The concept of active noise control or cancelation is nothing new. In the quest to reach the seemingly impossible goal of a perfectly quiet automobile cabin, Toyota, BMW, Lotus and many others released some form of the technology roughly 10 years ago. Since then, Harman and Bose notably have continued development of the useful idea. Hyundai Motor Group's version of the technology is called Active Noise Control (ANC), and a new announcement claims Hyundai has the world's first Road Noise Active Noise Control (RANC) with reductions up to three decibels.
In addition to noise-blocking materials in cars, many manufacturers use noise cancelation to make the inside of a car quieter. Using microphones, the car will listen for noises, a computer will analyze and read the sound waves, the script is essentially flipped, and the speakers will emit inverted versions of those sound waves to cancel them out. With this method, advanced software allows manufacturers to amplify or allow certain sounds through while cutting or muffling undesired noises.
According to Hyundai, noise analysis and processing speed was limiting its previous noise control to times "when noise was constant and the occurrence of the noise predictable." Everything needed to happen within 0.009 of a second, the time Hyundai says it takes road or engine noise to hit passengers' ears. Hyundai's new technology is so vastly quicker, however, that it can identify and quell multiple types of noises in less time than it previously took to cancel one.
Hyundai says an acceleration sensor reads the road vibration while a control computer analyzes the road noise, all within 0.002 of a second, and a Digital Signal Processor produces the inverted sound wave. This process will be able to individually target the driver, the passenger, and the rear passengers and was found to reduce cabin disturbances by up to three decibels, roughly half of the noise.
This technology has been under development for about six years, and Hyundai believes it will become even more useful with electric vehicles, which have little powertrain noise to worry about, making road noise even more noticeable. Patents for the sensors and signal selection methods have been filed, and Hyundai plans to launch the technology in an upcoming Genesis model. The above demonstration image shows a Genesis GV80 concept, could that be a hint?
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