Patent ID: 8208664
Filing Date: 2012-06-26
Classification: H04M,H04R,H04S

Abstract:
1. A communication conference device comprising: a first microphone array having a plurality of microphone units installed in a first location; a first loudspeaker array having a plurality of loudspeaker units installed in said first location; a first signal processing device that detects a sound source position where a terminal is located in said first location, the sound source position being represented by a relative position to the communication conference device, and setting a directivity characteristic of said first microphone array at a point corresponding to the detected sound source position, wherein said first signal processing device detects said sound source position by measuring times elapsed from emission of sound waves emitted from said first communication conference device to reception of said sound waves received by said terminal; a first transmission device that transmits first audio data collected by said first microphone array according to said directivity characteristic along with information indicative of said directivity characteristic; and a first reception device that receives second audio data transmitted by a second communication conference device along with directivity characteristic information, wherein the first signal processing device sets the directivity characteristic of said first loudspeaker array based on said directivity characteristic information received from the second communication conference device so that a virtual sound source is formed such that a position of the virtual sound source relative to the first communication conference device corresponds to the relative position of a sound source position relative to and detected by the second communication conference device.