Patent ID: 8243950

Claim:
A teleconferencing apparatus comprising: a microphone array including a plurality of microphones, each configured to pick up sound and output a sound pick-up signal; a sound pick-up beam forming section configured to delay and add the sound pick-up signals output from the microphones to form sound pick-up beams directed to a plurality of sound pick-up areas; a position information detector configured to detect, as position information, the sound pick-up area corresponding to the sound pick-up beam showing the largest volume among the sound pick-up beams; a transmitter configured to transmit the output of the sound pick-up signals of the microphones and the position information; a loudspeaker array including a plurality of loudspeakers; a reception section configured to receive the transmitted sound pick-up signals and position information from the transmitter; and a signal processing section configured to process the received sound pick-up signals so as to form a sound emission beam with a virtual sound source position determined based on the received position information and to supply the processed sound pick-up signals to the loudspeakers, wherein the signal processing section is configured to form the virtual sound source by setting a respective sound emission delay amount for each of the loudspeakers.