The present invention relates to an on-vehicle sound control system.
In recent years, taking into account people in vulnerable situations such as the elderly and children among traffic participants, efforts have been actively made to provide access to sustainable transportation systems for such people. Toward its realization, research and development for further improving the safety and convenience of traffic through development of vehicle comfort are attracting attention.
To improve vehicle comfort, it is desired to reduce the noise inside the vehicle. Therefore, research and development of an active noise control device, which reduces noise by generating canceling sound that is in opposite phase with the noise and making the canceling sound interfere with the noise, are actively conducted.
Conventionally, there is known an active noise control system that includes an adaptive filter to which a noise signal is inputted, an adaptive algorithm execution unit for adaptively updating the transfer function of the adaptive filter, and a speaker for outputting noise cancellation sound according to a noise canceling signal outputted from the adaptive filter. For example, JP7262899B2 discloses an active noise control system in which multiple auxiliary filters for which transfer functions are respectively set corresponding to positions of the occupant's ears (noise cancellation positions) for different seat positions are provided, the microphone output (microphone error signal) outputted from the microphone is corrected by using the output of the auxiliary filter selected depending on the occupant's ear position, and thereafter the adaptive algorithm execution unit adaptively updates the transfer function of the adaptive filter by using the corrected microphone error signal.
However, in the system disclosed in JP7262899B2, it is necessary to provide multiple auxiliary filters corresponding to different ear positions, and thus, a large amount of memory capacity and a large calculation amount are necessary, which leads to an expensive controller and complex control. Further, this system updates the transfer function of the adaptive filter by using the error signal corrected by the auxiliary filter for the difference between the transfer function from the noise source to the microphone and the transfer function from the noise source to the occupant's ear position. Therefore, when the seat position or the occupant's ear position changes, it takes time for the transfer function of the adaptive filter to become an appropriate value, whereby control of the canceling sound to follow the movement of the seat position is slow, and the silencing effect while the control is delayed is low. As described above, technology for directly controlling the noise canceling signal in response to a change of the distance from the speaker to the occupant's ear has not been proposed.
In view of the foregoing background, a primary object of the present invention is to directly correct a control signal for noise cancellation in response to a change of the distance from the speaker to the occupant's ear, thereby to simplify the control and to quickly control the canceling sound following the change of the ear position. Furthermore, the present invention aims to contribute to development of a sustainable transportation system.
To achieve the above object, one aspect of the present invention provides an on-vehicle sound control system (1), comprising: a speaker (21) configured to output canceling sound (y) for canceling noise (d); a controller (23) configured to control the speaker; and a distance estimation device (18) configured to estimate the distance (L) between the speaker and an ear of an occupant, wherein the controller comprises a control filter (31) configured to generate a control signal (u) for controlling the speaker and a control signal correction unit (32) configured to correct the control signal based on the distance and to output a corrected control signal (u′), and the controller controls the speaker based on the corrected control signal.
According to the above aspect, since the control signal is directly corrected based on the distance from the speaker to the occupant's ear, the control is simple and the canceling sound can be controlled quickly to follow the change of the occupant's ear position.
Preferably, the control signal correction unit (32) is provided with a correction coefficient (G) such that the larger the distance (L) is, the larger an amplitude of the corrected control signal becomes, and the control signal correction unit corrects the control signal (u) with the correction coefficient.
When the distance between the speaker and the occupant's ear (hereinafter, may be referred to as the relative distance) becomes larger (when the ear moves away from the speaker), the canceling sound that reaches the ear from the speaker becomes smaller. According to the above aspect, the reduction of the canceling sound can be corrected with a simple method of correcting the control signal with the correction coefficient, and thus, the memory capacity and the calculation amount of the controller can be reduced compared to the case where multiple auxiliary filters are provided.
Preferably, the on-vehicle sound control system further comprises an error microphone (22) configured to generate an error signal (e) from the noise (d) and the canceling sound (y), wherein the controller (23) further comprises an adaptive update unit (38) configured to perform adaptive update of the control filter (31) based on the error signal and an update determination unit (39) configured to determine, based on the distance (L), whether the update by the adaptive update unit may be performed, and the adaptive update unit performs the update only when the update determination unit permits the update.
