Patent Document

PRIORITY 
       [0001]    This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to an application filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Dec. 19, 2006 and assigned Serial No. 2006-129882, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    The present invention generally relates to a method and an apparatus for improving a call quality in a portable terminal, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for improving quality of a received voice signal in consideration of a characteristic of a language used by a caller. 
         [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0005]    The use of portable terminals has experienced dramatic growth. Portable terminals have also been exported in increasing numbers to foreign countries, such as English and American cultural areas, Chinese cultural areas, etc., due, in part, to their portability convenience. Therefore, service providers (or manufacturers) of portable terminals have briskly conducted developmental research on terminals having more convenient functions in order to secure many users and increase exports. 
         [0006]    For example, research on portable terminals has focused on improving quality of voice signals, which are received and transmitted during voice calls, in consideration of item characteristics, instrumental structures, etc., of receivers (or speakers). In other words, research on variations of sensitivity of speakers according to a frequency of user voice have been conducted in order to accurately output received voice signals. Receivers, as used herein, refer to speakers which are used for voice calls with lower powers than general speakers. Thus, receivers will be referred to as speakers. 
         [0007]    However, research on variations of sensitivity of speakers generally concentrate on only users of portable terminal developing countries, i.e., only one language, in development phases. Accordingly, a conventional portable terminal neglects various lingual characteristics but aims at one language in order to set receive sensitivity according to a frequency. Thus, if a language of a caller is different from the language, a received voice signal is not accurately output due to a frequency difference resulting from characteristics of the languages. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0008]    The present invention substantially solves at least the above problems and/or disadvantages and provides at least the advantages below. Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for improving a call quality in a portable terminal. 
         [0009]    Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for improving a call quality in consideration of a characteristic of a language of a caller in a portable terminal. 
         [0010]    A further aspect of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for varying receive sensitivity of a speaker according to a frequency of a language of a caller to improve a quality of a received voice signal. 
         [0011]    The above aspects are achieved by providing a point-to-point emulation apparatus and method in a broadband wireless communication system. 
         [0012]    According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of improving a call quality in a portable terminal, the method including selecting one of a plurality of languages by a user when a received language setup menu is selected during a communication of a user with a caller; checking a volume of the selected language according to a frequency of the selected language; and applying the checked volume of the selected language to a voice signal received from a terminal of the caller according to a frequency of the voice signal and outputting the voice signal. 
         [0013]    According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for improving a call quality in a portable terminal, the apparatus including a storage unit storing volumes of a plurality of languages which vary with frequencies; a communication module receiving a voice signal from a terminal of a caller; a controller checking one of the plurality of languages selected by a user and a volume of the selected language which varies according to a frequency when a received language setup menu is selected during a communication with the terminal; and a voice processor applying the checked volume to the voice signal received from the communication module according to the frequency of the voice signal. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0014]    The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: 
           [0015]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a portable terminal according to the present invention; 
           [0016]      FIG. 2  is a flowchart of a process of improving a call quality according to a language of a user in a portable terminal according to the present invention; and 
           [0017]      FIGS. 3A through 3C  illustrate curves of characteristics of languages in a portable terminal according to the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0018]    Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described herein below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail. 
         [0019]    The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for varying a volume of a received voice signal according to a frequency characteristic of a language used by a caller to improve a quality of the received voice signal. 
         [0020]      FIG. 1  shows a portable terminal according to the present invention. The portable terminal of  FIG. 1  includes a controller  100 , a voice processor  102  having a language characteristic applier  104 , a speaker  106 , a microphone  108 , a communication module  110 , a storage unit  112 , an input unit  114 , a display  116 , and an antenna  118 . 
         [0021]    The controller  100  processes and controls an overall operation of the portable terminal, e.g., operations for performing voice and data communications. In particular, according to the present invention, if a received language setup menu is selected by a user, the controller  100  may control the display  116  to display a language list so as to process and control a function of displaying a window on which a received language is to be set. If a signal for a language selected by the user is input from the input unit  114 , the controller  100  may read a language characteristic curve corresponding to the language from the storage unit  112  and output the language characteristic curve to the language characteristic applier  104  of the voice processor  102 . The language characteristic curve indicates a volume of a voice signal, i.e., an output level of the voice signal, which varies according to variations of a frequency, and shows different forms according to language. 
