Notification sound control unit of approaching vehicle audible system

• US 9,434,306 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2012
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group), Kia Corp.
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Omote, Asako, Aoyagi, Takahisa, Suzuki, Ryotaro
• Primary Examiner(s): Previl, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US14/370,684
• Publication Number:
  US 20150061850A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,635 Days
• Field of Search: 340/425.5, 340428-429, 340/426.23, 340/435, 340/436, 340/438, 340/439, 340/447, 340/463, 340/468, 340/539.26
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 5/008 for signaling silent vehicles, e.g. for warning that a hybrid or electric vehicle is approaching

Abstract

A notification sound control unit (10) of an approaching vehicle audible system (100), generating a signal for a notification sound to be emitted from a sounding device (40) provided in an electric vehicle (200) in which at least part of driving force is produced by a motor to the outside of the electric vehicle (200), is provided with a behavior conversion processing section (21) that changes through time change processing an accelerator opening degree signal (11) among vehicle information signals (1) of the electric vehicle (200) so as to output a processed accelerator opening degree signal and with a notification sound signal generation processing section (3) that changes a pitch and a volume of a sound element signal outputted from a sound element (31, 310), based on the processed accelerator opening degree signal, so as to generate a notification sound signal.

Claims

1. A notification sound control unit of an approaching vehicle audible system, generating a signal for a notification sound to be emitted from a sounding device provided in an electric vehicle in which at least part of driving force is produced by an electric motor to outside of the electric vehicle, the notification sound control unit of an approaching vehicle audible system comprising:

a changing amount determination section that categorizes a status of change in an accelerator opening degree signal among vehicle information signals of the electric vehicle into a plurality of modes and determines to which mode among the categorized modes the status of the change in the accelerator opening degree signal belongs;

a behavior conversion processing section that processes the accelerator opening degree signal with a delay processing to delay the accelerator opening degree signal based on the mode determined by the changing amount determination section so as to output a processed accelerator opening degree signal; and

a notification sound signal generation processing section that changes a pitch and a volume of a sound element signal outputted from a sound element, based on the processed accelerator opening degree signal, so as to generate a notification sound signal.

2. The notification sound control unit of an approaching vehicle audible system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of modes into which the changing amount determination section categorizes the status of a change in the accelerator opening degree signal include a step-on mode in which the accelerator opening degree signal increases and a pedal-return mode in which the accelerator opening degree signal decreases.

3. The notification sound control unit of an approaching vehicle audible system according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of modes into which the changing amount determination section categorizes the status of a change in the accelerator opening degree signal include a constant mode in which the accelerator opening degree signal does not change.

4. The notification sound control unit of an approaching vehicle audible system according to claim 2, wherein the delay processing in the step-on mode performed by the behavior conversion processing section is for a shorter delay time than the delay processing in the pedal-return mode is.

5. The notification sound control unit of an approaching vehicle audible system according to claim 2, wherein in the step-on mode, the changing amount determination section further categorizes the status of a change in the accelerator opening degree signal into a plurality of modes, in accordance with a rate of the change in the accelerator opening degree signal.

6. The notification sound control unit of an approaching vehicle audible system according to claim 2, wherein in the pedal-return mode, the changing amount determination section further categorizes the status of a change in the accelerator opening degree signal into a plurality of modes, in accordance with a rate of the change in the accelerator opening degree signal.

7. The notification sound control unit of an approaching vehicle audible system according to claim 1, wherein the time delay processing performed by the behavior conversion processing section is filtering processing.

8. The notification sound control unit of an approaching vehicle audible system according to claim 7, wherein the filtering processing includes moving-average processing.

9. The notification sound control unit of an approaching vehicle audible system according to claim 1, wherein the delay processing performed by the behavior conversion processing section includes at least one of calculation processing items consisting of multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction.