Autonomous Sound Synthesizing Network in Vehicles for Critical Event Notification

Critical event notification systems typically use either generic sounds or generic lights to inform the operator of the determination of an event. In these systems, a monitoring system is used to first identify the existence of the event by observing pre-specified criteria. This triggers a notification to the operator of the system. In the case of a critical event, the response time of the operator is often the most important outcome. The faster the operator responds, the more time the operator has to avoid the critical event. In this research, we present an extensive study on the efficacy of natural sound over existing alarming cues to notify drivers about critical surroundings. We propose a cloud-based integrated system design including an autonomous visual-to-sound synthesizer, the "SoundWise AI" module that holds the potential to reduce the driver’s response time to an alarming situation through representative natural sound notification.