GB2500569A - Emergency Siren Alert System for a Vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

A combined aerial and siren alert system for a vehicle comprising an aerial 2 mounted on the exterior of a vehicle and a microphone 8 mounted near the aerials free end, the aerial being typically a whip-type aerial. The aerial has an electrical feed 18 to an in-car entertainment system 16 and a separate electrical feed 14 to a siren alert system 12 mounted inside the vehicle. The siren alert system stores audio signatures corresponding to a plurality of emergency vehicle sirens and outputs a visual alert when an audio signal associated with an emergency vehicle siren is detected. The microphone 8 may be an array of multiple transducers so that an approximate direction of the emergency vehicle may be determined and displayed in the form of a pointer on the visual display.

Description

Emergency Siren Alert System for a Vehicle This invention relates to an emergency siren alert system for a vehicle -The interior of a vehicle is usually highly insulated against external noise. This means that drivers often do not know that an emergency vehicle, with siren operating, is approaching until it is relatively close by.

Furthermore, for drivers with hearing impairment, it is necessary to rely on the visual alert from emergency vehicles, i.e. flashing blue lights. This reguires a clear line-of-sight between the driver and the emergency vehicle, which means that in many cases such drivers will not be aware!of approaching emergency vehicles until they are very close by. For example, hearing impaired drivers will be unaware of approaching emergency vehicles if they are shielded by high-sided vehicles or are approaching from a side street. This has safety implications for drivers, as well as hindering the progress of the emergency vehicle.

It would be desirable to provide an alert system which would be help drivers, particularly those with hearing impairments, to be alerted to the presence of nearby emergency vehicles without the need for a clear line of sight.

According to one aspect, there is provided a combined aerial and siren alert system for a vehicle, the system comprising: an aerial for being mounted on the exterior of a vehicle having a microphone mounted thereon; and a visual alert system for being mounted within the interior of the vehicle and which is arranged to receive an audio signal from the aerial-mounted microphone, to detect an audio signal associated with an emergency vehicle siren, and responsive to such detection to output a visual alert within the vehicle interior.

The system may further comprise an electrical feed between the aerial and an in-vehicle entertainment system.

The aerial may be connected to the visual alert system by means of a second electrical feed.

The aerial may be a whip-type aerial. The microphone may be mounted at or substantially near the aerial's free end, opposite its mounting on the vehicle.

The system may further comprise signal processing means for detecting the approximate direction of the received signal and for outputting to the visual alert system a visual indication of said approximate direction. The microphone may comprise an array of multiple transducers and wherein the signal processing means determines the approximate direction of the received signal using the signal received at each transducer.

The visual alert system may comprise a pointer configured to indicate said approximate direction of the received signal.

The visual alert system may store audio signatures corresponding to a plurality of emergency vehicle sirens and is further configured to output a different respective visual indication for different sirens when detected.

The visual alert system may be mountable within a vehicle dashboard.

The visual alert system may comprise a flashing or strobing light.

According to a further aspect, there is provided an antenna for use in the system according to any preceding definition, comprising a microphone mounted thereon.

The invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective diagram showing first and second vehicles, which may be useful for understanding the invention; Figure 2 is a perspective view of an aerial forming part of a system according to the invention; Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a microphone formed of multiple transducer elements; Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing functional modules of the sy5tern according to the invention; Figure 5 is a schematic block diagram of functional modules of a siren alert system shown in Figure 4; Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of a first user interface for the siren alert 5ystem shown in Figure 5; and Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of a second user interface for the siren alert system shown in Figure 5.

Referring to Figure 1, a vehicle 1 is shown in the context of being on a road with an emergency vehicle 3 nearby operating its siren, represented by the sound waves 4. The vehicle 1 has a whip-type antenna or aerial 2 mounted thereon. As will be appreciated, if the driver of the vehicle 1 is hearing-impaired, he or she will be unaware of the emergency vehicle 3 unless it is within a line-of-sight of the driver.

Referring to Figure 2, in order to improve driver awareness to nearby emergency vehicles, the embodiment proposes a combined aerial and driver alert system which employs on the aerial 2 a microphone 8 for receiving 3ound wave5 from the surrounding area, such as those emitted by emergency vehicles, and wherein the driver alert system interprets the received audio signals and outputs a visual alert in the event that an emergency vehicle siren is detected. The microphone 8 is preferably at, or near, the free end of the aerial 2 so that, in use, it is relatively high up from the ground and above the vehicle to maximise reception of surrounding sounds.

Although a whip-type aerial 2 is used in this embodiment, other types of vehicle-mountable aerials can be employed.

The microphone 8 can be a simple omnidirectional microphone.

Alternatively, the microphone 8 can be formed of an array of separate transducers which would allow for at least an approximate determination of the direction from where the siren originates.

Referring to Figure 3, a sc-called crossed omnidirectional microphone array 9 is shown, coriprising four separate microphone transducers 9a arranged in a cruciform pattern. A processing means can be employed to analyse the signal received at each transducer 9a and to determine direction, for example using the relative signal strengths at each and/or the time delay of arrival at each. The term crossed correlation is sometimes used to describe such a directional determination.

