System for conveying audio information with a spatial characteristic to a vehicle occupant

1. A method for conveying information to an occupant of a motor vehicle, comprising:

obtaining driving-relevant information;

determining an audio message depending on the obtained driving-relevant information;

determining a spatial characteristic for the audio message depending on either the obtained driving-relevant information or the determined audio message;

selecting at least one stored room impulse response depending on the spatial characteristic;

convolving the room impulse response with the audio message; and

outputting the audio message with the spatial characteristic in the motor vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1 where the driving-relevant information includes at least type of information chosen from the group consisting of traffic, dangerous driving situations, other vehicles, emergency vehicles and obstacles.

3. The method of claim 1 where the audio message includes at least one message chosen from the group consisting of spoken text, signals, music, traffic sounds and siren sounds.

4. The method of claim 1 where the spatial characteristic include at least one element from the group consisting of a distance, a direction and a movement.

5. The method of claim 1 where the spatial characteristic corresponds to a position of a relevant element of the driving-relevant information.

6. The method of claim 5 where the relevant element is chosen from the group consisting of a vehicle, an obstacle, a traffic jam and an accident.

7. The method of claim 5 where the relevant element is stationary and the spatial characteristic include movement to decrease the likelihood of front-back confusion.

8. The method of claim 1 where the convolution is performed for a plurality of sound producing channels utilized to output the audio message.

9. The method of claim 1 where the at least one room impulse response is selected from a plurality of stored room impulse responses for a plurality of positions relative to the position of the occupant and where a density of the positions is higher closer to the occupant than farther away from the occupant.

10. The method of claim 1 where the spatial characteristic includes a movement, the at least one room impulse response includes a series of room impulse responses approximating a series of locations of the movement and the convolving step includes sequentially convolving the series of room impulse responses with the audio message.

11. The method of claim 10 further including fading between adjacent room impulse responses of the series of room impulse responses.

12. The method of claim 1 where the outputting step includes performing a crosstalk cancellation.

13. The method of claim 1 further including outputting a non-audio message in addition to the audio message depending on the driving-relevant information.

14. The method of claim 13 where the non-audio message includes a message chosen from the group consisting of a tactile message and a visual message.

15. A system for conveying information to an occupant of a motor vehicle, comprising:

sensing mechanisms for obtaining driving-relevant information;

message selecting mechanism for determining an audio message depending on the driving-relevant information;

spatial characteristic selecting mechanism for determining the spatial characteristic for outputting the audio message;

convolution engine for performing a convolution of the audio message with a room impulse response according to the determined spatial characteristic; and

at least one output device for outputting the audio message in the motor vehicle with the determined spatial characteristic.

16. The system of claim 15 where the sensing mechanism includes at least one element taken from the group consisting of a sensor, a navigation system and an interface.

17. The system of claim 15 further including:

a memory having a plurality of room impulse responses stored in the memory; and

where the convolution engine is coupled to the memory.

18. The system of claim 15 where the at least one output device includes at least one pair of loudspeakers.

19. The system of claim 18 where the at least one pair of loudspeakers includes a plurality of pairs of loudspeakers.

20. The system of claim 15 where the at least one output device includes an interface for interfacing with an audio system of the motor vehicle.

21. The system of claim 15 where the at least one output device includes a crosstalk-canceller coupled to the spatial characteristic selecting mechanism to receive a signal from the spatial characteristic selecting mechanism.

22. The system of claim 15 further including a shaker installed in a seat of the motor vehicle, the shaker being activated depending on the obtained driving-relevant information.

23. The apparatus of claim 15 where the obtained driving-relevant information includes at least one message chosen from the group consisting of traffic information, information regarding dangerous driving situations, information regarding other vehicles, information regarding emergency vehicles and information regarding obstacles.

24. The system of claim 15 where the audio message includes at least one message chosen from the group consisting of spoken text, signals, music, traffic sounds and siren sounds.

25. The system of claim 15 where the spatial characteristic includes at least one element from the group consisting of a distance, a direction and a movement.

26. The system of claim 15 where the spatial characteristic corresponds to a position of a relevant element of the driving-relevant information, where the relevant element is stationary and where the spatial characteristic includes movement to decrease the likelihood of front-back confusion.

27. A system for conveying information to an occupant of a motor vehicle, comprising:

sensing mechanisms for obtaining driving-relevant information;

message selecting mechanism for determining an audio message depending on the driving-relevant information;

spatial characteristic selecting mechanism for determining the spatial characteristic for outputting the audio message; and

at least one output device for outputting the audio message in the motor vehicle with the determined spatial characteristic, where the at least one output device is configured for selecting at least one stored room impulse response depending on the spatial characteristic, and convolving the room impulse response with the audio message.

28. The system of claim 27 where the spatial characteristic includes movement, the at least one room impulse response includes a series of room impulse responses approximating a series of locations of the movement; and the convolving includes sequentially convolving the series of room impulse responses with the audio message.

29. The system of claim 28 where the at least one output device is further configured for fading between adjacent room impulse responses of the series of room impulse responses.

30. A system for conveying information to an occupant of a motor vehicle, comprising:

at least one sensor;

a circuit coupled to the sensor configured to determine an audio message and a spatial characteristic for the audio message based on a signal received from the at least one sensor; and

a sound reproduction system configured to output the audio message with the spatial characteristic, and where the sound reproduction system is configured for selecting at least one stored room impulse response depending on the spatial characteristic, and convolving the room impulse response with the audio message.