US 12,250,517 B2
Sound system
Masahiro Fukui, Tokyo (JP); and Kazunori Kobayashi, Tokyo (JP)
Assigned to NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
Appl. No. 17/912,850
Filed by NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
PCT Filed Mar. 26, 2020, PCT No. PCT/JP2020/013764
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 19, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/192166, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 30, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0188889 A1, Jun. 15, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04R 1/40 (2006.01); G10K 11/178 (2006.01); H04R 3/12 (2006.01); H04R 5/02 (2006.01)
CPC H04R 1/403 (2013.01) [G10K 11/17857 (2018.01); H04R 3/12 (2013.01); G10K 2210/1281 (2013.01); H04R 2499/13 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A sound system comprising:
a reproduction apparatus including an n-th reproduction unit (n=1, . . . , N) that outputs a (2n−1)-th sound signal that is a sound signal obtained based on a subject to be reproduced, and a 2n-th sound signal that is a sound signal with opposite phase to phase of the (2n−1)-th sound signal, N being an integer equal to or larger than one; and
a speaker system including an n-th speaker unit pair (n=1, . . . , N) including a speaker unit that emits sound based on the (2n−1)-th sound signal (hereinafter, referred to as the positive speaker unit) and a speaker unit that emits sound based on the 2n-th sound signal (hereinafter, referred to as the negative speaker unit), the speaker system being installed at a place close to a head of a user, wherein
assuming that a direction in which the n-th speaker unit pair faces the user is an n-th user direction (n=1, . . . , N),
sound emitted from the positive speaker unit of the n-th speaker unit pair in the n-th user direction and sound emitted from the positive speaker unit of the n-th speaker unit pair in an opposite direction to the n-th user direction are in an antiphase relationship with each other,
sound emitted from the negative speaker unit of the n-th speaker unit pair in the n-th user direction and sound emitted from the negative speaker unit of the n-th speaker unit pair in the opposite direction to the n-th user direction are in an antiphase relationship with each other, and
the positive speaker unit and the negative speaker unit of the n-th speaker unit pair (n=1, . . . , N) are disposed such that sound emitted from the positive speaker unit in an opposite direction to the n-th user direction and sound emitted from the negative speaker unit in the opposite direction to the n-th user direction propagate in the n-th user direction due to bending around of the sound.