Patent ID: 8885847

Claim:
A vehicular apparatus having a hands-free conversation function for coupling with a communication terminal, which is connectable to a public line network, the vehicular apparatus comprising: a communication device for communicating with the communication terminal; a speech sound output device for outputting a received speech sound, which is received from the communication terminal via the communication device; a speech sound input device having at least a first microphone and a second microphone, for inputting a transmission speech sound that is to be transmitted to the communication terminal; a vehicle information acquisition device for acquiring vehicle information that relates to a vehicle, on which the speech sound input device is mounted; a first speech sound extraction device for setting a first orientational direction, which provides a directionality of the speech sound input device, according to the vehicle information acquired by the vehicle information acquisition device, and for extracting a first speech sound that is input from the first orientational direction; a speech sound recognition device for signal-processing the transmission speech sound input via the speech sound input device so as to recognize the transmission speech sound; a second speech sound extraction device for signal-processing the transmission speech sound input via the speech sound input device, for specifying a second orientational direction, which provides an input direction of the transmission speech sound recognized by the speech sound recognition device, based on a signal processing result while changing the directionality of the speech sound input device, and for extracting a second speech sound that is input from the second orientational direction; a sound quality comparison unit for comparing a sound quality of the first speech sound extracted from the first speech sound extraction device with a sound quality of the second speech sound extracted from the second speech sound extraction device; a changeover device for selecting one of the first speech sound and the second speech sound, which is higher in sound quality, according to the comparison result between the sound quality of the first speech sound and the sound quality of the second speech sound provided by the sound quality comparison unit, and for setting the transmission speech sound to the selected one of the first speech sound and the second speech sound; and a control device for allowing the changeover device to perform the setting of the transmission speech sound to the selected one of the first speech sound and the second speech sound when a predetermined determination condition is fulfilled.