Study on designing alert sound for electric and hybrid vehicle toward safe traffic road

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K12299
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Design science
• Research Institution: Matsue National College of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Yasui Nozomiko 松江工業高等専門学校, 情報工学科, 講師 (80607896)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 次世代自動車 / 接近報知音 / 準周期変動 / 気づきやすさ / 適切性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The motor sound on electric and hybrid vehicle is quiet at low speeds. Thus, pedestrians have difficulty detecting those vehicles approaching them. Although those vehicles were designed to play an alert sound to solve this problem, it hasn’t been solved yet. Therefore, this study proposes an alert sound with amplitude fluctuations to enhance their ability to be detected and acceptable for neighborhoods. The alert sound with characteristics of the amplitude fluctuation of the gasoline powered vehicle was synthesized using a procedure proposed in previous study. Envelopes such as modulation wave were set for deviations for time and amplitude, and amplitude-modulated sounds were synthesized using sine wave, sawtooth wave, and rectangle wave. A detectability and acceptability by pedestrians were assessed. The result revealed that amplitude fluctuating sounds effectively enabled people to notice the approaching electric vehicles, and that those sounds are relatively acceptable.

Free Research Field

音響心理学，音楽知覚認知，音楽情報処理