Method and apparatus for actively influencing the intake noise of an internal combustion engine

Abstract

A method and apparatus for actively influencing the intake noise of an internal combustion engine. The apparatus comprises a controller (7) which senses the actual noise (I) via a microphone (16) and compares the actual noise with a reference noise signal which depends on the engine speed D and at least one further engine parameter P, such as, for example, the throttle (12) position. A comparison signal V generated by comparing the actual noise to the reference noise value is used to adjust a control signal Asum, which also depends on the engine speed D. The control signal is fed to an electromechanical transducer (14) which generates a correcting noise (20) which is superimposed on the intake noise (21) to produce the resultant actual noise (22), which should correspond as closely as possible to the reference noise value. The invention makes it possible to reduce the intake noise or to tailor the intake noise to a desired sound within the limits of the electromechanical transducer output so that, for example, a driver can be given an acoustic feedback under specified operating conditions.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.