DEVICE FOR DETECTING SOUNDS OUTSIDE VEHICLE

• US 20130188794A1
• Filed: 04/26/2011
• Published: 07/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Meijo University, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Meijo University, Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Kawamata, Shinya, Satonaka, Hisashi, Funayama, Ryuji, Yamada, Keiichi, Yamamoto, Osami, Banno, Hideki, Asahi, Kensaku, Ogawa, Akira
• Application Number:
  US13/634,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20130188794A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/56
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/86 Combinations of radar systems with non-radar systems, e.g. sonar, direction finder
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/867 Combination of radar systems with cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/931 of land vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9316 combined with communication equipment with other vehicles or with base stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/9322 using additional data, e.g. driver condition, road state or weather data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/93271 in the front of the vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/803 using amplitude comparison of signals derived from receiving transducers or transducer systems having differently-oriented directivity characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/163 involving continuous checking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/00 Monitoring arrangements; Testing arrangements for hearing aids H04R25/30; detection of loudspeaker connection H04R5/04; sound-field adaptation dependent on speaker detection H04S7/308

Abstract

Provided is a device for detecting sound outside vehicle capable of detecting sounds outside the vehicle with high accuracy in various surrounding environments.

A sound source direction detecting ECU 1 acquires sound collection information about sounds outside a vehicle which are collected by microphones 2A to 2G. The sound source direction detecting ECU 1 acquires traveling road information about the vicinity of a host vehicle on the basis of the acquired sound collection information. When the traveling road information is acquired, the sound source direction detecting ECU 1 adjusts the sound collection characteristics of the microphones 2A to 2G on the basis of the traveling road information.

Claims

1-15. -15. (canceled)

16. A device for detecting sound outside vehicle comprising:

a sound collecting unit that is provided in a vehicle and collects sounds outside the vehicle;

a target sound detecting unit that detects a detection target sound from the sounds outside the vehicle which are detected by the sound collecting unit;

a traveling road information detecting unit that detects traveling road information about a road on which the vehicle travels; and

a sound collection characteristic adjusting unit that adjusts sound collection characteristics of the sound collecting unit on the basis of the detection result of the traveling road information detecting unit.

17. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 16, further comprising:

a direction detecting unit that detects the direction of the detection target sound on the basis of the detection result of the target sound detecting unit.

18. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 16,

wherein the detection target sound is a traveling sound of an approaching vehicle which approaches the vehicle.

19. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 18,

wherein the traveling road information detecting unit detects the shape of the road on which the vehicle travels as the traveling road information.

20. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 19,

wherein the sound collection characteristic adjusting unit adjusts a directivity of the sound collecting unit as characteristics of the sound collecting unit on the basis of the shape of the traveling road.

21. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 20,

wherein, when it is determined that the direction of the road on which the vehicle travels is decided on the basis of the shape of the traveling road, the sound collection characteristic adjusting unit adjusts the directivity of the sound collecting unit as the characteristics of the sound collecting unit on the basis of the shape of the traveling road.

22. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 18,

wherein the traveling road information detecting unit detects, as the traveling road information, the surface type of a road which is close to the road on which the vehicle travels and on which the approaching vehicle travels.

23. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 22,

wherein the sound collection characteristic adjusting unit adjusts a band used by the sound collecting unit as the characteristics of the sound collecting unit on the basis of the surface type of the road on which the approaching vehicle travels.

24. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 18,

wherein the traveling road information detecting unit detects weather information about the vicinity of the road on which the vehicle travels as the traveling road information.

25. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 24,

wherein the sound collection characteristic adjusting unit changes the sensitivity of the sound collecting unit on the basis of the weather information.

26. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 24, further comprising:

an output unit that outputs an alarm when it is determined that the approaching vehicle is present on the basis of the detection result of the target sound detecting unit,

wherein the sound collection characteristic adjusting unit changes the time when the alarm is output from the output unit on the basis of the weather information.

27. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 18,

wherein the traveling road information detecting unit detects surrounding environment information about the vicinity of the vehicle as the traveling road information.

28. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 27,

wherein, when it is determined that an environment in which the vehicle travels is inappropriate to detect the traveling sound of the approaching vehicle on the basis of the surrounding environment information, the target sound detecting unit stops the detection of the traveling sound of the approaching vehicle.

29. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 28,

wherein, when the detection of the traveling sound of the approaching vehicle is stopped, it is notified that the traveling sound of the approaching vehicle is not detected.

30. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 27, further comprising:

an output unit that outputs an alarm when it is determined that the approaching vehicle is present on the basis of the detection result of the target sound detecting unit,

wherein, when it is determined that an environment in which the vehicle travels is inappropriate to detect the traveling sound of the approaching vehicle on the basis of the surrounding environment information, the output unit stops the output of the alarm.

31. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 16,

wherein the sound collection characteristic adjusting unit changes frequency characteristics to adjust the sound collection characteristics of the sound collecting unit.

32. The device for detecting sound outside vehicle according to claim 16,

wherein the sound collection characteristic adjusting unit changes sensitivity to adjust the sound collection characteristics of the sound collecting unit.