Provided are methods for detecting objects within a vehicle. The methods can include emitting at least one auditory signal within the vehicle during at least one first time interval; measuring a second auditory signal emitted by an object within the vehicle during the second time interval subsequent to the at least one first time interval, where the emission of the second auditory signal is caused by the emission of the least one first auditory signal; determining a location of the object within the vehicle based on the measurement of the second auditory signal; and generating an alert to a user indicating the location of that object. Systems and computer program products are also provided.

A method for acquiring the surrounding environment of a motor vehicle. The motor vehicle has at least one ultrasound sensor. The ultrasound sensor includes an ultrasound transducer for sending, the ultrasound sensor receiving acoustic environmental signals, in particular audible environmental signals, in that the ultrasound sensor is controlled in its evaluation in such a way that sound waves having frequencies below a resonant frequency of the ultrasound transducer, in particular audible sound waves, of an environmental signal are acquired and evaluated. Environmental signals are understood as acoustic signals that are not produced by the ultrasound transducer itself, but rather by an external sound source that in particular differs from the motor vehicle. This can be for example the siren of a rescue vehicle or emergency vehicle, or the horn of some other motor vehicle.

A method for estimating an acoustic influence of walls of a room, comprising emitting a known excitation sound signal, receiving a set of measurement signals, each measurement signal being received by one microphone in a microphone array and each measurement signal including a set of echoes caused by reflections by the walls, solving a linear system of equations to identify locations of image source and estimating the acoustic influence based these image sources. The signal model includes a convolution of: the excitation signal, a multichannel filter (M) representing the relative delays of the microphones in the microphone array, the relative delays determined based on a known geometry of the microphone array, and a directivity model ν(n, p) of the driver(s) in the form of an anechoic far-field impulse response as a function of transmit angle.

A method for estimating an acoustic influence of walls of a room, comprising emitting a known excitation sound signal, receiving a set of measurement signals, each measurement signal being received by one microphone in a microphone array and each measurement signal including a set of echoes caused by reflections by the walls, solving a linear system of equations to identify locations of image source and estimating the acoustic influence based these image sources. The signal model includes a convolution of: the excitation signal, a multichannel filter (M) representing the relative delays of the microphones in the microphone array, the relative delays determined based on a known geometry of the microphone array, and a directivity model ν(n, p) of the driver(s) in the form of an anechoic far-field impulse response as a function of transmit angle.

A method and an apparatus for supporting a camera-based environment recognition by a means of transport using road wetness information from a first ultrasonic sensor. The method includes: recording a first signal representing an environment of the means of transport by the first ultrasonic sensor of the means of transport; recording a second signal representing the environment of the means of transport by a camera of the means of transport; obtaining road wetness information on the basis of the first signal; selecting a predefined set of parameters from a plurality of predefined sets of parameters as a function of the road wetness information; and performing an environment recognition on the basis of the second signal in conjunction with the predefined set of parameters.

A method for contact detection for an ultrasonic sensor system installed in a concealed or unconcealed manner is disclosed. The method involves detecting reference surroundings information, comprising a time profile of a signal with: noise signal information relating to a wall material and/or airborne sound signal information, using an ultrasonic sensor of the ultrasonic sensor system; storing the reference surroundings information; detecting real-time surroundings information, comprising a time profile of a signal with: noise signal information relating to the wall material and/or airborne sound signal information and/or object sound signal information relating to an object in contact with the wall material, using the ultrasonic sensor; and forming a difference signal between the surroundings information of reference surroundings information and real-time surroundings information, using a computational unit. The difference signal can be interpreted in a further step.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for estimating target ranges, angles of arrival, and speed using optimization procedures. Target ranges are estimated by performing an optimization procedure to obtain a denoised signal, performing a correlation of a transmitted waveform and the denoised signal, and using a result of the correlation to determine an estimate of a distance between the sensor and at least one target. Target angles of arrival are estimated by determining ranges at which targets are located, and, for each range, constructing an array signal from samples of received echo signals, and using the array signal, performing another optimization procedure to estimate a respective angle of arrival for each target of the at least one target. Doppler shifts may also be estimated using another optimization procedure. Certain of the optimization procedures use atomic norm techniques.

A method for switching a screen state, a terminal, and computer-readable medium are provided. The method includes: transmitting a transmission sound wave when it is detected that the screen state of the terminal is in a light-on state during a voice communication session, the transmission sound wave being a sound wave of a pre-defined frequency; determining a target detection region when a target receiving sound wave is received through a plurality of pre-installed sound wave receiving devices, the target receiving sound wave being formed by reflecting the transmission sound wave by a target object; and switching the screen state of the terminal from the light-on state into a light-off state when it is determined that the target object is located in the target detection region.

A method for detecting a living being on a seat of a vehicle, further relating to a detection arrangement and to a vehicle. The method may include emitting electromagnetic waves at predetermined frequency or at a predetermined frequency band towards the seat by an electromagnetic radiator, receiving electromagnetic waves reflected on a surface by a sensor, detecting an object on the seat from a transit time of the emitted and the reflected electromagnetic waves between the radiator, the surface and the sensor by a detection device, detecting movements of the object from the reflected electromagnetic waves by the detection device if an object has been detected, determining from the detected movements of the object whether the detected object is a living being, and outputting a detection signal by way of the detection device if it has been determined that the detected object is a living being.

In one example, a method performed by electronic circuitry comprises: causing a transducer to transmit a first signal; receiving a second signal from the transducer; computing distances responsive to a time between the first and second signals; determining a vibration characteristic based on the distances; reading reference vibration characteristics from data in a memory; comparing the input vibration characteristic to the reference vibration characteristics; and responsive to the comparing, performing at least one of: providing a signal representing a status of the comparing; or updating the data in the memory.