         [0022]    The voice processor  102  is also referred to as a Coder-Decoder (CODEC) and inputs and outputs the voice signal through the microphone  108  and the speaker  106  which are connected to the voice processor  102 . For example, the voice processor  102  converts a digital voice signal provided from the controller  100  into an analog voice signal, transmits the analog voice signal through the speaker  106 , converts a voice signal applied from the microphone  108  into a digital voice signal, and provides the digital voice signal to the controller  100 . In particular, according to the present invention, the voice processor  102  may include the language characteristic applier  104  to apply a language characteristic curve, which considers a frequency characteristic of a language of a caller, to a voice signal received from a terminal of the caller and then output the voice signal to the speaker  106 . 
         [0023]    The language characteristic applier  104  receives the language characteristic curve of the language selected by the user from the controller  100 , applies the language characteristic curve to the voice signal received from the terminal of the caller, varies an output level of the voice signal according to a frequency, and outputs the voice signal to the speaker  106 . 
         [0024]    The communication module  110  transmits and/or receives a Radio Frequency (RF) signal of data which is input and output through the antenna  118 . For example, the communication module  110  may upconvert a baseband signal to be transmitted to transform the baseband signal into an RF signal and transmit the RF signal through the antenna  118 . Alternatively, the communication module  110  may downconvert an RF signal received from the antenna  118  to transform the RF signal into a baseband signal so as to recover data. 
         [0025]    The storage unit  112  stores various types of programs and micro-codes necessary for the overall operation of the portable terminal. According to the present invention, the storage unit  112  may store language characteristic curves of languages which indicate volumes of voice signals varying according to frequencies. For example, the storage unit  112  stores language characteristic curves which indicate characteristics of English, Chinese, and Italian, as shown in  FIG. 3 . 
         [0026]    The input unit  114  includes numeral keys, character keys, and a plurality of function keys to provide the controller  100  with data corresponding to a key pressed by the user. In particular, according to the present invention, the input unit  114  may receive a received language of received languages, which are displayed on the display  116 , from the user and provide the received language to the controller  100 . 
         [0027]    The display  116  displays state information, limited numerals and characters, a plurality of moving pictures, a plurality of still pictures, etc., which are generated during the operation of the portable terminal. In particular, according to the present invention, the display  116  may be controlled by the controller  100  to display the window on which the received language is to be set. 
         [0028]      FIG. 2  shows a process of improving a call quality according to a language of a user in a portable terminal according to the present invention. 
         [0029]    In step  201  of  FIG. 2 , the portable terminal determines whether a user is communicating with a specific caller. If it is determined in step  201  that the user is communicating with the specific caller, the portable terminal proceeds to step  203  to determine whether a received language setup menu has been selected by the user. In other words, the portable terminal determines whether a menu for setting a language used by the specific caller has been selected, in order to accurately output a voice signal received from a terminal of the specific caller. 
         [0030]    If it is determined in step  203  that the received language setup menu has been selected by the user, the portable terminal proceeds to step  205  to display a language list on the display  116  to display a window on which a language is to be set. For example, the portable terminal may display a language list “1: English, 2: Chinese, and 3: Italian” on the display  116  to request the user to set a specific language. In step  207 , the portable terminal determines whether a language of the displayed language list has been set by the user. 
         [0031]    If it is determined in step  207  that the language has been set by the user, the portable terminal proceeds to step  209  to check a language characteristic curve indicating a characteristic of the language set by the user, adjust a volume of the voice signal received from the terminal of the specific caller, i.e., an output level of the voice signal, according to a frequency of the voice signal using the language characteristic curve, and output the voice signal to the speaker  106 . 
         [0032]    For example, if the user sets English as a received language, the portable terminal may determine that the voice signal received from the terminal of the specific caller is English, apply a language characteristic curve considering a characteristic of English as shown in  FIG. 3A  to the voice signal, adjust the output level of the voice signal according to the frequency of the voice signal, and output the voice signal to the speaker  106 . 
         [0033]    The portable terminal then ends the present process. 
         [0034]    In accordance with the present invention as described above, a portable terminal can pre-store a language characteristic curve considering a characteristic of a language, apply the language characteristic curve to a voice signal received from a terminal of a caller according to a language used by the caller, and vary an output volume of the voice signal according to a frequency of the voice signal. Thus, the portable terminal can further accurately provide a user with voices of callers using languages having various characteristics. As a result, a call quality can be improved. 
         [0035]    Alternate embodiments of the present invention may also include computer readable codes on a computer readable medium. A computer readable medium may include any data storage device that can store data that can be read by a computer system. Examples of a computer readable medium include, for example, magnetic storage media (such as ROM, floppy disks, and hard disks, among others), optical recording media (such as CD-ROMs or DVDs), and storage mechanisms such as carrier waves (such as transmission through the Internet). A computer readable medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. Also, functional programs, codes, and code segments for accomplishing the present invention may be construed by programmers of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains. 
         [0036]    While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Technology Category: 5