Patents Assigned to Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
  • Publication number: 20220095072
    Abstract: A sound system configured to output sound signals to a user located in a defined environment, comprising a plurality of transducers configured to output the sound signals, a processing unit configured to individually control at least an electrical delay, a frequency characteristic and a sound level with which the sound signals transmitted to the plurality of transducers are output by each of the plurality of transducers, and a seat for a user to which the sound signals are output, the seat comprising a seating surface and a backrest configured support a back of the user sitting on the seating surface. The backrest comprises an upper surface defining an upper end surface of the backrest. The defined environment influences the sound signals as perceived by the user sitting on the seat.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 3, 2019
    Publication date: March 24, 2022
    Applicant: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Lars GOLLER, Alexander YOUNG
  • Publication number: 20220075529
    Abstract: A method for managing a memory for an onboard computer in a motor vehicle is provided. The method includes: determining, at regular time intervals, a degree of wear of the memory depending on an amount of data written into the memory; and if the degree of wear exceeds a specified target value: changing a coding of one or more cells of the memory from a physical coding of higher density to a physical coding of lower density.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2021
    Publication date: March 10, 2022
    Applicant: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventor: Ivan Iliev IVANOV
  • Publication number: 20220060819
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to a system, comprising a first circuit board comprising a control circuitry configured to control a beamforming array of microphones, and multiple second circuit boards attached to the first circuit board, each one of the multiple second circuit boards mounting a microphone of the array of microphones.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2021
    Publication date: February 24, 2022
    Applicant: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Viktor DOBOS, Zoltan Giang-Son KLEINHEINCZ, Florian CZINEGE
  • Patent number: 11250832
    Abstract: Sound reduction includes receiving a reference signal corresponding to undesired sound present in the target space, and producing, based on the reference signal, a cancelling signal representative of the undesired sound present in the target space. Sound reduction further includes producing, based on the cancelling signal, sound to destructively interfere with the undesired sound present in the target space, and delaying at least one of the reference signal and the cancelling signal to reduce or compensate for runtime differences between signal paths that transfer the reference signal to the target space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Juergen Zollner, Markus Christoph
  • Patent number: 11238882
    Abstract: A method for separating an audio input signal into a dry signal component and an ambient signal component is provided. The method includes generating a transferred input signal including transferring the audio input signal into frequency space and applying a smoothing filter to the transferred input signal to generate an estimated ambient signal component. The method includes determining the dry signal component based on the estimated ambient signal component and determining the ambient signal component based on the determined dry signal component and the audio input signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Stefan Finauer, Friedrich Von Turckheim, Tobias Muench, Christopher Lee
  • Patent number: 11190903
    Abstract: A method for operating a telematics system that determines the current geographic position of a user device with respect to a static boundary separating a first zone and a second zone, determines at least one first parameter, determines a dynamic boundary separating the first zone and the second zone, based on the course of the static boundary, the current geographic position and the at least one first parameter, determines whether the current position of the user device is located in the first zone or the second zone based on the course of the dynamic boundary, and activates or deactivates one or more telematics services depending on the zone the user device is located in.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2021
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Teodora Guenkova-Luy, Martin Clauss, Andreas Klimke, Oliver Abt
  • Patent number: 11183172
    Abstract: Detecting fricatives in a noisy speech signal having a clean speech signal and a noise signal, includes bandpass filtering of the noisy speech signal with a first transfer function having a first passband range to provide a first filtered noisy speech signal, and bandpass filtering of the noisy speech signal with a second transfer function having a second passband range, the second passband being different from the first passband to provide a second filtered noisy speech signal. Detecting fricatives further includes applying a maximum operation to the first filtered noisy speech signal and the second filtered noisy speech signal to provide a maximum spectrum that is representative of a frequency range of maximum fricative energy, and deciding, based on the maximum spectrum, whether a fricative is contained in the noisy speech signal. A decision signal is output that is representative of the decision.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventor: Vasudev Kandade Rajan
  • Patent number: 11172353
