JPH07302093A - Engine sound generating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To generate a desired engine sound, which is different from an own vehicle's engine sound, in the compartment of the vehicle and to inform the driver of the vehicle about the running condition change of the vehicle in accordance with the operation of the driver by the variation in the desired engine sound. CONSTITUTION:The device consists of a vehicle power section working condition output section 1, a computational processing section 3 which computes and outputs working condition indicating signals based on the output signals of the section 1, a memory section 7 which records audio data that are required to generate the desired engine sound, an audio signal generating section 8 which generates the audio data read from the section 7 based on the indication signals of the section 3 and a volume adjusting section 11 which adjusts the generated volume of the section 8 by the output signal changes from a running condition detection section ID.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an engine sound producing apparatus which is utilized especially in a vehicle compartment and produces a desired engine sound according to the operating state of the power section of the vehicle and enables sound production.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, the engine sound of a vehicle has a tone color peculiar to the vehicle type of each vehicle, which is especially due to the explosion sound of an internal combustion engine. On the other hand, there is a strong possibility that these engine sounds will become noise,
On the other hand, it is also true that the engine sound gives a sense of exhilaration, and in some cases the muffler of the vehicle may be modified to change the timbre.

[0003] Further, especially among young people and enthusiasts, there is an interest in the unique engine sound of sports cars and foreign cars with high horsepower, or that of luxury cars. Often asked for a simulated experience at amusement.

Further, due to energy problems and air pollution problems, electric vehicles have recently attracted attention in place of engine-powered vehicles using an internal combustion engine that uses gasoline as a fuel, and a quiet electric noise generated by a motor is produced. It is impossible to hear the engine sound.

[0005]

Under the circumstances as described above, there is a strong tendency to seek the traditional engine sound, and the noise pollution to the surroundings is caused by the result of the crafting of the muffler of the own vehicle. Also becomes. In particular, the act of seeking the engine sound of such vehicles, even when luxury vehicles are not available, becomes more and more intense with the transition to electric vehicles.

Further, the quietness of the interior of the vehicle due to the high performance of the vehicle is preferable for those who desire it, but it is becoming less interesting for those who want a feeling of driving by the engine sound. It is also a heavy burden on the vehicle production side to have a vehicle type that meets each of these requirements.

Therefore, according to the present invention, in addition to the engine sound of the own vehicle, the traditional engine sound found in, for example, high-class passenger cars and sports cars can be heard in the passenger compartment, and the volume of the reproduced sound can be heard. It is intended to provide an engine sound generation device capable of knowing a running state of a vehicle by a change.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A power section operating state output section for outputting a signal corresponding to the operation of a power section of a vehicle, and an output signal from the power section operating state output section are detected, and in response to this state. An arithmetic processing unit that arithmetically outputs an operating state instruction signal, a memory unit that stores audio data for generating an audio signal that produces a desired engine sound of the vehicle and exhibits a tone color change corresponding to the operating state of the power unit, An audio signal generation unit that generates, as an audio signal, audio data read from the memory unit based on an operation state instruction signal from the arithmetic processing unit; and a running state detection unit that detects a running state of the vehicle,
The engine sound generator is composed of a volume controller that adjusts the volume generated by the voice signal generator or the volume of the voice signal from the voice signal generator based on the output of the running state detector.

[0009]

The engine speed is detected based on the operating state output signal proportional to the engine speed, the voice data corresponding to the operating state instruction signal based on the detection result is read out from the memory section, and the voice signal generating section outputs the voice signal. Is generated, and the volume of the generated sound is adjusted by the volume adjusting unit based on the output from the running state detecting unit, and is uttered by the speaker of the car audio device or the like. It can be easily heard in the passenger compartment when the running condition changes.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows the most basic simplified block diagram of an engine sound generating apparatus according to the present invention. A power unit operating state output unit 1 outputs an ignition pulse signal from an engine ignition system, for example. Ignition circuit 1A for output, pickup sensor 1B arranged in engine gear, attachment electrode 1C that can be attached to a cigarette lighter of a vehicle to extract engine ignition noise, and output a signal corresponding to the engine speed by the engine throttle opening A possible valve opening sensor 1D, a motor rotation sensor 1E that outputs a signal corresponding to the motor speed that is the power unit of an electric vehicle, an output signal that corresponds to the rotational operating state of the engine or motor that is the power unit of the vehicle It is composed by what can be obtained.

