Directed Audio Emission for Electric Vehicle Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous and electric vehicles face challenges in safely navigating environments due to their quiet operation, making it difficult for pedestrians, cyclists, and animals to detect their presence, leading to potential safety issues.
Innovation Solution
Directed audio emission systems that use sensors and phased array audio transmitters to emit focused audio based on detected objects and their characteristics, ensuring safety and communication while minimizing ambient noise pollution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If autonomous and electric vehicles operate quietly, then energy efficiency and modern propulsion performance are improved, but safety detection by pedestrians, cyclists, and animals deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an audio emission system as an intermediary device that generates audible sounds from the vehicle. This mediator bridges the gap between the quiet electric propulsion system and the need for safety detection, allowing pedestrians, cyclists, and animals to detect the vehicle's presence without compromising the energy efficiency of the electric motors.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies the concept of changing the vehicle's detectability characteristics by emitting audio signals. Similar to how color changes make objects more visible, the audio emission system makes the quiet electric vehicle more audible to surrounding entities, transforming the vehicle's sensory profile from silent to audible while maintaining propulsion efficiency.
2Reliability
If audio alerts are emitted to improve safety, then detection by pedestrians and cyclists is improved, but noise pollution in the environment worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements directional audio emission that targets specific locations where pedestrians, cyclists, or animals are detected. Rather than emitting audio uniformly in all directions, the system directs sound locally toward entities that need to hear it, improving safety for vulnerable road users while minimizing noise pollution in other areas of the environment.
Solution Approach 2:
The audio emission system dynamically adjusts its operation based on real-time detection of surrounding entities. The system activates audio alerts only when pedestrians, cyclists, or animals are detected in proximity, and deactivates them when no such entities are present. This dynamic behavior ensures safety when needed while reducing noise pollution during normal operation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system effectively improves safety and communication between autonomous vehicles and other entities by emitting targeted audio alerts and information, reducing noise pollution and enhancing operational efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
phased array audio transmitters to emit focused audio based on detected objects and their characteristics
Data Source
AI summary
Directed audio emissions systems and methods may include one or more sensors, one or more audio transmitters, and a controller configured to cause emission of directed audio output toward various objects, such as people, animals, vehicles, devices, or others. For example, responsive to detecting a potential safety situation and/or a potential intended communication situation associated with one or more detected objects, selected audio output having selected audio characteristics may be emitted toward the detected objects using selected audio transmitters. The audio characteristics may be selected to direct and/or accentuate the audio output at a particular location of a detected object, and the audio characteristics of the audio output may be customized based on a type and other characteristics of the detected object.