Vehicle Wake-Up Audio Buffering for Precise Acoustic Event Timing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems face challenges in accurately detecting acoustic events for digital personal assistants, particularly in noisy environments like vehicles, due to difficulties in timing the transmission of audio data to remote computing devices and handling long periods of silence, leading to unreliable detection.
Innovation Solution
A control system with a wake-up engine and client application that determines timestamps and buffers audio data to accurately identify acoustic events, allowing precise communication of audio data to remote systems, including a pre-roll period to ensure timely and complete data transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If audio data is buffered and timestamped locally for accurate detection, then detection accuracy improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides detection into two passes: first-pass local detection using simple keyword spotting in the vehicle, and second-pass remote detection using sophisticated AI models on server infrastructure. This segmentation allows accurate detection without requiring the entire system complexity to be in the vehicle.
Solution Approach 2:
A timestamp buffer system acts as an intermediary between audio capture and remote processing. The buffer stores audio data with precise timestamps locally, enabling accurate timing information to be transmitted to remote systems without requiring complex real-time synchronization.
2Reliability
If audio data is transmitted to remote computing device for second-pass detection, then detection reliability improves, but timing accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Timestamps are generated and audio data is buffered locally before transmission occurs. This preliminary action ensures that timing information is captured at the source with high precision, and the buffered data is ready for immediate transmission when needed, maintaining timing accuracy despite network delays.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces mechanical real-time transmission with a digital buffering approach. Instead of requiring synchronous real-time communication between vehicle and server, the system uses timestamped data buffers that can be transmitted asynchronously, preserving timing information through digital record-keeping rather than mechanical synchronization.
3Reliability
If local device processes long periods of audio data during silent journeys, then acoustic event detection improves, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs partial processing locally by maintaining a continuous timestamp buffer even during silent periods, rather than processing all audio data in real-time. This allows the system to have audio data ready for immediate transmission when an acoustic event occurs, reducing overall processing time while maintaining detection reliability.
Data Source
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AI summary
Aspects of the present invention relate to a control system (100) for a vehicle, the control system (100) comprising one or more controllers (110), the control system (100) comprising input means (140) for receiving an audio signal (165), memory means (130) arranged to store at least a portion of the received audio signal in a first buffer (340), processing means (120) arranged to execute a wake-up engine (310) and a client application (320), wherein the wake-up engine is arranged to determine a first timestamp (515) in dependence on a predetermined event associated with activation of the wake-up engine (310), analyse the received audio signal (165) to detect an acoustic event (540) indicative of a wake-up signal for the client application (320), provide (480), to the client application (320), an indication of the first timestamp and an indication of the detection of the acoustic event comprising at least one indication of a time of a predetermined point (545) in the audio signal associated with the acoustic event (540), wherein the at least one indication is relative to the first timestamp (515), wherein the client application is arranged to receive the indication of the first timestamp and the indication of the detection, determine a current timestamp (560) in dependence on receiving the indication of the detection, and determine, in dependence on the current timestamp, the first timestamp, and the indication of the time of the predetermined point in the audio signal, a position (535) of the audio signal in the first buffer (340) for initiating an audio session.