Acoustical considerations for an automotive hands-free mobile terminal

Abstract

The harsh acoustical environment of an automotive interior yields significant difficulty in controlling acoustic echo and noise during ‘‘hands-free’’ wireless phone calls. In addition to having multiple closely coupled reflection paths, the user (talker) is often positioned between the loudspeaker and microphone path. This can cause frequent changes in the acoustic path which necessitates fast and accurate adaptation of the acoustic echo canceller and/or non-linear controller. Further, the frequency response between the talker and the microphone is altered due to cabin resonances and modes; it is also strongly affected by their positions. Additional acoustical considerations for automotive hands-free implementations are the high levels and non-stationary statistics of background noise, high amplification, and possible resultant distortion of the received audio signal, and non-linear network echo. These impairments yield significant challenges in controlling the acoustic echo and noise in full-duplex, partial-duplex, and even half-duplex systems. In this work, impulse response, frequency response, and SNR measurements are presented and analyzed to demonstrate the critical differences between a traditional desktop speakerphone and an automotive hands-free mobile terminal.