited by the embodiments.

1 is a rear perspective view illustrating a personal portable terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the personal mobile terminal 100 includes a terminal body 110, a speaker 120, a distance measuring unit 130, a controller 140, and an audio output unit 150.

The terminal body 110 includes internal and external components and circuit configurations including general terminal functions. The terminal body 110 may include a terminal case, a keypad, a display module, a wireless transmission / reception module, a battery, a microphone, a receiver, and the like. The shape of the terminal body 110 may also be a flip type, a folding type, a slide type, a swing type, or the like. Likewise, it can be formed in various kinds of styles.

The speaker 120 is embedded in the upper part of the battery at the rear of the terminal body 110, and the output terminal of the speaker 120 is partially exposed from the outer surface of the terminal body 110. In recent years, as the multimedia functions of the personal portable terminal are important, the speakers mounted on the personal portable terminal are also designed to support stereo or 3D stereo sound. Therefore, the speaker 120 mounted on the terminal body 110 may also be mounted left and right to express a stereo sound effect. However, the speaker may be mounted at various positions according to the purpose of the speaker, and the type and number of the speaker may also be variously changed according to the required specifications.

The distance measuring unit 130 measures a distance to an adjacent object (adjacent object) based on the speaker 120. Therefore, the distance measuring unit 130 itself does not need to be adjacent to the speaker 120, but a sensor or sensors for measuring the distance may be mounted adjacent to the speaker 120.

As shown in FIG. 1, the distance measuring unit 130 according to the present exemplary embodiment includes a transmitter 132 and a receiver 134 adjacent to the speaker 120 and partially exposed from the terminal body 110. . The transmitter 132 transmits the laser toward the surroundings, and the receiver 134 receives the laser reflected from the surrounding obstacle. The distance measuring unit 130 may measure a time when the laser is received from the transmitter 132 via the surrounding object through the surrounding object, and the like, and calculates the distance between the speaker 120 and the surrounding object from the measured data. There is a number.

Although the distance measuring unit 130 of the present embodiment can measure the distance using a laser, according to another embodiment of the present invention, the distance measuring unit can measure the distance by using various other distance measuring methods. For example, the distance may be measured using infrared rays, or the distance may be measured using ultrasonic waves. The laser, ultrasonic waves and infrared rays are not intended to support the feasibility of distance measurement, and do not limit the distance measuring method of the present invention.

2 is a side view for explaining the audio output of the personal portable terminal in the state of not changing the audio gain, Figure 3 is a side view for explaining the audio output of the personal portable terminal in the state of changing the audio gain.

Referring to FIG. 2, since the audio gain is not changed in the personal portable terminal, the speaker 120 generally proceeds with the audio output according to the set audio gain value. At this time, since the obstacle immediately adjacent to the speaker 120 interferes with the progress of the sound, it is difficult to transmit the sound. Therefore, the user may not be able to recognize the incoming call even if a ring tone to notify the incoming call.

As shown, the situation where the obstacle is adjacent to the speaker 120 corresponds to the case where the personal portable terminal is in a bag, a jumper or a pocket of clothing, is sandwiched between car seat gaps, or close to other obstacles to transmit sound. can do.

Referring to FIG. 3, it may be changed to increase the audio gain in the personal mobile terminal. As the audio gain increases, the personal mobile terminal may generate a greatly increased audio output, and the sound may be more easily transmitted even if there is an obstacle immediately adjacent to the speaker 120. This makes it possible to more reliably recognize incoming calls or text messages when a personal mobile device is in a bag, in a thick jumper pocket, or between a car or sofa seat.

In addition, even when the user is notified of a specific fact or time, such as an alarm or a wake-up call, the personal portable terminal may set the audio output to a large size so that the user can easily grab attention.

4 is a configuration diagram illustrating an internal configuration of a personal mobile terminal and a method of changing an audio output.

Referring to FIG. 4, the distance measuring unit 130 is electrically connected to the center of the control unit 140, and the distance measuring unit 130 may transmit a measurement wave that transmits a measurement wave such as a laser, an ultrasonic wave, or an infrared ray. 132 and a receiver 134 capable of receiving the reflected measurement wave. The transmitter 132 and the receiver 134 may be immediately adjacent to form a single body, or may be formed independently of each other at a predetermined distance and disposed adjacent to each other.

The controller 140 may include a memory 142 for storing the audio setting of the user or the audio setting of the device itself. The memory 142 may store audio settings corresponding to a ring sound or a text message alarm sound, and the audio output unit 150 may output a preset ring sound or melody with reference to the audio settings stored in the memory 142. There is a number.