If the adaptive filter is updated when the head position of the occupant changes due to temporary change of the posture of the occupant or by the shaking of the vehicle, it takes time for the adaptive filter to return to the original state by the update after the head returns to the usual position. According to the above aspect, since the update determination unit determines, based on the relative distance, whether the update may be performed, learning due to unnecessary adaptive update is suppressed in cases such as when the occupant's ear position changes significantly. Also, since the controller executes a simple control method of determining whether the update may be permitted based on the ear position (relative distance) and stopping/resuming the update according to the determination result, the memory capacity and the calculation amount of the controller can be reduced compared to the case where the auxiliary filters are used.
Preferably, the control signal correction unit (32) corrects the control signal (u) only when the update determination unit (39) does not permit the update and does not correct the control signal when the update determination unit permits the update.
If the control signal correction unit corrects the control signal based on the relative distance during the adaptive update of the control filter, convergence of the adaptive filter is delayed. According to the above aspect, since the control signal correction unit does not correct the control signal during the update of the control filter, convergence of the adaptive filter is fast.
Preferably, the control signal correction unit (32) corrects the control signal (u) with a correction coefficient (G) set depending on the distance, the update determination unit (39) permits the update when the distance (L) is in a predetermined usual range (A-B), and the control signal correction unit (32) does not correct the control signal when the distance is in the usual range.
According to the above aspect, since the control signal can be corrected simply with a correction coefficient, the memory capacity and the calculation amount of the controller can be reduced compared to the case where multiple auxiliary filters are provided.
Preferably, the correction coefficient (G) monotonically increases with an increase of the distance (L) and is set to 1 when the distance is in the usual range (A-B), and the control signal correction unit (32) does not correct the control signal by maintaining the correction coefficient to 1 when the distance is in the usual range.
According to the above aspect, there is no need for the control signal correction unit to stop operation for correcting the control signal, and thus, the control is simplified. Also, the correction coefficient does not change significantly when the relative distance changes from within to outside the usual range or from outside to within the usual range. Therefore, the amplitude of the canceling sound is prevented from changing discontinuously.
Preferably, the controller (23) further comprises a phase correction unit (35) configured to correct a phase of the control filter (31) based on the distance (L) when the distance (L) is not in the usual range (A-B).
According to the above aspect, the phase of the canceling sound also can be corrected, and therefore, the silencing effect at the ear position can be further enhanced.
Preferably, the control signal correction unit (32) corrects the control signal (u) based on an average value (Lav) of the distance (L) over a predetermined time.
If the control signal is corrected significantly when the head of the occupant is momentarily displaced due to shaking of the vehicle or the like, a delay in correction may lower the noise reduction effect. According to the above aspect, since the average value of the relative distance does not change significantly even if the head is momentarily displaced, the control signal can be prevented from being corrected significantly following the displacement. In other words, the control signal correction unit can correct the control signal appropriately by excluding small fluctuations.
According to the foregoing arrangement, it is possible to directly correct the control signal for noise cancellation in response to a change of the distance from the speaker to the occupant's ear, thereby to simplify the control and to quickly control the canceling sound following the change of the ear position.
In the following, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that in the following description, “{circumflex over ( )}” (circumflex) added to various symbols indicates an identified value or an estimated value. “{circumflex over ( )}” is added above each symbol in the drawings, but is added after each symbol in the description.
In a vehicle cabin 4 of the vehicle 3, multiple occupant seats 6 are disposed. The multiple occupant seats 6 are arranged in the left-right and front-rear directions but
The vehicle 3 is provided with a front-rear position sensor 11 for detecting a front-rear position dsl of the seat cushion 7 in the vehicle 3. The front-rear position sensor 11 may be provided on the seat cushion 7. The seat cushion 7 is provided with a reclining angle sensor 12 for detecting a reclining angle θre of the reclining part 8 with respect to the seat cushion 7. The reclining angle sensor 12 may be provided on the reclining part 8.
In an instrument panel 13 of the vehicle 3, an infrared camera 14 is provided. The infrared camera 14 is disposed to face rearward to capture an image of the head of the occupant (the driver) seated in the driver's seat and the headrest 10. Preferably, the infrared camera 14 is disposed in front of the head of the occupant, and may be provided on the rear-view mirror, the sealed glass, the roof lining, or the like of the vehicle 3.
