Abstract:
A hand-held acoustic audio assistant receives exterior sound signals, and calculates and analyzes these signals to generate corresponding sound pressure/electrical signal levels and frequency spectrum. The results are stored in a memory unit or a memory card. The analyzed sound samples can be further directly heard via earphones. An acoustic audio specialist equipped with the hand-held acoustic audio assistant can thereby perform analysis for surrounding sounds in real time.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to a hand-held acoustic assistant, and more particularly, to a hand-held electronic device integrates several often-used tools fox an acoustic audio specialist in it.  
           [0003]    2. Description of Prior Arts  
           [0004]    Hand-held electronic devices such as personal digital assistants (PDA) or pocket personal computers become increasingly popular. Typical hand-held electronic devices usually can provide several functions like data storage, name card management, schedule arrangement, event-to-be tracking, electronic dictionary, stock live reporting, and other information transmission services. Provided with such a hand-held electronic device, the user can manage the information in real time and have a better control of available resources. Moreover, as the dimension of hand-held electronic devices is reduced, they can be also conveniently used in combination with other peripheral component devices such as touch stylus, keyboard, or camera, thereby diversifying their utilization.  
           [0005]    However, the acoustic audio specialist is not yet equipped with such kind of hand-held device which integrates useful utility tools therein for the same concept as described above.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a hand-held acoustic audio assistant that can integrate the functions of the sound pressure and electrical signal level measurement and calculation, frequency spectrum analysis, and other calculations and analysis operations.  
           [0007]    To accomplish the above and other objectives, a hand-held acoustic audio assistant includes a control unit, a display unit, an input/output (I/O) interface unit, an expansion unit, a local sound-source input unit, a memory card access unit, a memory unit, and a transmission interface unit. The control unit controls the operations of the hand-held acoustic audio assistant. The display unit is coupled with the control unit to display signals outputted from the control unit. The I/O interface unit which is possibly integrated within a CPU/DSP chip, is coupled with the control unit and the display unit to converts signals between the I/O interface unit and the control unit. The expansion unit is coupled with the I/O interface unit. The local sound-source input unit is coupled with the I/O interface unit to receive an exterior sound signal which can be analyzed into pressure level and frequency spectrum by the control unit. The memory card access unit is coupled with the I/O interface unit to read and write a sound sample of the exterior sound signal to a memory card. The memory unit is coupled with the control unit to store a plurality of sets data of sound pressure level and frequency spectrum of the sound signal and a plurality of patching records of an audio system. The transmission interface unit is coupled with the I/O interface unit to transfer the patching records stored in the memory unit to the external acoustic audio system, or receive a plurality of patching records from the external acoustic audio system to the memory  
           [0008]    To provide a further understanding of the invention, the following detailed description illustrates embodiments and examples of the invention, this detailed description being provided only for illustration of the invention. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]    The drawings included herein provide a further understanding of the invention. A brief introduction of the drawings is as follows:  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 1 is a general block diagram of a hand-held acoustic audio assistant according to an embodiment of the invention; and  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an expansion unit according to an embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0012]    Wherever possible in the following description, like reference numerals will refer to like elements and parts unless otherwise illustrated.  
         [0013]    Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, two block diagrams illustrate a hand-held acoustic audio assistant and an input/output (I/O) interface unit according to the present invention. The hand-held acoustic audio assistant includes a control unit  11 , a display unit  12 , an input/output (I/O) interface unit  13 , an expansion unit  14 , a local sound-source input unit  15 , a memory card access unit  16 , and a memory unit  17 .  
         [0014]    The control unit  11  controls the operations of the hand-held acoustic audio assistant. The control unit  11  includes a central processor unit and a digital signal processor for performing a plurality of calculations including sound pressure level calculations and providing sound frequency analysis displayed in a graphical manner.  
         [0015]    The display unit  12  is coupled with the control unit  11  to display signals outputted from the control unit  11 . The display unit  12  is provided with a touch panel that enables a user to rapidly input data and, thereby, to conveniently store various patching records of the acoustic audio system.  
         [0016]    The I/O interface unit  13  is coupled with the control unit  11  and the display unit  12  to perform data exchange.  
         [0017]    The local sound-source input unit  15  is coupled with the I/O interface unit  13  to receive exterior sound or electrical signals. Moreover, these signals will be analyzed into sound pressure and electrical signal levels and frequency spectrum via the control unit  11 , and the local sound-source input unit  15  further performs a simultaneous analysis of the difference between two sound paths.  
         [0018]    The memory card access unit  16  is coupled with the I/O interface unit  13  to read out or write in sound samples of the sound signal into a memory card. The user can thereby store these sound samples by means of the memory card.  
         [0019]    The memory unit  17  is coupled with the control unit  11  to store the sound pressure/electrical signal levels and frequency spectra of a plurality of sound signal samples. The memory unit  17  further stores a plurality of patching records of the audio system inputted, via the touch panel of the display unit  12 .  
         [0020]    A transmission interface unit  18  is further coupled with the I/O interface unit  13  to transmit the patching records from the memory unit  17  to an external audio system. The transmission interface unit  18  also receives a plurality of patching records from the external acoustic audio system to the memory unit  17 . The transmission interface unit  18  specifically transmits data via, for example, infrared signals.  
         [0021]    The expansion unit  14  is coupled with the I/O interface unit  13 . The expansion unit  14  further includes at least one control monitor unit  19 , a digital input unit  20 , a digital output unit  21 , a digital/analog converter unit  22 , an earphone output unit  23 , an analog/digital converter unit  24 , an analog input unit  25 , and a multiplexer  26 . The control monitor unit  19  is coupled with the expansion unit  14  to test connection of the balanced audio cable. The digital output unit  21  is coupled with the control monitor unit  19  to output a test signal from the control unit  11  to one end of the balanced audio cable. The digital input unit  20  is coupled with the control monitor unit  19  to receive the test signal from the other end of the balanced audio cable.  
         [0022]    The digital/analog converter unit  22  is to convert a digital signal to an analog signal. The earphone output unit  23  is coupled with the digital/analog converter unit  22 , so that the analyzed sound samples can be thereby directly heard via the earphones. The analog input unit  25  receives either external sound source inputs (not shown) from microphones or various output signals from an acoustic audio system connected to the hand-held acoustic audio assistant. The analog/digital converter unit  24  is coupled with the analog input unit  25  to convert an analog signal from the external sound source into a digital signal that can be processed and analyzed by the control unit  11 . The multiplexer  26  is coupled with the analog/digital converter unit  24  and the digital input unit  20 . The control monitor unit  19  hence controls the multiplexer  26  to switch the analog/digital converter  24  or the digital input unit  20  to the expansion unit  14 . A power supply unit  27  is further connected to a power supply converter unit  28 , therefore, the power supply voltage can be converted into +48V for phantom power microphones.  
         [0023]    The hand-held acoustic audio assistant as described has the following advantages of:  
         [0024]    1) Conversion and analysis of sound pressure/electrical signal levels, thereafter achieving such conversion analyses in real time, and therefore, managing suitable adjustment for settings of the operation level based on these analyses;  
         [0025]    .2) Detecting difference between two input sound signals, no matter they come from microphone-line, microphone-microphone, or line-line.  
         [0026]    It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the above description is only illustrative of specific embodiments and examples of the invention. The invention should therefore cover various modifications and variations made to the herein-described structure and operations of the invention, provided they fall within the scope of the invention as defined in the following appended claims.