Dynamic Transmission Delay Adjustment for Vehicle Audio
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional conversation assistance devices in vehicles face challenges with time lag in sound transmission, which hinders conversation quality due to hardware and software processing delays, and shortening these delays compromises sound quality and increases echo issues.
Innovation Solution
A transmission system with an evaluating unit to assess direct sound and noise levels, and a delay setting unit to adjust transmission delays based on these evaluations, ensuring improved sound quality and minimizing time lag between direct and transmitted sounds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If sound processing is performed to improve sound quality and cancel noise, then sound quality is improved, but transmission delay increases causing time lag between direct sound and speaker-playback sound
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the delay amount based on the evaluated noise level. When noise is high, a longer delay is applied to enable effective noise cancellation and echo removal. When noise is low, the delay is reduced to minimize time lag between direct sound and speaker-playback sound. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction by adapting the delay to actual environmental conditions rather than using a fixed value.
Solution Approach 2:
The delay amount is changed as a parameter based on the noise level evaluation. The evaluating unit assesses the noise level and the delay setting unit adjusts the delay parameter accordingly, allowing the system to optimize between sound quality improvement and time lag reduction by varying this key parameter.
2Loss of time
If transmission delay is shortened to reduce time lag, then time lag is reduced, but sound processing capabilities are limited and echo cancellation becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system makes the delay amount dynamic rather than fixed. By evaluating the noise level in real-time and adjusting the delay accordingly, the system can extend the delay when needed for proper sound processing and echo cancellation, while minimizing delay when noise levels are low, thus resolving the contradiction between reducing time lag and maintaining sound quality.
3Loss of time
If transmission delay is shortened to reduce time lag, then time lag is reduced, but echo components cannot be effectively cancelled
Solution Approach 1:
The delay amount is dynamically adjusted based on noise level evaluation. When noise levels are high, the system applies a longer delay that enables effective echo cancellation by providing sufficient time for the echo canceller to process and remove echo components. When noise is low, the delay is reduced to minimize time lag, thus resolving the contradiction between reducing time lag and effective echo cancellation.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus which allows smooth conversation with improved sound quality to be performed independently of the magnitude of noise or the like in a vehicle. A transmission system is provided, which transmits a sound signal from a first microphone provided corresponding to a first position to a speaker provided corresponding to a second position. A transmission apparatus, a transmission method, and a program include: an evaluating unit which evaluates at least one of a level of a direct sound transmitted from the first position to the second position without intervention of the first microphone and the speaker, a noise level, and an operating state of a noise source; and a delay setting unit which sets a transmission delay from the first microphone to the speaker based on an evaluation result of the evaluating unit.