There are many features that an autonomous car have, but an artificially intelligent “ear” is not one of them. However, this could change real soon.
For the “ear” of the car, the researchers will be using a microphone that is placed inside a protective casing, mounted outside of the car. This microphone will pick up the external noise and send it to a special control unit, that will be inside the car. This control unit contains the driver software for the microphone. Inside this software, there is a library containing different sounds and noises. The software is able to recognise different important sounds by discarding irrelevant background noise with the help of a computer algorithm.
The researchers of Fraunhofer IDMT are quite confident about their new tech. They believe that modified versions of the same can help in other primary sectors. According to them, the tech can be utilised in quality control in industrial manufacturing. By using smart battery-powered acoustic sensors audio signals can be processed. Then these signals can be sent to a processor to analyse for any damage in the production plant.