The sound control system 1 is an apparatus for controlling the sound inside the vehicle cabin 4 of the vehicle 3, and also functions as an active noise control device for reducing noise d generated inside the vehicle cabin 4. More specifically, the sound control system 1 reduces the noise d by generating canceling sound y that is in opposite phase with the noise d and making the generated canceling sound y interference with the noise d.
For example, the noise d to be reduced by the sound control system 1 is road noise caused by vibrations of wheels 15 due to the force from the road surface S. At a part of the vehicle 3 in the vicinity of each wheel 15, a vibration sensor 16 for detecting the vibration corresponding to the noise d is provided. The vibration sensor 16 outputs a reference signal r indicating the vibration corresponding to the noise d. Note that the noise d that may be reduced by the sound control system 1 may be noise other than the aforementioned road noise (for example, driving noise caused by the vibration of a driving source such as an internal combustion engine or an electric motor).
The sound control system 1 includes multiple speakers 21 (which
are an example of a canceling sound output device and only one is shown in the drawings) configured to output the canceling sound y for canceling the noise d, and multiple error microphones 22 (only one is shown in the drawings) configured to generate an error signal e based on the noise d and the canceling sound y. Further, the sound control system 1 includes a controller 23 for controlling the multiple speakers 21 based on the error signal e.
Each speaker 21 (hereinafter may be simply referred to as “the speaker 21”) is provided in a manner built into the headrest 10 of the reclining part 8 of the occupant seat 6. Two speakers 21 are disposed at positions corresponding to the left and right ears of the occupant seated in the occupant seat 6 (namely, the two speakers 21 are disposed to be located rearward of the respective ears). In another embodiment, the speakers 21 may be provided in a part of the reclining part 8 of the occupant seat 6 other than the headrest 10 (for example, in the seat back 9) or may be provided in a part of the occupant seat 6 other than the reclining part 8. Further, in another embodiment, the speakers 21 may be provided in a part of the vehicle 3 other than the occupant seat 6.
Each error microphone 22 (hereinafter may be simply referred to as “the error microphone 22”) is provided in a manner built into the headrest 10 of the reclining part 8 of the occupant seat 6. Two error microphones 22 are disposed in positions corresponding to the left and right ears of the occupant seated in the occupant seat 6, for example, below and near the respective speakers 21. In another embodiment, the error microphones 22 may be provided in a part of the reclining part 8 of the occupant seat 6 other than the headrest 10 (for example, in the seat back 9) or may be provided in a part of the occupant seat 6 other than the reclining part 8. Further, in another embodiment, the error microphones 22 may be provided in a part of the vehicle 3 other than the occupant seat 6, such as the roof lining or the B pillar (not shown in the drawings), for example.
The controller 23 is composed of a computer including an arithmetic processing unit (a processor such as a CPU, an MPU, etc.) and a storage device (a memory such as a ROM, a RAM, etc.). The controller 23 may be configured as one piece of hardware or may be configured as a unit including multiple pieces of hardware.
With reference to
In the following, detailed description will be first made of the distance calculation unit 25, and then of the speaker control unit 24.
The distance calculation unit 25 includes, as functional components thereof, a seat position calculation unit 27, an image processing unit 28, a relative distance calculation unit 29, and a moving average calculation unit 30.
The seat position calculation unit 27 receives the front-rear position dsl of the seat cushion 7 outputted from the front-rear position sensor 11 and the reclining angle θre of the reclining part 8 outputted from the reclining angle sensor 12. As shown in
The seat position calculation unit 27 outputs the calculated front-rear position dsp of the speaker 21 to the relative distance calculation unit 29. Also, the seat position calculation unit 27 calculates a vertical position hsp of the speaker 21 and outputs the calculated vertical position hsp to the relative distance calculation unit 29. The seat position calculation unit 27 calculates the vertical position hsp of the speaker 21 by using the following formula (2). Note that the vertical position hsp of the speaker 21 represents the vertical distance from a horizontal reference plane passing the pivot axis of the reclining part 8 to the speaker 21 which is positioned above the horizontal reference plane.
The image processing unit 28 performs image processing on the image captured by the infrared camera 14 by using known image processing technology and thereby calculates the head position and the head angle of the occupant. Also, the image processing unit 28 determines the positions of the left and right ears of the occupant by calculation based on the head position and the head angle of the occupant.
