Navigational soundscaping

Abstract

A vehicle includes a positioning system configured to determine a position. The vehicle includes a memory configured to store information associated with one or more landmarks. The information includes an audio icon associated with a landmark, and the landmark is located at a landmark location. The vehicle includes a processor configured to retrieve the audio icon based on the position and to render an audio signal based on the audio icon into a three-dimensional audio space within the vehicle. The vehicle further includes two or more transducers configured to output a spatial auditory sound in the three-dimensional audio space based on the audio signal. The spatial auditory sound enables perception of the landmark location relative to a location within the vehicle.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A vehicle comprising:
 a positioning system configured to determine a position;   a memory configured to store information associated with one or more landmarks, wherein the information includes an audio icon associated with a landmark, and wherein the landmark is located at a landmark location;   a processor configured to retrieve the audio icon based on the position and to render an audio signal based on the audio icon into a three-dimensional audio space within the vehicle; and   two or more transducers configured to output a spatial auditory sound in the three-dimensional audio space based on the audio signal, the spatial auditory sound enabling perception of the landmark location relative to a location within the vehicle.   
     
     
         2 . The vehicle of  claim 1 , wherein the two or more transducers include multiple speakers configured to output the spatial auditory sound, and wherein the audio signal is rendered using spherical harmonics. 
     
     
         3 . The vehicle of  claim 1 , wherein the two or more transducers include multiple speakers configured to output the spatial auditory sound, and wherein the audio signal is rendered based on locations of the multiple speakers. 
     
     
         4 . The vehicle of  claim 1 , wherein the two or more transducers include multiple near-phone speakers mounted on a seat in the vehicle and configured to output the spatial auditory sound. 
     
     
         5 . The vehicle of  claim 1 , wherein the two or more transducers include a headset with multiple headphone speakers configured to output the spatial auditory sound. 
     
     
         6 . The vehicle of  claim 1 , further comprising a user interface configured to enable a user to modify the audio icon. 
     
     
         7 . The vehicle of  claim 6 , wherein the user interface is further configured to enable the user to assign an importance level to the audio icon. 
     
     
         8 . The vehicle of  claim 6 , wherein the user interface is further configured to enable the user to associate different audio content with the audio icon. 
     
     
         9 . A method of outputting an auditory sound in a vehicle, the method comprising:
 determining a position via a positioning system;   retrieving, from a memory, an audio icon associated with a landmark based on the position, wherein the memory stores information associated with one or more landmarks, and wherein the landmark is located at a landmark location;   rendering, at a processor, an audio signal based on the audio icon into a three-dimensional audio space within the vehicle; and   outputting, via two or more transducers, a spatial auditory sound into the three-dimensional audio space based on the audio signal, the spatial auditory sound enabling perception of the landmark location relative to a location within the vehicle.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein a sound source associated with the spatial auditory sound is spatialized into the three-dimensional audio space based on a direction between the position and the landmark location and based on a distance between the position and the landmark location. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising rendering the audio signal using vector based amplitude panning (VBAP). 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the two or more transducers include at least a first speaker and a second speaker, and wherein outputting the spatial auditory sound further comprises:
 assigning a first speaker gain to the first speaker based on a speaker location of the first speaker; and   assigning a second speaker gain to the second speaker based on a speaker location of the second speaker, wherein the first speaker gain is different from the second speaker gain.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising rendering the audio signal using spherical harmonics. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the two or more transducers include multiple speakers, and wherein spatial auditory sounds output by the two or more transducers are encoded based on the spherical harmonics. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the two or more transducers include multiple near-phone speakers mounted on a chair in the vehicle, and wherein the spatialized auditory sound is output as spatial audio via the multiple near-phone speakers. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the two or more transducers include a headset with multiple headphones, and wherein the audio signal is rendered using binaural audio rendering. 
     
     
         17 . A vehicle comprising:
 means for determining a position;   means for storing information associated with one or more landmarks, wherein the information includes an audio icon associated with a landmark, and wherein the landmark is located at a landmark location;   means for retrieving the audio icon based on the position and for rendering an audio signal based on the audio icon into a three-dimensional audio space within the vehicle; and   means for outputting a spatial auditory sound into the three-dimensional audio space based on the audio signal, the spatial auditory sound enabling perception of the landmark location relative to a location within the vehicle.   
     
     
         18 . The vehicle of  claim 17 , wherein the information includes a plurality of audio icons associated with a plurality of landmarks. 
     
     
         19 . The vehicle of  claim 17 , wherein the audio signal is rendered using vector based amplitude panning (VBAP) or spherical harmonics, and wherein the audio signal is a three-dimensional spatialized audio signal. 
     
     
         20 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
 determine a position via a positioning system;   retrieve, from a memory, an audio icon associated with a landmark based on the position, wherein the memory stores information associated with one or more landmarks, and wherein the landmark is located at a landmark location;   render an audio signal based on the audio icon into a three-dimensional audio space within a vehicle; and   initiate an output of a spatial auditory sound into the three-dimensional audio space based on the audio signal, the spatial auditory sound enabling perception of the landmark location relative to a location within the vehicle.