System and method for enhancing a proximity warning sound

• US 9,734,686 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2015
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: 2236008 Ontario Inc. (Blackberry Limited), Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Harvey, Mark William, Hetherington, Phillip Alan, Grenn, John Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): McNally, Kerri
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dorsey, Renee
• Application Number:
  US14/935,057
• Publication Number:
  US 20170132893A1
• Time in Patent Office: 648 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 3/10 using electric transmission; using electromagnetic transmission
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/166 for active traffic, e.g. moving vehicles, pedestrians, bikes
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/167 Driving aids for lane monitoring, lane changing, e.g. blind spot detection
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/168 Driving aids for parking, e.g. acoustic or visual feedback on parking space

Abstract

A system and method for enhancing a proximity warning sound may determine an indicator of a distance between a first object and a second object. A proximity warning sound may be generated including a reverberation mimicking component responsive to the determined distance indicator; where a human listener perceives the reverberation mimicking component included in the audible proximity warning sound to be indicative of the determined distance indicator.

Claims

1. A method for enhancing a proximity warning sound comprising:

determining an indicator of a distance between a first physical object and a second physical object by a processor; and

generating a proximity warning sound, by an audio signal processor, including a reverberation mimicking component that includes reverberation tail components indicative of the proximity of the first physical object to the second physical object responsive to the determined distance indicator;

where the reverberation mimicking component included in the proximity warning sound that is indicative of the determined distance indicator.

2. The method for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 1, where each of the first physical object and the second physical object includes an automobile.

3. The method for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 1, where the determining an indicator of the distance uses one or more external transceivers that detect the position of physical objects.

4. The method for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 1, where the indicator of the distance between the first physical object and the second physical object is updated responsive to changes in the distance over time and the step of generating the proximity warning sound is responsive to updates to the indicator of the distance between the first physical object and the second physical object.

5. The method for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 1, where the reverberation mimicking component modifies a relative ratio of the reverberation tail components to a direct sound responsive to the determined distance indicator.

6. The method for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 5, where the relative ratio of the reverberation tail components to the direct sound is decreased responsive to a decreasing determined distance indicator.

7. The method of enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 6, where the reverberation tail components includes any one or more of:

reverberation gain, impulse response of a reverberant acoustic space and the reverberation tail length.

8. The method for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 6, where the reverberation mimicking component modifies the relative ratio of the reverberation tail components to the direct sound by selecting one of one or more proximity warning sounds containing differing ratios of reverberation tail components to direct sound that are generated a priori.

9. The method for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an orientation indicator of an orientation of the second physical object relative to the first physical object;

where the proximity warning sound is spatialized responsive to the determined orientation indicator when played through audio transducers.

10. The method for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 1, where the determined indicator of distance is an estimate of a relative proximity of the second physical object to the first physical object.

11. A system for enhancing a proximity warning sound comprising:

a determiner for determining an indicator of a distance between a first physical object and a physical second object; and

a generator for generating a proximity warning sound including a reverberation mimicking component that includes reverberation tail components indicative of the proximity of the first physical object to the second physical object responsive to the determined distance indicator;

the reverberation mimicking component included in the proximity warning sound that is indicative of the determined distance indicator.

12. The system for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 11, where each of the first physical object and the second physical object includes an automobile.

13. The system for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 11, where determining an indicator of the distance uses one or more sensors that detect physical objects, and where the one or more sensors includes any one or more of:

ultrasound, magnetic sensing, radio detection and ranging, light detection and ranging, optical and infrared.

14. The system for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 11, where the indicator of the distance between the first physical object and the second physical object is updated responsive to changes in the distance over time and the step of generating the proximity warning sound is responsive to updates to the indicator of the distance between the first physical object and the second physical object.

15. The system for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 11, where the reverberation mimicking component modifies a relative ratio of the reverberation tail components to the direct sound responsive to the determined distance indicator.

16. The system for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 15, where the relative ratio of the reverberation tail components to the direct sound is decreased responsive to a decreasing determined distance indicator.

17. The system for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 15, where the reverberation mimicking component modifies the relative ratio of the reverberation tail components to the direct sound by selecting one of one or more proximity warning sounds containing differing ratios of reverberation tail components to direct sound that are generated a priori.

18. The system for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 11, further comprising:

determining an orientation indicator of an orientation of the second physical object relative to the first physical objection;

where the proximity warning sound is spatialized responsive to the determined orientation indicator when played through audio transducers.

19. The system for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 11, where the proximity warning sound is associated with a proximity warning system.

20. The system for enhancing a proximity warning sound of claim 19, where the proximity warning system includes any one or more of:

a parking assistance system, a reversing assistance systems, a pedestrian detection system, an object detection system, blind-spot warning system, and a lane departure warning system.

21. A non-transitory machine-readable medium encoded with machine-executable instructions, where execution of the machine-executable instructions is for:

determining an indicator of a distance between a first physical object and a second physical object by a processor; and

generating a proximity warning sound, by an audio signal processor, including a reverberation mimicking component that includes reverberation tail components indicative of the proximity of the first physical object to the second physical object responsive to the determined distance indicator;

where the reverberation mimicking component included in the proximity warning sound that is indicative of the determined distance indicator.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 21, where each of the first physical object and the second physical object includes an automobile.

23. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 21, where the determining an indicator of the distance uses one or more external transceivers that detect the position of physical objects.

24. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 21, where the indicator of the distance between the first physical object and the second physical object is updated responsive to changes in the distance over time and the step of generating the proximity warning sound is responsive to updates to the indicator of the distance between the first physical object and the second physical object.

25. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 21, where the reverberation mimicking component modifies a relative ratio of the reverberation tail components to direct sound responsive to the determined distance indicator.

26. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 25, where the relative ratio of the reverberation tail components to the direct sound is decreased responsive to a decreasing determined distance indicator.

27. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 26, where the reverberation tail components includes any one or more of:

reverberation gain, impulse response of a reverberant acoustic space and the reverberation tail length.

28. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 26, where the reverberation mimicking component modifies the relative ratio of the reverberation tail components to the direct sound by selecting one of one or more proximity warning sounds containing differing ratios of reverberation tail components to direct sound that are generated a priori.

29. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 21, further comprising non-transitory machine readable medium for determining an orientation indicator of an orientation of the second physical object relative to the first physical object;

where the proximity warning sound is spatialized responsive to the determined orientation indicator when played through audio transducers.

30. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 21, where the determined indicator of distance is an estimate of a relative proximity of the second physical object to the first physical object.