Patent ID: 8189825

Claim:
A vehicle including an arrangement for controlling audio reception by occupants of a passenger compartment of the vehicle, comprising: a frame defining an interior; at least one seat in said interior defining a plurality of seating positions; a sound generating system that generates audio sounds for each of said seating positions, said sound generating system comprising speakers, each of said speakers being arranged to direct sound only to a respective one of said seating positions; and a monitoring system that determines the presence of occupants in said seating positions and the position of occupants in said seating positions relative to said sound generating system, said speakers being controlled based on the determined presence of any occupants to cause only those of said speakers which direct sound to an occupied seating position to be operative while those of said speakers which direct sound to an unoccupied seating position are not operative, said speakers being further controlled based on the determined position of occupants such that at least one of said speakers directs sounds toward each of the occupants present on said at least one seat in the interior.