Here, the configuration using the attachment electrode body 1C will be described. A voltage signal on which the ignition noise of the engine is superimposed is output to the electrode of the cigarette lighter, and this voltage is applied to the attachment electrode body 1C. The signal is provided by an electrical connection. Since high-frequency noise is superimposed on this voltage signal in addition to engine ignition noise (a signal corresponding to the engine speed), the electric signal obtained from the attachment electrode body 1C passes through the signal filter circuit 2 and the ignition noise component is It is taken out as a rotation speed signal.

For example, the signal filter circuit 2 can have a filter function of deciding a signal having a width (narrow width) that is not possible as an engine rotation pulse as noise and ignoring the signal edge. .
This filter function can also be provided by the arithmetic processing unit 3 such as a microcomputer to be described later. For example, in the case of a 4-cycle 4-cylinder engine, the engine ignition period at 15000 rpm (maximum speed) is 2 msec. It is possible to count only the engine speed component signal by determining that a signal below that is an impossible noise signal and ignoring the pulse edge that is the target of count processing by measuring the pulse period when such a signal is input.

As the above-mentioned noise removing method,
Only the pulse signal is passed through the signal filter circuit 2, and the correct characteristic of the engine ignition signal change is stored in the arithmetic processing unit 3 so that the characteristic of the actually input pulse signal (pulse width, pulse degree direction, When the variation amount) deviates from the storage characteristic, it is possible to judge that it is noise and input only the pulse signal satisfying the characteristic as the engine ignition corresponding signal.

The voltage signal containing the engine ignition noise signal supplied by the attachment electrode body 1C corresponds to the engine speed through the signal filter circuit 2 as described above or by the input stage determination process in the arithmetic processing unit 3. It is input as a pulse signal. In the engine speed detection in the arithmetic processing unit 3, the counter 4 counts the clock signal from the high-frequency clock signal generating unit 5 for each input pulse signal cycle, and the arithmetic unit 6 calculates each input pulse signal based on this count value. The engine speed is obtained by calculation from the pulse cycle.

The arithmetic unit 6 outputs a predetermined memory address designating signal corresponding to the rotational speed data thus obtained, and reads the designated address storage data of the memory unit (ROM) 7 storing the voice data. The setting of the address designation signal in the arithmetic unit 6 corresponds to the memory address of the voice data stored in the memory unit 7, and the voice data stored in the memory unit 7 changes the engine speed when reproduced as a voice signal. The address capacity is set according to how smoothly the address is changed.

In the present embodiment, a raw engine sound of a high-class sports car is recorded by a microphone as voice data to be stored in the memory unit 7, and the recorded data is subdivided for each rotation speed band by a predetermined resolution and digitized. . That is, the signal shown in FIG. 2 in which the engine speed of a high-class sports car is gradually increased from the idling operation to the accelerator operation to increase the engine speed to the maximum engine speed in actual driving, and the engine sound change associated with the engine speed is recorded as an analog frequency signal Record as A.

The analog frequency signal thus recorded is
For example, it is divided every several tens of msec, and the divided blocks are allocated and stored in the memory blocks of the memory unit 7. A sampling cycle for sampling and digitizing the analog frequency signal A is set at a finer frequency, for example, 32 KHz signal cycle for each division unit of several tens m'sec.

As shown in FIG. 3, the memory area of the memory unit 7 is divided into memory blocks 7A, 7A corresponding to the division units.
Each memory block 7 is divided into B and 7C configurations.
7A001, 7A002, 7A for storing sampling data for each shorter period such as the 32 KHz signal
An address such as 003 is set, and the analog frequency signal is stored at this address as voice data obtained by sampling and digital conversion.

The voice data stored in the memory unit 7 is read from the memory block of the division unit portion corresponding to the input rotation speed in the arithmetic processing unit 3 and divided by combining the voice data stored at each address in the memory block. It is output to the audio signal generator 8 to be regenerated as a frequency characteristic signal of a unit portion.

For example, the memory block 7A of the memory unit 7
The audio data stored in each address of the memory block 7A is stored as the subdivided digital data of the analog frequency signal characteristic of the corresponding division unit portion of FIG. Data can be easily reproduced into an analog frequency signal similar to that shown in FIG. 2 by sequentially performing D / A conversion at a conversion cycle similar to the sampling cycle.

