Vehicular Voice Input Unit with Dynamic Microphone Directionality
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicular systems face challenges in providing a favorable acoustic environment on both the driver's seat and passenger seat sides while maintaining low manufacturing costs, as previous solutions either compromise call quality in other seats or increase costs by installing microphones on both sides.
Innovation Solution
A vehicular apparatus with a voice input unit comprising multiple microphones disposed between the driver's and passenger seats, featuring a control unit that adjusts microphone directionality and gain levels, a noise cancelling unit to reduce noise, and an execution unit for voice calling or recognition functions, with directionality controlled in two directions (driver's and passenger seat sides) and gain levels set lower on the passenger seat side.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If microphones are provided both on the driver's seat side and the passenger seat side, then the acoustic environment on both sides is improved, but the manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
A single voice input unit disposed between the driver's seat and passenger seat performs multiple functions: it provides acoustic environment for both driver and passenger, enables voice calling and voice recognition functions, and eliminates the need for separate microphone systems on each side. This multi-functional design achieves the acoustic benefit of dual-side microphones while avoiding the cost increase.
2Reliability
If the directionality is switched to the direction of a specific seat, then the call quality in that direction is improved, but the call quality in other directions drops
Solution Approach 1:
The voice input unit dynamically adjusts its directionality characteristics based on the selected seat (driver or passenger). When the driver's seat is selected, the directionality is optimized for the driver; when the passenger's seat is selected, the directionality shifts to optimize for the passenger. This dynamic adaptation allows high call quality for the selected seat while maintaining acceptable coverage for other directions, resolving the contradiction between focused quality and broad coverage.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicular apparatus having at least one of a voice calling function and a voice recognition function, the apparatus comprising a voice input unit including a plurality of microphones, the voice input unit being disposed between a driver's seat and a passenger seat with respect to a vehicle width direction; and a control unit configured to control a directionality direction and a gain level of each of the plurality of microphones, wherein the control unit controls the directionality directions of the plurality of microphones in two directions, the two directions being a driver's seat side and a passenger seat side, and controls a gain level on the passenger seat side to be lower than a gain level on the driver's seat side.