Referring to Figure 4, a schematic representation of the aerial and driver alert system according to one embodiment is shown. The aerial 2 is shown with the microphone B mounted thereon, which could be the microphone array 9 shown in Figure 3. The microphone B is electrically connected by a wire feed to siren alert system 12, preferably mounted within the dashboard of the vehicle 1. The aerial 2 also serves its conventional purpose as a radiofreguency (rf) antenna for in-car entertainment (ICE) and hence is shown ccnnected to an ICE system 16, such as a radio.

Figure 5 shows a schematic diagram of the components of the siren alert system 12. The system 12 has a controller 106, a display 108, hardware keys 104, a memory 112, RAM 114, and a connection to the microphone B. The controller 106 is connected to each of the other components in order to control operation thereof.

The memory 112 may be a non-volatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD) . The memory 112 stores, amongst other things, an operating system 126 and may store software applications 128. The RAM 114 is used by the controller 106 for the temporary storage of data. The operating system 126 may contain code which, when executed by the controller 106 in conjunction with RAM 114, controls operation of each of the hardware components of the system 12.

The controller 106 may take any suitable form. For instance, it may be a microcontroller, plural microcontrollers, a processor, or plural processors.

The display part 108 is for outputting a visual indication that an emergency vehicle siren is detected. In its simplest form, it comprises a lamp, Light Emitting Diode (LED) or Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) that lights up or strobes upon detecting a siren within range. In a preferred form, however, the display 108 provides an indication of the approximate direction from which the siren is received. This can be by means of a segmented display or a compass -type graphical user interface (GUI) The hardware keys 104 may be dedicated control keys or switches.

The hardware keys may for example comprise two adjacent keys, a single rocker switch or a rotary dial.

One software application 128 stored on the memory 128 comprises code which, when executed by the controller 106, is operable to monitor the received audio signal from the microphone 8, to identify from the audio signal whether a siren from an emergency vehicle is detected and, if so, to output a suitable visual indication to the display 108. To perform this, one or more signatures corresponding to emergency vehicle sirens is/are stored on the memory 112. For example, each of a police, ambulance and fire service siren signature is stored on the memory. The software application 128 samples the received audio signal and, upon detecting a correlation with one of the siren signatures, causes an indication to be displayed. An indication of the type of vehicle (police/ambulance/fire) can also be given.

In the case where the microphone 8 is the crossed omnidirectional microphone array 9, the software application 128 is operable, in addition to the above, to calculate the approximate direction from which the siren is emanating, using crossed correlation techniques mentioned above. An indication of direction is in this case output to the display 108.

Referring to Figure 6, a basic form of user interface for the display 108 is shown. Here, four discrete LEDs 130 are shown, each corresponding to one of the four microphone transducers 9a of the microphone array 9. The transducer 9a that receives the greatest signal level for the detected siren is presumed to be the nearest, and hence the corresponding LED is lit or strobed to give an indication of the approximate direction.

Referring to Figure 7, a more complex user interface for the display 108 is shown. Here, a circular display 140 represents the area surrounding the vehicle 1 with the arrow 142 giving an approximate indication of the direction where the siren is emanating from.

Here, the software application 128 performs more complex calculations based on signal levels and time delays using the information from the transducers 9a.

The display 108 is preferably mounted or mountable within a vehicle dashboard, but can be temporarily connected to a windscreen for detachable use.

It will be appreciated that the above described embodiments are purely illustrative and are not limiting on the scope of the invention. Other variations and modifications will be apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reading the present application.

Moreover, the disclosure of the present application should be understood to include any novel features or any novel combination of features either explicitly or implicitly disclosed herein or any generalization thereof and during the prosecution of the present application or of any application derived therefrom, new claims may be formulated to cover any such features and/or combination of such features.

Claims (12)

1. CLAI4S 1. A combined aerial and siren alert system for a vehicle, the system comprising: an aerial for being mounted on the exterior of a vehicle having a microphone mounted thereon; and a visual alert system for being nounted within the interior of the vehicle and which is arranged to receive an audio signal from the aerial-mounted microphone, to detect an audio signal associated with an emergency vehicle siren, and responsive to such detection to output a visual alert within the vehicle interior.
2. 2. A system according to claim 1, further comprising an electrical feed between the aerial and an in-vehicle entertainment system.
3. 3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the aerial is connected (Y) to the visual alert system by means of a second electrical feed. r
4. 4. A system according to any preceding claim, wherein the aerial is a whip-type aerial.
5. 5. A system according to any preceding claim, wherein the microphone is mounted at, or substantially near the aerial's free end, opposite its mounting on the vehicle.
6. 6. A system according to any preceding claim, further comprising signal processing neans for detecting the approximate direction of the received signal and for outputting to the visual alert system a visual indication of said approximate direction.
7. 7. A system according to claim 6, wherein the microphone comprises an array of multiple transducers and wherein the signal processing means determines the approximate direction of the received signal using the signal received at each transducer.
8. 8. A system according to claim 6 or claim 7, wherein the visual alert sy3tem comprises a pointer configured to indicate said approximate direction of the received signal.
9. 9. A system according to any preceding claim, wherein the visual alert system stores audio signatures corresponding to a plurality of emergency vehicle sirens and is further configured to output a different respective visual indication for different sirens when detected.
10. 10. A system according to any preceding claim, wherein the visual alert system is mountable within a vehicle dashboard.
11. 11. A system according to any preceding claim, wherein the visual alert system comprises a flashing or strobing light.(Y)
12. 12. An antenna for use in the system according to any preceding definition, comprising a microphone mounted thereon. (1 aD