00:00 Different
cars
POV
through windscreen
SV
driver
Exterior
University of Warwick, International Manufacturing Centre
Interior
WMG, Paul Jennings walks through shot
Listening
Room sign on door
Large
monitor screen showing listening test question
MS
test participants wearing headphones
Empty
car engine bay
MS
over shoulder man at computer, Novisim simulator car in
background
Int
car, over driver shoulder, driver uses preference sliding
scale
CU
drivers eyes in rear view mirror
CU
driver using preference sliding scale
Int
car, over driver shoulder through windscreen
Guide Voice: What influences us to choose one
car over another? Most people would think styling, colour, speed or
economy. But car manufacturers have encountered a new problem,
inside, a car can be too quiet, and car buyers don’t like
it.
At the University of Warwick’s International Manufacturing
Centre, the Warwick Manufacturing Group led by Paul Jennings, have
been studying how customers react to the sounds different cars
make. The traditional method is to use a sound-proofed listening
room to log peoples responses but the Warwick team have gone a long
way further.
It doesn’t have an engine, but it looks like a car and it
drives like a car and it can sound and feel like any number of
different cars! This “Noise and Vibration Simulator" or
"Novisim" has just been developed in association with
Sound and Vibration Technology Ltd, to recreate the sound and feel
of the driving experience.
00:52 SOT : Paul Jennings, Principal Research Fellow,
Warwick Manufacturing Group - "To get the best
assessment of sounds, you need to be hearing them in the context
that you would be appraising them in a real vehicle. If you hear a
sound in isolation, your perception of it is quite different than
if you hear it with the added visuals and vibration. Each of your
senses is interlinked and can affect each other, so what we want to
be able to do is to be able to test prototype sounds in the
environment of driving a real car. And that’s exactly what we
can do with the simulator."
01:18 CU
driver through windscreen, putting on headphones
Int
car, over driver shoulder, driver using preference sliding
scale
CU
gear stick
Int
over shoulder driver, car setting off
CU
speedometer
Int
car, over driver shoulder, driver turns to computer screen
CU
driver using preference sliding scale
Pan
from road view through window to CU drivers eyes in rear view
mirror
Guide Voice: Through a method called
decomposition they have developed tools that can generate a blend
of recorded and simulated sounds in real time. The vehicle can be
driven exactly like a vehicle on the road, but the sounds and
vibrations are generated in real time in response to the
drivers’ actions. As he accelerates, the engine noise
increases as do the vibrations. And it's also possible to switch
from one car to another while driving so their sounds can be
compared directly.
01:44 SOT Paul Jennings - “This
work is important for vehicle manufacturers because it enables them
to have an improved decision-making process. It enables them to get
customer input directly into that; it enables them to make
decisions much earlier in the design cycle. You can use modelling
tools to predict what sounds might be like in a future vehicle
before you’ve built a prototype, but this enables you to
actually experience that.”
02:08 MS
speed graph on computer
CU
car information on computer screen
MS
sliding preference scale
SV
through driver window, driver using sliding preference scale
MS
Paul Jennings and colleague at Novisim setup
Focus
pull Paul Jennings to colleague
Over
shoulder Paul Jennings and colleague, car in background
Ext
car looking towards Novisim simulator screen
CU
wing mirror with driver reflection
Ext
car looking towards Novisim simulator screen, zoom out when engine
revs
SV
through driver window, driver at wheel
MS
over car bonnet towards Novisim simulator screen
Guide Voice: Monitors record the speed and
acceleration of the simulator, and the likes and dislikes of the
customers are recorded as they select an approval rating on a
sliding scale, enabling the researchers to build up an accurate
picture of the way people respond to different
sounds. Engineers from the different car manufacturers working
with the University of Warwick team can use the simulator
themselves, to experience the difference design changes might make,
what happens when you alter an engine mount, or a suspension
system.
Through the simulator they are learning what the car buyer
wants, how a saloon should sound different from a sports car, and
how the preferred sounds differ between the European and Japanese
markets, all valuable information for car manufacturers. While this
system has been designed specifically for the car industry, it
could have many other applications.
02:57 SOT Paul Jennings - "I
think the techniques we’re developing are generic. We just
happen to be using sounds with vehicles. If you look at sounds for
instance, there maybe medical technologies that will have an
interest such as body scanners, respirators, where sound is
essential to indicate that there’s some power going on and
that the system is working, nut you also want to be reassuring for
the patient. A respirator for instance needs to be showing that
it’s working properly, but you don’t want it to be
wheezing! You want it to be reassuring for the
patient."
03:24 Wide
Hydrogen Fuel Cell car moves through shot (Research-TV
archive)
CU
hydrogen fuel cell car exhaust (Research-TV archive)
MS
fuel cell car moves towards and past camera (Research-TV
archive)
Int
simulator car, over shoulder driver and simulated road
Guide Voice: Another area that the team hopes
to study in the future is how to alter the sound of cars
externally. Because fuel cell and electric cars make so little
noise, there can actually be a safety issue for pedestrians,
because people normally react to the sound of a car rather than the
sight of it. All of this research is teaching the car manufacturers
that silence really isn’t golden.
03:48 Ends
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