A vehicle outside microphone unit detects noises outside a vehicle and has a sound channel that has an entry opening terminating at a microphone. In an orientation in which the microphone constitutes an uppermost point of the sound channel, a sound channel makes a bend upwards, starting from the entry opening, and is generally configured as a water drain. Further, a vehicle acoustical system having such a vehicle outside microphone unit and a vehicle having a corresponding vehicle acoustical system are described.

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.

An earphone (1) comprising an earphone housing (2), a speaker unit (3), the speaker unit (3) comprising a diaphragm (4). A front chamber (29) is defined in the earphone between a front side (31) of the diaphragm (4) and the user (7), when the earphone (1) is worn. A rear chamber (27) is defined between the earphone housing (2) and a rear side (32) of the diaphragm (4). The earphone (1) comprises an active noise cancelling feedback microphone (9), which is arranged in the rear chamber (27) and which comprises a microphone opening (11). The diaphragm (4) comprises a cylindrical part (14), to which a voice coil (12) is attached, and an outer ring part (15) extending from the cylindrical part (14) in a direction away from a centre axis (30) of the diaphragm (4). The feedback microphone (9) is arranged farther from the centre axis (30) than the voice coil (12).

A noise-cancellation system, including: a plurality of sensors, each sensor outputting a sensor signal; a controller configured to receive each sensor signal, and, for each sensor signal, to: determine a power of the sensor signal at a plurality of frequencies; determine a measure of association between the power of the sensor signal at the plurality of frequencies and frequency; and determine whether the measure of association exceeds a predetermined threshold, wherein the processor is further configured to compute a noise-cancellation signal using the sensor signals, wherein the noise-cancellation signal is computed excluding sensor signals that were determined to exceed the predetermined threshold; and at least one actuator receiving the noise-cancellation signal and producing a noise-cancellation audio signal.

An active road noise control system and method for a vehicle includes generating a microphone sense signal representative of road noise occurring in or at a wheel well of the vehicle, and iteratively and adaptively processing the microphone sense signal to provide a noise reducing signal. The system and method further include generating from the noise reducing signal with a headrest loudspeaker arrangement disposed in a headrest in an interior of the vehicle, noise reducing sound at a listening position in the interior of the vehicle.

A method may include receiving a user trigger signal indicating a user desire to update characteristics of an adaptive filter, receiving an error microphone signal indicative of the output of the transducer and the ambient audio sounds at the transducer, wherein the transducer reproduces both a source audio signal for playback to a listener and an anti-noise signal for countering the effects of ambient audio sounds in an acoustic output of the transducer, implementing the adaptive filter having a response that generates the anti-noise signal to reduce the presence of the ambient audio sounds in the error microphone signal, determining an acoustic coupling of the transducer to an error microphone for producing the error microphone signal, and responsive to a change in the acoustic coupling, prompting a user to assert the user trigger signal to indicate user desire to update characteristics of the adaptive filter.

In at least one embodiment, a computer-program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium that is programmed to perform selective active noise cancellation (ANC) for a vehicle is provided. The computer-program product comprising instructions to determine an amount of noise present in a first zone and a second zone and to selectively drive only at least one first loudspeaker in the first zone to generate a first cancellation field to cancel road noise and/or engine noise if the amount of noise in the first zone is greater than the amount of noise in the second zone. The computer-program product comprising instructions to selectively drive only at least one second loudspeaker in the second zone to generate the second cancellation field to cancel road noise and/or engine noise if the amount of noise in the second zone is greater than the amount of noise in the first zone.

A vehicle exhaust component includes a body with an open inner cavity providing a fixed volume and a neck having one end associated with the fixed volume and an opposite end associated with an exhaust gas flow path. A flexible membrane separates the fixed volume into a first chamber and a second chamber. An actuator is used to vary a tension of the flexible membrane.

A vehicle outside microphone unit detects noises outside a vehicle and has a sound channel that has an entry opening terminating at a microphone. In an orientation in which the microphone constitutes an uppermost point of the sound channel, a sound channel makes a bend upwards, starting from the entry opening, and is generally configured as a water drain. Further, a vehicle acoustical system having such a vehicle outside microphone unit and a vehicle having a corresponding vehicle acoustical system are described.

An acoustic element includes a nanovoided polymer layer having a first nanovoid topology in an unactuated state and a second nanovoid topology different than the first nanovoid topology in an actuated state. Capacitive actuation of the nanovoided polymer layer, for instance, can be used to reversibly control the size and shape of the nanovoids within the polymer layer and hence tune its sound damping characteristics or sound transduction behavior, e.g., during operation of the acoustic element. An acoustic element may be configured for passive or active sound attenuation. Various other apparatuses, systems, materials, and methods are also disclosed.