Vehicle Acoustic Control Selective Sound Filtering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern vehicles with advanced noise reduction systems often inadvertently mute desirable external sounds, reducing situational awareness for drivers and passengers, and fail to selectively filter out unwanted noise, leading to a lack of environmental auditory feedback.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of systems that use sensors, AI-based techniques, and digital signal processing to detect and emulate external sounds within the vehicle, allowing for selective sound filtering and presentation based on user preferences and safety considerations, while also providing visual alerts and acoustic trilateration to enhance situational awareness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If passive or active noise reduction techniques are used to reduce cabin noise, then the volume of unwanted external noise is reduced, but desirable external sounds are also attenuated
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the external sound environment into multiple categories (desirable sounds vs. unwanted noise) using machine learning classification. Different sound types are processed separately through the acoustic control system, allowing selective attenuation or enhancement based on the identified sound category, thereby resolving the contradiction between noise reduction and information preservation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different acoustic treatment qualities to different sound sources. Desirable sounds (e.g., engine sounds, nature sounds) are enhanced or preserved with specific gain adjustments, while unwanted noise (e.g., road noise, wind noise) is attenuated with different gain adjustments. This localized quality approach allows simultaneous noise reduction and information preservation.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If sound damping materials are used to isolate the vehicle's interior from external noise, then cabin noise is reduced, but situational awareness is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses microphones to continuously monitor external sounds and provides feedback to the acoustic control system. This feedback loop enables real-time identification and classification of external sounds, allowing the system to maintain situational awareness by selectively enhancing important sounds (e.g., sirens, horns) while still providing overall noise reduction through controlled attenuation of other sounds.
Solution Approach 2:
The acoustic control system acts as an intermediary between the sound damping materials and the occupants. While the damping materials provide baseline noise reduction, the acoustic control system processes external sounds through speakers to replenish desirable sounds and alerting sounds that were attenuated, thereby maintaining situational awareness without compromising the noise isolation benefit.
3Loss of information
If windows are opened to hear external sounds, then situational awareness is improved, but wind noise and cooling/heating efficiency are affected
Solution Approach 1:
The system captures external sounds through microphones and creates acoustic copies of desirable sounds (e.g., nature sounds, engine sounds) that are then played through the vehicle's speaker system. This copying approach allows occupants to perceive external sounds without opening windows, thereby maintaining situational awareness while avoiding the introduction of wind noise and preserving climate control efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed for acoustic control of a vehicle's interior. Example methods may include detecting environmental sounds external to a cabin of a vehicle and determining at least one first sound from the environmental sounds, wherein the cabin is configured to reduce a volume of the environmental sounds below a threshold; determining location information comprising a direction and a distance of the first sound with respect to the vehicle; and generating a second sound based on the first sound and the location information that reproduces a spectral feature of the first sound.