Abstract: A vehicle includes a cabin, an internal-loudspeaker set an external-microphone set, and a signal processor that filters a raw audio signal that has been received by the external-microphone set broadcasts the resulting filtered audio signal into the cabin using the internal-loudspeaker set.

Abstract: A vehicle control system executing a voice control system for facilitating voice-based dialog with a driver to enable the driver or autonomous vehicle to control certain operational aspects of an autonomous vehicle is provided. Using environmental and sensor input, the vehicle control system can select optimal routes for operating the vehicle in an autonomous mode or choose a preferred operational mode. Occupants of the autonomous vehicle can change a destination, route or driving mode by engaging with the vehicle control system in a dialog enabled by the voice control system.

Abstract: A method that includes receiving information indicative of a location of a vehicle. The vehicle has an occupied-vehicle state that includes an occupant state. This occupant state represents the state of one or more occupants within the vehicle. The method further includes receiving information indicative of this occupant state. The information indicative of the occupant state results from an observation by a detector that is in communication with an infotainment system within the vehicle. The method continues with using both the information indicative of the occupant state and the information indicative of the location to select an advertisement from a database of advertisements. This selected advertisement is one that is ultimately for presentation to the occupant.

Abstract: A voice-based system is configured to process commands in a flexible format, for example, in which a wake word does not necessarily have to occur at the beginning of an utterance. As in natural speech, the system being addressed may be named within or at the end of a spoken utterance rather than at the beginning, or depending on the context, may not be named at all.

Abstract: An automotive assistant that is connected to microphones and loudspeakers that are associated with different seats in a passenger vehicle includes a dialog manager that is configured to initiate a dialog based on an utterance received at a first one of the microphones and to advance that dialog based on an utterance received from another of the microphones.

Abstract: Touring circuitry for managing an immersion tour as a vehicle traverses a path through a touring theatre receives location information and provides control signals to an augmented-reality system based on a location of the vehicle in the touring theater. The control signals cause the augmented-reality system to stimulate at least two sensory inputs of a passenger.

Abstract: A vehicle defines an interior space and an exterior space. Within the vehicle are internal microphones that are disposed to capture an acoustic event that originated in an origination space, which is either the interior space or the exterior space. An infotainment system includes circuitry that forms a head unit having an acoustic-signal processor that is configured to receive, from the microphones, a sound vector indicative of the acoustic event and to identify the origination space based at least in part on the sound vector.

Abstract: A biometric corroborator receives an enhanced sound file, a vehicular data provided by a vehicle, and telemetry data provided by the vehicle to a telematics server. It then uses these to corroborate each other before deciding whether to authenticate a proposed transaction.

Abstract: An automotive processing unit includes an infotainment system having a speech interface, an application suite comprising one or more spatially-cognizant applications, and an automotive assistant that is configured to execute one or more of the spatially-cognizant applications. The speech interface is configured to receive a navigation announcement from a navigator and a touring announcement from one of the spatially-cognizant applications and, in response, to cause a spoken announcement to be made audible in a vehicle's cabin through a loudspeaker. The spoken announcement comprising content from at least one of the touring announcement and the navigation announcement.

Abstract: While current voice assistants can respond to voice requests, creating smarter assistants that leverage location, past requests, and user data to enhance responses to future requests and to provide robust data about locations is desirable. A method for enhancing a geolocation database (“database”) associates a user-initiated triggering event with a location in a database by sensing user position and orientation within the vehicle and a position and orientation of the vehicle. The triggering event is detected by sensors arranged within a vehicle with respect to the user. The method determines a point of interest (“POI”) near the location based on the user-initiated triggering event. The method, responsive to the user-initiated triggering event, updates the database based on information related to the user-initiated triggering event at an entry of the database associated with the POI. The database and voice assistants can leverage the enhanced data about the POI for future requests.

Abstract: Provided are a system and method of input to a computer in a vehicle. An electronic communication is formed between a first electronic device and a display of a second electronic device that is viewable by a user from a location in the vehicle, including providing by the first electronic device a first input mode for the second electronic device. A multimodal application is executed that permits the user to interact with the display of the second electronic device by a combination of the first input mode and at least one second input mode for the second electronic device. The combination of the first input mode and the at least one second input mode controls the display of the first electronic device.