The position of each of the left and right ears is calculated as a front-rear position dea representing the horizontal (rearward) distance from the aforementioned vertical reference plane to the ear and a vertical position hea representing the vertical distance from the horizontal reference plane passing the pivot axis of the reclining part 8 to the ear. The image processing unit 28 outputs the calculated positions of the left and right ears of the occupant to the relative distance calculation unit 29.
With reference to
The moving average calculation unit 30 calculates an average value Lav of the relative distance L over a predetermined time based on the relative distance L inputted from the relative distance calculation unit 29. For example, the moving average calculation unit 30 calculates the average value Lav of the relative distance L by accumulating samples of the relative distance L inputted every predetermined computational processing cycle over one or 2 seconds, and dividing the accumulated value by the number of samples. The moving average calculation unit 30 outputs the calculated average value Lav of the relative distance L to the speaker control unit 24.
The speaker control unit 24 includes, as functional components thereof, a control signal generation unit 31, a control signal correction unit 32, a reference signal correction unit 33, an adaptive correction unit 34, and a phase correction unit 35. The control signal correction unit 32 includes a correction unit 36 and a coefficient setting unit 37. The adaptive correction unit 34 includes an adaptive update unit 38 and an update determination unit 39.
The control signal generation unit 31 of the controller 23 is composed of a control filter W. The control filter W is composed of a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, for example. In another embodiment, the control filter W may be composed of a single frequency adaptive notch (SAN) filter or the like.
The control signal generation unit 31 receives the reference signal r corresponding to the noise d from the vibration sensor 16. In another embodiment, instead of being generated by the vibration sensor 16, the reference signal r may be generated by a reference microphone (not shown in the drawings) configured to generate the reference signal r from the noise d, for example. Alternatively, the reference signal r may be inputted to the control signal generation unit 31 from a component other than the vibration sensor 16 and the reference microphone.
The control signal generation unit 31 generates a control signal u for controlling the speaker 21 by performing, with the control filter W, a filtering process on the reference signal r. The control filter W has a transfer function identified beforehand such that, when the occupant's ear is spaced from the speaker 21 to be within a normal distance range, the canceling sound y that reaches the occupant's ear from the speaker 21 has a phase that is 180° deferent from the phase of the noise d reaching the occupant and the same volume as the volume of the noise d reaching the occupant. The normal distance range will be described later. The control signal generation unit 31 outputs the generated control signal u to the control signal correction unit 32.
The control signal correction unit 32 of the controller 23 corrects the control signal u inputted from the control signal generation unit 31 based on the relative distance L from the speaker 21 to the occupant's ear, more accurately, based on the average value Lav of the relative distance L. Specifically, in the control signal correction unit 32, the correction unit 36 is composed of a multiplier and has a correction coefficient G. The correction unit 36 corrects the control signal u with the correction coefficient G, namely, by multiplying the control signal u by the correction coefficient G, and outputs a corrected control signal u′. The correction coefficient G is a sound volume coefficient of the canceling sound y to be generated by the speaker 21. In the following, the average value Lav of the relative distance L may be simply referred to as the relative distance L.
As the relative distance L between the speaker 21 and the occupant's ear becomes larger (as the ear leaves away from the speaker 21), the canceling sound y that reaches the ear from the speaker 21 becomes smaller. To address this, the correction unit 36 is provided with the correction coefficient G that becomes greater as the relative distance L becomes larger, and corrects the control signal u with the correction coefficient G. Thereby, the amplitude of the corrected control signal u′ becomes larger as the relative distance L becomes larger. In this way, the correction unit 36 can prevent the reduction in the canceling sound y due to increase in the relative distance L with a simple method of correcting the control signal u with the variable correction coefficient G, and therefore, the memory capacity and the calculation amount of the controller 23 can be reduced compared to the case where multiple auxiliary filters are provided.
The correction unit 36 outputs the generated corrected control signal u′ to the electric power amplifier 26. The electric power amplifier 26 supplies the electric power according to the corrected control signal u′ to the speaker 21 and drives the speaker 21. Thereby, the speaker 21 generates the canceling sound y according to the corrected control signal u outputted from the control signal correction unit 32.
