Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Keng D Hsueh

Vy Tran

Francois Charette

Christopher R Fuller

Hsiao-An Hsieh

Andrew Dayton Phillips

Sheau-Fang Lei

Gary Boes

Bill Covitz

Dafydd G Davies

Ricardo A Burdisso

Jerome Peter Smith

Rick S Hooker

Peter J Didyk

Larry Duane Hollingsworth

Garland Lee

Julien Maillard

David Zhou

An apparatus for detecting unwanted noise includes a reference sensor that generates a reference signal in response to stimulation by a source. A combined noise detector picks up a combined noise signal, which includes both background noise and the unwanted noise generated by the source. A noise separation synthesis device filters both signals to generate a coherent unwanted noise signal from the combined noise signal as a function of the reference signal generated by the reference sensor. A comparator determines the presence of unwanted noise by calculating the Kurtosis value of the coherent unwanted noise signal.

Method and system to detect unwanted noise

A passive system for speech enhancement in a motor vehicle includes a headliner adapted to be disposed in an occupant compartment of the motor vehicle. The passive system also includes at least one passive sound reflector disposed in or near the headliner and being sound-reflective and shaped to direct or focus speech between front and rear seat occupants in the occupant compartment of the motor vehicle.

Passive system for speech enhancement

A sound detector device for locating and diagnosing sound in a motor vehicle includes a headphone and a plurality of directional microphones. The sound detector device also includes a main unit having a circuit operatively connected to the headphone and the directional microphones for allowing an operator to diagnose sound in the motor vehicle.

Sound detector device

An extracting assembly for extracting a component signal generated by a component source from a composite signal is disclosed wherein a reference sensor generates a reference signal relating to activity of the component source, a composite sensor senses the composite signal, an adaptive filter is operatively connected to the reference sensor and the composite sensor to filter the component signal from the composite signal as a function of the reference signal generated by the reference sensor, and a normalizer operatively connected to the adaptive filter for normalizing the step size of each iteration taken by the adaptive filter to minimize the time to adapt the adaptive filter to transform the reference signal into the component signal.

Method and apparatus for extracting a component signal from a composite signal

Impulsive components and non-impulsive components within any time-domain signal such as audio, video, vibration, etc., are separated using wavelet analysis and sorting of wavelet coefficient sets according to statistical parameters of each respective coefficient set. Each entire coefficient set is either included or excluded from each respective separated component based on the statistical parameter. Thus, automatic, adaptive, flexible, and reliable separation of impulsive and non-impulsive components is achieved.

Method and apparatus for separation of impulsive and non-impulsive components in a signal

Impulsive sound components in a composite sound signal are separated using wavelet analysis and sorting of wavelet coefficient sets according to statistical parameters of each respective coefficient set. Each entire coefficient set is either included or excluded from each respective separated component based on the statistical parameter. Once the impulsive sound component is isolated, it is compared with reference sound information in order to classify the sound according to its potential causes.

Method and apparatus for identifying sound in a composite sound signal

The recreation of vibration levels at certain points in a stationary vehicle interior that are representative of realistic road conditions are achieved using road measurements in conjunction with a technique known as 'reciprocal filtering.' The reciprocal filtering technique consists of using an inverse transfer function, or impulse response in the time domain, between an excitation transducer and an accelerometer to calculate the excitation signal needed to recreate the vibrations measured on the road when squeak and rattle are present in a component of the vehicle. A set of excitation signals may be recorded for each component in the vehicle which is suspected of producing squeak and rattle noise. When a complaint is made that a vehicle is producing squeak and rattle, a service technician may reproduce noise by inducing vibrations through a kit having a CD player, an amplifier, a bass shaker and a CD with the set of excitation signals stored on separate tracks thereof. The bass shaker is attached, for example with two side tape, to the component suspected of producing noise, and noise inducing vibrations are played from the CD, through the CD player and amplifier, to the bass shaker. In this way, squeak and rattle may be quickly identified and repaired.

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West Bloomfield, MI, United States of America

Keng D Hsueh