Patent ID: 7415116

Claim:
A method for improving communication in a vehicle, comprising: assigning at least one occupant in an area of a seat inside the vehicle with a respective microphone; picking up a voice signal of the at least one occupant of the vehicle by the respective microphone; amplifying the picked-up voice signal in an input stage; filtering the amplified picked-up voice signal for purposes of interference level minimization and frequency adaptation; providing a voice-output device, the voice-output device including at least one loudspeaker configured to output the voice signal, each loudspeaker of the at least one loudspeaker being associated with at least one output channel; signal processing the amplified and filtered voice signal of the at least one occupant via a summing and distribution stage, the signal processing being specific to each respective at least one output channel in the form of a delay correction and a level differentiation in a process stage as a function of a local allocation of the microphone that picked up the voice signal and as a function of a local allocation of the at least one loudspeaker of the voice-output device; assigning the processed voice signal on an individual basis for each respective at least one output channel to the at least one loudspeaker of the voice-output device via an adaptation stage; and tuning an adaptation of the processed voice signal via a level adaptation and a frequency adaptation in the adaptation stage to a spatial condition of the vehicle and to a desired sound level.