Patent ID: 8184823

Claim:
A headphone device, comprising: a sound pickup section configured to pick up an external sound; a directivity setting section configured to generate a directional pickup audio signal, which is an audio signal obtained by picking up the external sound with a desired directional characteristic, based on an audio signal outputted from said sound pickup section; a loudspeaker; an audio signal generation section configured to generate a cancellation-use audio signal for attenuating the directional pickup audio signal based on the directional pickup audio signal; and a driving signal generation section configured to generate a driving signal, which is an audio signal for driving said loudspeaker and includes at least the cancellation-use audio signal, wherein said sound pickup section includes a plurality of microphones, and said directivity setting section generates the directional pickup audio signal by compensating delays in arrival of a sound component coming from a location of a specific sound source at the plurality of microphones, with respect to audio signals obtained by sound pickup by the plurality of microphones, and combining the delay-compensated audio signals together, the delays being caused based on locations at which the plurality of microphones are arranged.