Patent ID: 7357220

Claim:
A control system for controlling a variable acoustical damping device disposed in a sound producing channel of a vehicle engine, comprising: a controller coupled to the variable acoustical damping device and storing a plurality of control patterns for different levels of acoustical damping via the acoustical damping device, the controller being configured to produce a control signal that causes a characteristic of the acoustical damping device to be varied based on selected ones of the plurality of control patterns; and a selection device arranged and constructed to output a selection signal to the controller, the selection signal representing at least one vehicle condition related to a present use of the vehicle by at least one occupant thereof, the vehicle condition being unrelated to engine or transmission performance of the vehicle; wherein the controller is configured to automatically determine the control signal to produce based on one of the plurality of control patterns corresponding to the selection signal according to one of a predefined set of associations of control patterns and selection signals, which associations represent desired sound levels in the sound producing channel based on various vehicle conditions.