Patent ID: 8270627

Claim:
An automotive vehicle, comprising: a chassis defining an engine compartment and a longitudinally spaced passenger compartment; an engine mounted in said engine compartment and being operable to generate noise energy along a transfer path into said passenger compartment; a transverse box-like structure interposed between said engine compartment and said passenger compartment having a constrained volume separate from the passenger compartment and having a transverse width sufficient to intercept the noise energy being transmitted from said engine to said passenger compartment along said transfer path, wherein the transverse box-like structure is a dual bulkhead plenum connected to an instrument panel located at a forward position in said passenger compartment; and a noise control system to control the transfer of said noise energy through said transverse box-like structure into said passenger compartment, said noise control system including: sensors operable to ascertain the acoustic environment of the vehicle and generate a signal indicative thereof; a controller operable to generate a mathematical model of the acoustic response from the signals generated by said sensors to define a predicted sound energy level therefrom; and a counteracting noise generating apparatus disposed within said box-like structure and being operably connected to said controller to produce a counteracting sound wave within said constrained volume to counteract the transmission of the predicted sound energy level within the constrained volume, wherein said counteracting noise generating apparatus includes at least one speaker mounted in said dual bulkhead plenum, said speaker being operable to generate said counteracting sound wave.