Generation of personal sound zones in the interior and exterior of automotive vehicles

Abstract

Personal sound zones have been utilized for delivering different audio programs depending on listeners' position in space. Recently, its applications for cars and moving vehicles have gained a lot of attentions. One popular use of personal sound zone in a car is to create an isolated sound zone in the interior of the vehicle, which allows the listener to hear different audio contents at different seat positions. This line of study involves the control of highly reflective acoustic responses in a small cabin and focusing of sound energy onto a selected region in a robust manner against the change of boundary conditions. Another representative example is with the directional warning system, which aims at delivering a warning sound only to the pedestrian's direction without increasing the noise pollution due to the artificial warning sound. In this work, we demonstrate the performance of personal sound zone systems implemented in the inside and outside of a car and discuss their possibility and practical limitations.