The controller 140 may inquire the distance from the distance measurer 130 to an adjacent object, and change the audio gain stored in the memory 142 according to the inquiry result. After the audio output unit 150 outputs the audio signal according to the changed audio gain, the controller 140 may restore the audio gain stored in the memory 142 to its original state, and the user may be burdened with the audio setting. Output change function can be used easily without having

5 is a flowchart illustrating a method of changing an audio output in a personal mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. For reference, the description of FIG. 5 may refer to the configuration of the personal mobile terminal described in FIGS. 1 and 4.

Referring to FIG. 5, the controller 140 may receive an incoming call, receive a message, receive a wireless email, or an alarm, and recognize a received signal (S10). The control unit 140 may transmit the incoming call to the user through a sound signal, a vibration signal, or a silent lamp signal with respect to the received signal.

When the reception mode of the personal mobile terminal includes a sound signal, the controller 140 may request the distance measuring unit 130 to measure the distance to the surrounding object, and the distance measuring unit 130 requests the controller 140. The stored or measured distance is returned to the control unit 140 in step S20.

After receiving the measured distance, the controller 140 may compare the measured distance with a preset reference distance (S30). This is for the controller 140 to determine whether to change the audio gain for the audio output or to output the stored gain without the change, and the user or the manufacturer can arbitrarily set the reference distance.

When the measurement distance is less than or equal to the reference distance, that is, when it is determined that the adjacent object is too close to the speaker 120 to interfere with sound transmission, the controller 140 may increase the audio gain stored in the memory 142. (S40). In this case, the method of increasing the audio gain may be considered to increase the audio gain in a predetermined step according to the measured distance, and may be considered to increase the audio gain by calculating the audio gain to be increased according to the measured distance.

The audio gain stored in the memory 142 may or may not change according to the measurement distance. If the audio gain is increased (S40), the audio output may be increased to generate a loud sound. If the audio gain is not increased, the audio signal is generated according to the already set audio output (S50).

As mentioned above, in the case where the audio gain is increased, the controller 140 may complete the output of the audio signal and then restore the increased audio gain back to the original state. In this case, the controller 140 generates the voice signal. Whenever it is necessary to change the audio gain, it is possible to output the changed or maintained audio signal.

The personal handheld device of the present invention can automatically adjust the audio output by detecting a case where there is an obstacle, such as in a bag or a pocket of clothes, and automatically according to the surrounding environment without the user changing the audio setting every time. It can provide the best usage environment.

In addition, when there are no obstacles around, the user does not change the audio gain or restore it to its original state, thereby preventing a user from being surprised in general.

As described above, although described with reference to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, those skilled in the art various modifications and variations of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention described in the claims below I can understand that you can.

Claims (8)

Providing a distance measurer adjacent the speaker; Measuring a distance to an adjacent object using the distance measuring unit; Changing an audio gain output from the speaker in response to the measured distance; And Outputting an audio signal through the speaker; Automatic output method of audio personal terminal comprising a. The method of claim 1, The measuring of the distance to the adjacent object may include transmitting a measurement wave from a transmitter, receiving a reflected wave reflected from the adjacent object to a receiver adjacent to the transmitter, and using the measurement wave and the reflected wave, the adjacent object. The automatic output method of audio output of a personal portable device, characterized in that for measuring the distance to. The method of claim 2, The measuring wave as a laser, ultrasonic or infrared, the audio output automatic change method of the personal portable terminal, characterized in that using. The method of claim 1, The changing of the audio gain output from the speaker may include comparing the measured distance with a predetermined reference distance and increasing the audio gain when the measured distance is less than the reference distance. How to change audio output of mobile terminal automatically. The method of claim 1, And outputting audio according to the changed audio gain, and then restoring the changed audio gain to a previous state. A terminal body including a speaker; A distance measuring unit mounted adjacent to the speaker and measuring a distance to an adjacent object; A controller for changing an audio gain output from the speaker in response to the distance measured by the distance measuring unit; And And an audio output unit electrically connected to the control unit and outputting an audio signal through the speaker under the control of the control unit. The method of claim 6, And the distance measuring unit is mounted adjacent to the speaker and is mounted adjacent to the transmitter and the receiver is mounted adjacent to the transmitter and is exposed from the terminal body. The method of claim 7, wherein The transmitter is a personal handheld terminal, characterized in that for transmitting a laser, ultrasonic or infrared for distance measurement.

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