Patent ID: 8824697

Claim:
A communication system for a passenger compartment, comprising: at least two microphone arrays respectively arranged within first and second regions in the passenger compartment, where each microphone array has at least two microphones and is operable to provide a detected audio signal, and where the first region is different than the second region; at least two loudspeakers, where each loudspeaker is located within a different one of the first and the second regions; and a signal processor connected to the microphone arrays and to the loudspeakers, where the signal-processor processes the detected audio signals and provides the processed audio signal to the loudspeaker located within the second region, where the signal processor includes at least two switching units, one of which is connected between the microphone array within the first region and the loudspeaker located within the second region, and the other of which is connected between the microphone array within the second region and the loudspeaker located within the first region; and the switching units are adapted to detect voice signal components in the detected audio signals from the microphones, and to selectively output those audio signals which include a voice signal component that is greater than a predetermined threshold value.