The correction coefficient G of the correction unit 36 is set by the coefficient setting unit 37. The coefficient setting unit 37 sets the correction coefficient G such that the larger (the average value Lav of) the relative distance L from the speaker 21 to the occupant's ear becomes, the greater the correction coefficient G becomes (namely, the greater the amplitude of the corrected control signal u′ becomes). Specifically, the coefficient setting unit 37 is provided with a gain map represented by a correlation diagram between the relative distance L and the correction coefficient G shown in
In this gain map, the correction coefficient G is set to monotonically increase with the increase of the relative distance L. Also, in a range from a first threshold A to a second threshold B for the relative distance L (hereinafter referred to as the usual range A-B), the correction coefficient G is set to 1. The usual range A-B is a normal range of the occupant's ear position spaced from the speaker 21. For example, the first threshold A may be 100 mm and the second threshold B may be 175 mm. The correction coefficient G when the relative distance L is 0 may be 0.1 or 0.2, for example.
With reference to
Namely, when the relative distance L is in the usual range A-B, the coefficient setting unit 37 maintains the correction coefficient G to 1 and thus does not correct the control signal. Therefore, when the relative distance L is in the usual range A-B, the control signal correction unit 32 does not need to stop the operation of correcting the control signal u by the correction unit 36, whereby the control is simplified.
Also, since the correction coefficient G is set to monotonically increase with the increase of the relative distance L, the correction coefficient G does not change significantly when the relative distance L changes from within to outside the usual range A-B or from outside to within the usual range A-B. Therefore, the amplitude of the canceling sound y is prevented from changing discontinuously.
As described above, when the relative distance L is in the usual range A-B, the control signal correction unit 32 does not substantially correct the control signal u. The control signal correction unit 32 substantially corrects the control signal u only when the relative distance L is outside the usual range A-B, namely, only when the occupant's ear is spaced from the speaker 21 to be outside the normal distance range (to be in an abnormal distance range).
If the control signal u is corrected significantly when the head of the occupant is momentarily displaced due to shaking of the vehicle 3 or the like, a delay in correction may lower the effect of reducing the noise d. To address this problem, the control signal correction unit 32 corrects the control signal u based on the average value Lav of the relative distance L over a predetermined time, as described above. If the head is momentarily displaced, the average value Lav of the relative distance L does not change significantly. Therefore, the control signal u can be prevented from being corrected significantly following the displacement. In other words, the control signal correction unit 32 can correct the control signal u appropriately by excluding small fluctuations.
The reference signal correction unit 33 is composed of a secondary path filter C{circumflex over ( )}. The secondary path filter C{circumflex over ( )} is a filter indicating an estimated value of a transfer function of the secondary path from the speaker 21 to the error microphone 22. The secondary path filter C{circumflex over ( )} is composed of an FIR filter, for example. In another embodiment, the secondary path filter C{circumflex over ( )} may be composed of a SAN filter or the like.
The reference signal correction unit 33 generates a canceling sound estimation signal y{circumflex over ( )}, which indicates an estimated value of the canceling sound y, by performing a filtering process on the reference signal r with the secondary path filter C{circumflex over ( )}. The reference signal correction unit 33 outputs the generated canceling sound estimation signal y{circumflex over ( )} to the adaptive update unit 38 of the adaptive correction unit 34.
The adaptive update unit 38 of the adaptive correction unit 34 adaptively updates the control filter W constituting the control signal generation unit 31 by using an adaptive algorithm such as an LMS algorithm. More specifically, the adaptive update unit 38 adaptively updates the control filter W so as to minimize the error signal e outputted from the error microphone 22.
The update determination unit 39 of the adaptive correction unit 34 determines whether the update by the adaptive update unit 38 may be permitted based on the relative distance L between the speaker 21 and the ear. Specifically, as shown in
The adaptive update unit 38 switches the execution/stop of the adaptive update of the control filter W according to the determination result of the update determination unit 39. The adaptive update unit 38 executes the adaptive update of the control filter W only when the determination result is permission. When the determination result is non-permission, the adaptive update unit 38 stops the adaptive update of the control filter W. While the adaptive update is stopped, the control filter W performs the filtering process on the reference signal r with the aforementioned transfer function identified beforehand.
