Patent ID: 8712564

Claim:
An audio conversation apparatus that is mounted in a vehicle, and connectable to a reproduction section for outputting audio, the audio conversation apparatus comprising: an assignment section for individually assigning directions, which are different from each other, to parties-to-talk-with, each party-to-talk-with belonging to one of a plurality of predetermined groups, or to the plurality of predetermined groups; a localization section for localizing, in accordance with the directions assigned by said assignment section, audio data received from outside and for outputting the audio data to the reproduction section; and an utterance operation section including a plurality of buttons arranged in unique positions corresponding to the directions localized by the localization section, wherein the plurality of buttons of the utterance operation section are positioned so as to form a ring shape in an interior of the vehicle, and directions from a center of the ring shape in the utterance operation section to the plurality of buttons are identical to the directions localized by the localization section, and upon operation of a button of the plurality of buttons of the utterance operation section, a conversation with a party-to-talk-with of the parties-to-talk-with or a predetermined group of the predetermined groups that corresponds to the direction that is assigned to the button and is localized by the localization section.