Spatial Audio Wayfinding for Autonomous Vehicles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles face challenges in guiding riders to their location, especially in complex environments, leading to delayed pickups, missed deliveries, and noise pollution from traditional horn honking methods, which are ineffective in high noise environments and difficult for users with disabilities.
Innovation Solution
The use of spatial audio information, provided through earbuds or headphones, to direct users to the vehicle by simulating sounds that appear to come from specific directions, incorporating distance cues, without the need for hardware changes in the vehicles, utilizing sensors like gyroscopes and magnetometers to estimate user pose and vehicle location.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a vehicle honks its horn to identify its location, then the user can locate the vehicle, but it creates unnecessary noise pollution and is distracting to people nearby
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the location identification function from the physical vehicle horn and relocates it to the user's audio device. The vehicle sends spatial audio signals containing location information to the user's headphones, separating the signaling function from the vehicle's acoustic environment and eliminating unnecessary horn honking in public spaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a digital communication intermediary between the vehicle and user. Instead of direct acoustic communication via horn, the vehicle transmits encoded spatial audio data through a communication system to the user's device, which then renders the sound with precise directional cues, reducing pollution while maintaining effectiveness.
2Measurement precision
If a vehicle honks its horn in high noise environments, then the user can locate the vehicle, but it is very difficult to determine which vehicle honked or which direction the honk came from
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by providing customized spatial audio signals tailored to each user's specific location, orientation, and environmental conditions. The system adjusts audio characteristics (direction, volume, timing) based on the user's precise position relative to the vehicle and surrounding noise sources, ensuring clear vehicle identification even in high noise environments.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from traditional omnidirectional horn sound to three-dimensional spatial audio with precise directional components. By adding vertical and angular dimensions to the audio signal through binaural rendering and head-tracking, the system creates a unique acoustic signature for each vehicle that remains distinguishable even when multiple vehicles are present.
3Ease of operation
If hardware changes are made to the autonomous vehicles to improve wayfinding, then the wayfinding capability is improved, but it is expensive and time consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces potential mechanical or physical hardware modifications (such as external speakers, lights, or horns) with a software-based spatial audio system. The vehicle's existing communication and processing hardware is used to generate and transmit digital audio signals, which are then rendered spatially by the user's personal audio device, eliminating the need for expensive vehicle hardware changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual acoustic copy of the vehicle's location and orientation information and delivers it to the user's audio device. Instead of modifying the physical vehicle to produce audible signals, the system copies the essential spatial information and transmits it digitally, allowing the user's device to synthesize the appropriate audio cues.
Data Source
AI summary
The technology employs spatial audio information to enhance wayfinding for pickup, drop-off and in-vehicle situations. The spatial information has a directional component, and a sense of distance can also be incorporated into the audio information. Audio cues or other spatial information is provided via headphones worn by a user. The spatial audio gives the user direction information, which can help locate the vehicle. In addition, this approach can be used when the rider is in the vehicle prior to exiting. For instance, spatial audio can be provided to the rider to give them contextual information about the environment outside the vehicle prior to exiting, such as whether a bicyclist is approaching on the side they will be exiting. This contextual information can alert the rider to wait or otherwise be more situationally aware when departing the vehicle.