The adaptive correction unit 34 updates the control filter W in the above-described manner. If the adaptive filter is updated when the head position of the occupant changes due to temporary change of the posture of the occupant by the shaking of the vehicle, it takes time for the adaptive filter to return to the original state by the update after the head returns to the usual position. In the present embodiment, since the update determination unit 39 determines, based on the relative distance L, whether the update may be permitted, learning due to unnecessary adaptive update is suppressed in cases such as when the occupant's ear position changes significantly. Also, since the controller 23 executes a simple control method of determining whether the update may be permitted based on the relative distance L and stopping/resuming the update according to the determination result, the memory capacity and the calculation amount of the controller 23 can be reduced compared to the case where the auxiliary filters are used.
The phase correction unit 35 of the controller 23 corrects the phase of the control filter W based on the relative distance L when the relative distance L is not in the usual range A-B. Namely, the phase correction unit 35 corrects the phase of the control filter W when the adaptive correction unit 34 stops the adaptive update of the control filter W. When the relative distance L is in the usual range A-B and the adaptive correction unit 34 is performing the adaptive update of the control filter W, the phase correction unit 35 does not correct the phase of the control filter W.
Specifically, the phase correction unit 35 is provided with a phase correction amount map represented by a correlation diagram of between the relative distance L and the phase correction amount θd shown in
In this phase correction amount map, the phase correction amount θd is set to monotonically decrease with the increase of the relative distance L. Also, in the usual range A-B from the first threshold A to the second threshold B for the relative distance L, the phase correction amount θd is set to 0 deg. The usual range A-B is a normal range of the occupant's ear position as mentioned above. Thus, when the occupant's ear is positioned close to the speaker 21 to be outside the normal range, the phase of the transfer function of the control filter W is corrected to the positive (+) side (delayed side). When the occupant's ear is away from the speaker 21 to be outside the normal range, the phase of the transfer function of the control filter W is corrected to the negative (−) side (advanced side).
When the ear is spaced from the speaker 21 to be within the normal distance range (when the relative distance L is in the usual range A-B), the phase correction unit 35 sets the phase correction amount θd to 0 deg and hence does not correct the phase of the control filter W. When the relative distance L is not in the usual range A-B, the phase correction unit 35 corrects the phase of the control filter W based on the relative distance L. Thus, when the adaptive correction unit 34 is not adaptively updating the control filter W, the control signal correction unit 32 corrects not only the volume of the canceling sound y but also the phase of the canceling sound y, and therefore, the silencing effect at the ear position is enhanced.
The sound control system 1 according to the embodiment is configured as described above. Now, the effects of the sound control system 1 according to the embodiment will be described below.
In the embodiment, as described above, each occupant seat 6 is provided with two speakers 21 at positions corresponding to the occupant's ears, and the speaker control unit 24 is provided for each speaker 21. The control signal correction unit 32 of the controller 23 corrects the control signal u outputted from the control filter W based on the relative distance L so that the speaker 21 is controlled based on the corrected control signal u′. In other words, the control signal u is directly corrected based on the relative distance L from the speaker 21 to the occupant's ear. Therefore, the control is simple and the canceling sound y can be controlled quickly to follow the change of the occupant's ear position.
As shown in part (A) of
As shown in part (B) of
As shown in part (C) of
As shown in part (A) of
As shown in part (B) of
As shown in part (C) of
Incidentally, if the control signal correction unit 32 corrects the control signal u in accordance with the relative distance L during the adaptive update of the control filter W, convergence of the adaptive filter becomes slow. To avoid this, the control signal correction unit 32 shown in
Concrete embodiments have been described in the foregoing, but the present invention can be modified in various ways without being limited to the above embodiments.
For example, as described above, the seat position calculation unit 27 calculates the vertical position hsp of speakers 21, and the image processing unit 28 calculates the vertical position hea of the left and right ears of the occupant. Therefore, the relative distance calculation unit 29 may calculate the relative distance L by taking into account the vertical distance between each speaker 21 and the corresponding ear of the occupant.
Besides, the concrete structure, arrangement, number, control procedure or the like of each member or part described in the above embodiments may be appropriately changed without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Also, not all of the components shown in the foregoing embodiments are necessarily indispensable and they may be selectively adopted as appropriate.
For example, though the speaker control unit 24 shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2023-143604 | Sep 2023 | JP | national |