Abstract: In a parked vehicle, a head unit operating in low-power mode draws attention to a living being in a cabin of a parked vehicle. It does so by using a microphone to monitor said cabin for out-of-domain sounds, detecting a signal originating within said cabin, said signal being an acoustic signal that is representative of an out-of-domain sound, classifying said acoustic signal as being indicative of the existence of the living being within said cabin of said vehicle, and sending an alert to a first person.

Abstract: An In-Car Communication (ICC) system supports the communication paths within a car by receiving the speech signals of a speaking passenger and playing it back for one or more listening passengers. Signal processing tasks are split into a microphone related part and into a loudspeaker related part. A sound processing system suitable for use in a vehicle having multiple acoustic zones includes a plurality of microphone In-Car Communication (Mic-ICC) instances coupled and a plurality of loudspeaker In-Car Communication (Ls-ICC) instances. The system further includes a dynamic audio routing matrix with a controller and coupled to the Mic-ICC instances, a mixer coupled to the plurality of Mic-ICC instances and a distributor coupled to the Ls-ICC instances.

Abstract: A method for selecting a speech recognition result on a computing device includes receiving a first speech recognition result determined by the computing device, receiving first features, at least some of the features being determined using the first speech recognition result, determining whether to select the first speech recognition result or to wait for a second speech recognition result determined by a cloud computing service based at least in part on the first speech recognition result and the first features.

Abstract: A method includes receiving a representation of a spoken utterance, processing the representation of the spoken utterance to identify, from a number of candidate domains, a request and a serving domain, and routing the request to a personal assistant based on the request and the serving domain. Identification of the serving domain is based on one or more of a contextual state, a behavior profile of a speaker of the utterance, and a semantic content of the utterance.

Abstract: Methods and systems for deessing of speech signals are described. A deesser of a speech processing system includes an analyzer configured to receive a full spectral envelope for each time frame of a speech signal presented to the speech processing system, and to analyze the full spectral envelope to identify frequency content for deessing. The deesser also includes a compressor configured to receive results from the analyzer and to spectrally weight the speech signal as a function of results of the analyzer. The analyzer can be configured to calculate a psychoacoustic measure from the full spectral envelope, and may be further configured to detect sibilant sounds of the speech signal using the psychoacoustic measure. The psychoacoustic measure can include, for example, a measure of sharpness, and the analyzer may be further configured to calculate deesser weights based on the measure of sharpness. An example application includes in-car communications.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for a communication system having microphones and loudspeakers to determine a noise and speech level estimate for a transformed signal, determine a SNR from the noise and speech level estimates, and determine a gain for the transformed signal to achieve a selected SNR range at a given position. In one embodiment, the gain is determined by adapting an actual gain to follow a target gain, wherein the target gain is adjusted to achieve the selected SNR range.

Abstract: An apparatus for entertaining an entertainee in a passenger vehicle includes an infotainment system having an automotive assistant that executes a spatially-cognizant entertainment application that interacts with the entertainee. In doing so, the automotive assistant receives information about the vehicle's environment from peripheral devices connected to the infotainment system. This provides the entertainment application with spatial intelligence that it then uses while interacting with the entertainee.

Abstract: A voice-based system is configured to process commands in a flexible format, for example, in which a wake word does not necessarily have to occur at the beginning of an utterance. As in natural speech, the system being addressed may be named within or at the end of a spoken utterance rather than at the beginning, or depending on the context, may not be named at all.

Abstract: A system for detection of at least one designated wake-up word for at least one speech-enabled application. The system comprises at least one microphone; and at least one computer hardware processor configured to perform: receiving an acoustic signal generated by the at least one microphone at least in part as a result of receiving an utterance spoken by a speaker; obtaining information indicative of the speaker's identity; interpreting the acoustic signal at least in part by determining, using the information indicative of the speaker's identity and automated speech recognition, whether the utterance spoken by the speaker includes the at least one designated wake-up word; and interacting with the speaker based, at least in part, on results of the interpreting.