    Abstract: A band steering method and a system for a wireless network is disclosed. The network comprises a first and a second radio band, an access node, and a plurality of client devices having single or dual band capability. According to the method, the access node receives a probe request from one of said client devices on the first or second radio band. The probe request indicates whether the client device has single or dual band capability. Thereafter, a probe response is generated by the access node only if the probe request indicates that the client device has single band capability, or if the probe request indicates that the client device has dual band capability and the probe request is received by the access node on the second radio band. On receiving the probe response the client device can use the appropriate radio band for communications within the network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventor: Sandeep Shanbhag
  • Publication number: 20210341308
    Abstract: A method and system for updating or generating global maps are described, the system adapted to perform the steps of obtaining sensor data from one or more sensors of a vehicle, the sensor data describing a plurality of objects within an area surrounding the vehicle at a time or during a time interval; generating a local map based on the sensor data, the local map indicating relative positions of at least some of the plurality of objects to each other, and indicating an absolute position of one or more of the at least some of the plurality of objects; comparing the local map with a global map; updating the global map or generating a new global map based on the comparison.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2018
    Publication date: November 4, 2021
    Applicant: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Volodymyr IVANOV, Eric THEISINGER, Tobias Herbert Johannes EMRICH
  • Patent number: 11146059
    Abstract: A circuit is provided for managing an inrush current of a load. The load is coupled between a voltage source and a terminal for a negative supply potential. The circuit includes a switch that is coupled between the voltage source and the load, and that is configured to connect the load to or disconnect the load from the voltage source. The circuit further includes at least one load capacitor coupled in parallel to the load between the switch and the terminal for negative supply potential. The circuit further includes a control unit. The control unit has a sense unit and a switching unit. The sense unit is configured to determine the inrush current when the switch is closed to connect the load to the voltage source, and the switching unit is configured to control the switching of the switch depending on the inrush current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventor: Avinash Sridhara Karanth
  • Patent number: 11133017
    Abstract: A system for enhancing artificial reverberation in a noisy listening space includes a sensor configured to generate a signal indicating a current noise level in a listening space, a loudspeaker configured to output sound in the listening space based on an output signal, and at least one processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: HARMAN BECKER AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS GmbH
    Inventors: Friedrich Von Tuerckheim, Stefan Finauer, Adrian Von Dem Knesebeck, Tobias Muench
  • Patent number: 11109134
    Abstract: A microphone assembly includes a shaft element that is configured to be received in an opening defined by a base substrate layer of a headliner. The shaft element defines an air path. The microphone assembly includes a microphone element mounted on a circuit board within a housing. The microphone element is aligned with the air path such that the air path directs sound from the cabin to the microphone element. A vehicle cabin side of the headliner is covered by an acoustically transparent layer such that the microphone assembly is not visible within the vehicle cabin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Marco Salvatore Riemann, Darin Krajewski, Marian Avram, Viktor Dobos
  • Publication number: 20210248910
    Abstract: A telematics control entity to determine position data of a vehicle having a network access entity connected to a cellular network and configured to transmit, in case of an emergency, a vehicle position via the cellular network to a service entity configured to collect the vehicle positions for a plurality of vehicles. An antenna signal interface is configured to receive satellite-based measurement data and at least one position determining unit is configured to determine positioning data of the vehicle based on the satellite-based measurement data. A predefined integrity level describing a predefined risk classification of the functional safety is guaranteed to be provided by the positioning data. The positioning data is provided to an application entity in the vehicle requiring the predefined integrity level for the received positioning data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2021
    Publication date: August 12, 2021
    Applicant: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventor: Dirk Fries
  • Patent number: 11081124
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for acoustic echo canceling. In one embodiment, a system for canceling acoustic echoes comprises one or more microphones configured to pick up sound generated by a sound source and transferred from the sound source to the one or more microphones via one or more unknown transfer paths having one or more unknown transfer functions, and to provide one or more electrical microphone signals therefrom, one or more adaptive filters for approximating the one or more unknown transfer functions with one or more estimated transfer functions and filtering one or more electrical signals representative of the sound generated by the sound source with the one or more estimated transfer functions to provide one or more estimated signals therefrom, and a microphone calibration block configured to individually attenuate or amplify the one or more electrical microphone signals dependent on the one or more estimated transfer functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2021
    Assignee: HARMAN BECKER AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS GMBH
    Inventors: Markus Christoph, Gerhard Pfaffinger
  • Patent number: 11055986
