Patent Document ID: 8676562
Application ID: 11892448

Base Claim:
1. A communication support apparatus, comprising: a common display unit; a plurality of microphones located a predetermined distance from each other and attached to one side of the common display unit, configured to receive a first input message from a first user and a second input message from a second user, the first user and the second user respectively having a first spatial location and a second spatial location relative to the common display unit; a plurality of loudspeakers attached to the other side of the common display unit; a control unit configured to decide the first spatial location by a time delay relation of the first input message from each of the microphones, and to decide the second spatial location by a time delay relation of the second input message from each of the microphones; and a translation unit configured to translate the first input message based on a first language of the first user into a first output message based on a second language of the second user, and to translate the second input message based on the second language into a second output message based on the first language; wherein said control unit is configured to select a first loudspeaker based on the decided first spatial location from the plurality of loudspeakers, to select a second loudspeaker based on the decided second spatial location from the plurality of loudspeakers, to adjust the first output message so that the adjusted first output message is allocated towards the decided second spatial location via the second loudspeaker, and to adjust the second output message so that the adjusted second output message is allocated towards the decided first spatial location via the first loudspeaker.

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Claim 2:
2. The communication support apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first input message, the second input message, the first output message, and the second output message are sound signals containing at least one of a spoken language and non-verbal sound.