Alan P Norton

US Patent:

20180186286, Jul 5, 2018

Filed:

Nov 15, 2017

Appl. No.:

15/814226

Inventors:

- Dearborn MI, US
Alan Norton - West Bloomfield MI, US
Casey Bryan Feldman - Sunnyvale CA, US
Prabhanjan Kadepurkar - Ann Arbor MI, US

International Classification:

B60Q 9/00
B60R 11/02
H04S 7/00

Abstract:

A vehicle includes a plurality of sensors including exterior sensors. Vehicle signals, such as those derived from sensors, are processed to detect alertable conditions and each alertable condition is represented by a created software object. A location is associated with each software object, such as corresponding to a location of an exterior feature that gave rise to the alertable condition. The software object is updated over time according to the vehicle signals, such as by updating the location according to movement of the obstacle. The software objects are processed to drive an array of speakers effective to simulate a sound originating from the location associated with the software object. The sound generated by the speakers may be repeated chimes having a volume and period determined according to the location.

US Patent:

20180103318, Apr 12, 2018

Filed:

Oct 11, 2016

Appl. No.:

15/290727

Inventors:

- Dearborn MI, US
Alan Norton - West Bloomfield MI, US
Joshua Wheeler - Trenton MI, US
Gintaras Vincent Puskorius - Novi MI, US
Ranjani Rangarajan - Dearborn MI, US

International Classification:

H04R 3/02
H04R 3/04
H04R 29/00

Abstract:

Method and apparatus are disclosed for responding to HVAC-induced vehicle microphone buffeting. An example disclosed vehicle includes a microphone, a speaker, and a buffeting detector. The example microphone is electrically coupled to an input of a voice-activated system. The example speaker is located on a front driver side of the vehicle. The example buffeting detector, when a button is activated, determines a buffeting factor of a signal captured by the microphone. Additionally, the example buffeting detector, in response to the buffeting factor satisfying a threshold, activates a relay to electrically couple the speaker to the input of the voice-activated system.