The voice signal thus generated by the voice signal generation unit 8 can be uttered by the sounding body 10 such as a speaker through the amplifier 9, and the input signal to the arithmetic processing unit 3 can be rotated at a constant rotation speed. 2 can be uttered as a reproduction signal of the division unit portion shown in FIG. 2 having a frequency corresponding to the number of revolutions, and the arithmetic processing unit 3 responds by changing the frequency (number of revolutions) of the input signal. The address signal (operating state instruction signal) of the divided unit portion is output to the memory unit 7, and the raw data corresponding to the frequency band (rotation speed) of the input signal is read by reading the voice data from the corresponding memory block and generating the voice signal. A timbre change very close to the engine sound can be generated.

In the above-mentioned basic structure, the running state detecting section in the present invention can be constructed by also using the power section operating state detecting section 1. For example, this valve opening sensor 1D is used to judge the output as the running state of the vehicle. The opening sensor 1D is used as a traveling state detection unit.

Further, there is provided a volume control section 11 which is connected to the output of the valve opening sensor 1D as the running state detection section and which determines the change in the output and adjusts the generated audio volume in the audio signal generation section 8. The volume of sound produced from the audio signal generator 8 is increased when the output of the valve opening sensor 1D is changing, and is reduced or eliminated when the output of the valve opening sensor 1D is hardly changing. To do.

That is, the running state of the vehicle such as the accelerator operation by the driver (including the case where only the rotation of the engine changes)
When there is no need to listen to the engine sound, such as during stable constant-speed driving or when idling, there is no change operation by the driver, by reducing or eliminating the generated volume,
In addition to eliminating the impression of noise, the engine sound is played back or made louder when the driver changes the driving condition such as gear shifting due to acceleration / deceleration or gear change. It is possible to know the changes in running conditions.

Although the volume control unit 11 may directly adjust the generated volume in the audio signal generation unit 8 as shown in the figure, it may be connected to the output stage of the audio signal generation unit 8 to generate the generated audio. It can be configured to control the sound generation of the sounding body (speaker) 10 by adjusting the volume of the signal, or the sounding body 10 can be controlled by controlling the amplifier 9 that amplifies the generated signal from the sound signal generation unit 8. It is also possible to adopt a connection configuration for adjusting the volume of the engine sound of.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, a desired engine sound that is different from the engine sound of the own vehicle can be produced easily based on the signal input proportional to the engine speed. Since it is possible to generate and utter with changes corresponding to the engine speed, it is possible to digitize the engine sound of high-end passenger cars and expensive sports cars by microphone recording beforehand and store it as voice data. The engine sound of the sports car, etc. linked to the accelerator operation can be produced, and it is also effective in eliminating the monotonous driving, and the own vehicle engine sound can be increased by chaining up the muffler etc. It can also be used as an alternative method in terms of making noise, and contributes to improving the driving environment of the driver as well as a sense of play. . In addition, the engine sound is generated only when there is a change in the running state according to the driving operation of the driver, or the volume is increased to generate the engine sound when it is not necessary to listen to the engine sound such as during constant speed running. It is possible to know the change of the running state by the generated engine sound by matching the operation feeling without the noise image due to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of a representative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an engine sound voltage waveform diagram showing audio data sampling of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an audio data storage area of a memory unit that constitutes the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Power unit operating state output unit 3 Calculation processing unit 4 Counter 5 Clock signal generation unit 6 Calculation unit 7 Memory unit 8 Voice signal generation unit 9 Amplifier 10 Sounding body 11 Volume control unit 1D Running state detection unit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Koichi Katori 1-1190, Fujihashi, Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd. R & D Center

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A power unit operating state output unit that outputs a signal that changes in response to the operation of a power unit of a vehicle, and an operating state of the power unit is detected based on an output signal from the power unit operating state output unit. Then, an arithmetic processing unit that arithmetically outputs an operating state instruction signal according to this state, and voice data for generating a voice signal that produces a desired engine sound of the vehicle and exhibits a tone color change corresponding to the operating state of the power unit. A memory unit that stores
A voice signal generation unit that generates voice data read from the memory unit as a voice signal based on an operation state instruction signal from the arithmetic processing unit, a running state detection unit that detects a running state of the vehicle, and the running state. By the output of the state detector,
An engine sound generation device comprising: a sound volume adjustment unit that adjusts the generated sound volume in the sound signal generation unit or the sound signal from the sound signal generation unit.