ENGINE SOUND ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM OF A VEHICLE

• US 20160205472A1
• Filed: 01/04/2016
• Published: 07/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ASK Industries Societa' Per Azioni
• Original Assignee: ASK Industries Societa' Per Azioni
• Inventors: UGOLOTTI, Emanuele, ARLETTI, Maurizio, VIOLI, Francesco
• Granted Patent: US 9,686,611 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 5/00 Arrangement or adaptation of acoustic signal devices
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 15/02 Synthesis of acoustic waves synthesis of speech G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/01 Aspects of volume control, not necessarily automatic, in sound systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/13 Acoustic transducers and sound field adaptation in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/12 for distributing signals to two or more loudspeakers specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A sound enhancement system of an engine of a vehicle includes a vibration sensor disposed on the casing of the engine to generate an electrical signal indicative of the engine sound. A signal processor is connected to the vibration sensor to process the electrical signal-indicative of the engine sound and generate an output audio signal. A speaker is disposed in the vehicle compartment and connected to the signal processor to receive the output audio signal and generate an enhancement sound of the engine sound.

Claims

1. A sound enhancement system of an engine of a vehicle, said vehicle comprising a compartment for the driver and the passengers, said engine comprising a casing, said system comprising:

sound detection means to detect an engine sound and generate an electrical signal indicative of the engine sound,

a signal processor connected to the sound sensor to process said electrical signal indicative of the engine sound and generate an output audio sound, and

a speaker disposed in the vehicle compartment and connected to said signal processor to receive said output audio sound and generate an enhancement sound of the engine sound,

wherein

said sound detection means are a vibration sensor disposed on the casing of the engine to detect the vibrations of the engine casing that generate the engine sound and said electrical signal indicative of the engine sound is a vibration signal of the engine casing, and

said vibration sensor is a shaker or exciter-type mechanical electrical transducer, comprising a fixed part firmly coupled to the engine casing and a mobile part that moves with respect to the fixed part, when the engine casing suffers a vibration alteration in such manner to detect the vibration speed of the engine casing, said vibration sensor acting as accelerometer integrator or velocimeter.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said vibration sensor comprises a centering element, acting as elastic suspension, said centering element comprising an external ring connected to the mobile part, an internal ring connected to the fixed part and a plurality of elastic spokes connecting the external ring with the internal ring.

3. The system of claim 1, comprising a CAN interface connected to a CAN-bus of the vehicle and to the signal processor and said CAN interface being configured to detect engine revolution (RPM) and torque (Torque) values and send said values to the signal processor that uses them to control the gain of said outgoing audio signal.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said signal processor comprises an array of dynamic filters connected to said vibration sensor and to said CAN interface, each filter (F1, . . . F5) having a preset frequency (Fr) and a variable gain (g) according to said RPM and Torque values detected by said CAN interface.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein said signal processor comprises a overall gain block connected to said vibration sensor and to said CAN interface, said overall gain block being configured to apply a overall gain (G11, . . . G55) to said electrical signal detected by the vibration sensor according to said RPM and Torque values detected by said CAN interface.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said signal processor comprises an array of dynamic filters connected to said overall gain block and to said CAN interface, said array of dynamic filters comprising a plurality of filter arrays, wherein each filter array (F1, . . . F5) is associated with a specific overall gain (G11, . . . G55) of said overall gain block, each filter having a preset fixed frequency (Fr) and a variable gain (g) according to the RPM and Torque values detected by said CAN interface.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein said CAN interface is configured in such manner to detect from said CAN-bus a vehicle attitude value set by the driver from at least two possible vehicle attitude values, preferably four RDNA (Race, Dynamic, Natural, All-weather) vehicle attitudes, and said overall gain block contains a number of 3D look-up tables equal to the number of vehicle attitudes that can be set by the driver, wherein each 3D look-up table has RPM values as X axis, Torque values as Y axis and overall gain values as Z axis.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said signal processor comprises a mixer to mix said electrical signal detected by said vibration sensor with an audio signal coming from an audio multi-channel power amplifier provided in the vehicle.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said signal processor comprises a gain adjustment block connected to said mixer to set a gain of said audio signal coming from the audio multi-channel power amplifier such not to modify the acoustics of the vehicle audio system because of the engine sound enhancement system.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said vehicle comprises an audio system with a multichannel power amplifier connected to a plurality of speakers disposed in the vehicle compartment, and said speaker emitting the engine sound enhancement is the central speaker of said vehicle audio system.