Patent ID: 7684983

Claim:
A speech recognition apparatus comprising: a directional voice input unit for inputting voice from a speaker; a voice input state detector for detecting a voice input state in which the voice from the speaker is input to said directional voice input unit; a speech recognizer for recognizing the voice input from said directional voice input unit and outputting a command corresponding to a recognized voice; a sound output unit for outputting a plurality of sound signals in a plurality of channels to corresponding loudspeakers; a sound output attenuator for attenuating at least one sound output from at least one selected loudspeaker which otherwise would obstruct a speech recognition process performed by said speech recognizer when said voice input state detector detects the voice input state; and a combined sound generator for combining at least a first one of said plurality of sound signals output to said at least one selected loudspeaker whose output sound is attenuated, with at least a second one of said plurality of sound signals output to at least one other loudspeaker whose output sound is not attenuated, thereby producing at least one combined sound signal that is provided to the at least one other loudspeaker; wherein a content of said first one of said plurality of sound signals is different a content of said second one of said plurality of sound signals.