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a match application identifies an edge corresponding to a road segment based on an observational point specifying an estimated position and an estimated heading. The match application performs search operations on a road network graph based on the estimated position to identify multiple candidate edges. For a first candidate edge, the match application computes a first quality level based on at least a distance between the estimated position and the first candidate edge and an angle between the estimated heading and a direction associated with the first candidate edge. Subsequently, the match application determines that the first quality level indicates that the first candidate edge has a higher quality than any other candidate edge. Finally, the match application transmits the first candidate edge to an application that associates content specified in relation to the estimated position with the first candidate edge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: HARMAN BECKER AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS GMBH
    Inventors: Volodymyr Ivanov, Alexey Pryakhin, Ievgenii Borshch
  • Patent number: 11056095
    Abstract: An active noise reducing earphone includes a rigid cup-like shell having an inner surface and an outer surface is provided. The inner surface encompasses a cavity with an opening, and a microphone arrangement is configured to pick up sound with at least one steerable beam-like directivity characteristic, and to provide a first electrical signal that represents the picked-up sound. The earphone further includes an active noise control filter configured to provide, based on the first electrical signal, a second electrical signal, and a speaker disposed in the opening of the cavity and configured to generate sound from the second electrical signal. The active noise control filter has a transfer characteristic that is configured so that noise that travels through the shell from beyond the outer surface to beyond the inner surface is reduced by the sound generated by the speaker.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventor: Markus E. Christoph
  • Publication number: 20210193103
    Abstract: Sound reduction includes producing an error signal representative of sound present in a target space, producing a reference signal corresponding to undesired sound present in the target space, and producing, based on the reference signal and the error signal a cancelling output signal representative of the undesired sound present in the target space. The method further includes producing, based on the cancelling output signal, sound to destructively interfere with the undesired sound present in the target space, and limiting the amplitude or power of at least one of the reference signal, the error signal and the cancelling output signal if a first condition is met, the at least one signal under examination is at least one of the reference signal, the error signal and the cancelling output signal, and fully or partially suspending the active noise controller update mechanism if a second condition is met.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2018
    Publication date: June 24, 2021
    Applicant: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventor: Juergen ZOLLNER
  • Patent number: 11017798
    Abstract: Systems and methods for noise reduction are provided including operations for noisy speech signals, such as speech signals that are subject to speech processing, speech recognition and speech transmission for voice communication purposes. In one embodiment, a system for noise suppression includes an input smoothing filter to smooth magnitudes of the input spectrum, a desired noise shape determination block configured to determine a desired noise shape of the noise spectrum dependent on the smoothed-magnitude input spectrum, and a suppression factors determination block configured to determine a set of suppression factors based on the desired noise shape and the smoothed-magnitude input spectrum. In one embodiment, a filter coefficient determination block is configured to determine noise suppression filter coefficients from the desired noise shape of the noise spectrum. Embodiments are also directed to systems and methods for noise reduction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: HARMAN BECKER AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS GMBH
    Inventors: Vasudev Kandade Rajan, Markus E. Christoph, Juergen Heinrich Zollner
  • Patent number: 11008017
    Abstract: Embodiments are disclosed for systems for a vehicle. An example system for a vehicle includes a central unit and an input device, wherein the central unit has a first interface for connecting to a first mobile device and a second interface for connecting to a second mobile device, wherein the central unit is configured to assign the first mobile device to a driver and the second mobile device to a passenger in the vehicle, wherein the central unit is configured to output information on a call directed to the first mobile device, wherein the central unit is configured to detect an input by means of the input device during the outputting of information, and wherein the central unit is configured, based on the detection of the input, to redirect the call to the second mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Hans Roth, Olaf Preissner, Christoph Reifenrath
  • Patent number: 10991241
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a layer application generates navigation-related data based on observations associated with vehicles. In operation, the layer application generates an attribute based on a first observation associated with a vehicle and an observation type. The layer application then compares the attribute to an existing road database to generate a dynamic layer. Subsequently, the layer application causes the dynamic layer to be transmitted to a navigation subsystem. After receiving the dynamic layer, the navigation subsystem performs navigation operation(s) based on the road database and the dynamic layer. Because the layer application may receive and operate on real-time observations, providers of road databases may produce dynamic layers at a frequency that enables navigation applications to continually provide accurate navigation data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignee: HARMAN BECKER AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS GMBH
    Inventors: Volodymyr Ivanov, Alexey Pryakhin, Ievgenii Borshch