Patent ID: 7092531

Claim:
A sound output apparatus for an automotive vehicle, comprising: acoustic signal producing means for receiving a sound output requirement from a portion of a vehicle, designating a type of sounds according to the sound output requirement, identifying an alerting direction to which attention of a designated person should be directed, producing an acoustic signal indicating the type of sounds and the alerting direction; and sound generating means, including at least a pair of loudspeakers disposed adjacently to each other and installed on a predetermined portion of a designated seat on which the designated person sits, for receiving the acoustic signal from said acoustic signal producing means and generating output sounds of the type indicating acoustic image localization according to the acoustic signal such that the designated person feels as if a source of the output sounds generated at the predetermined portion of the designated seat is positioned in the alerting directions, wherein the sound generating means has a first pair of loudspeakers so as to have a sound output surface facing a front side of the automotive vehicle and a second pair of loudspeakers installed on a steering wheel so as to have sound output surfaces facing a rear side of the automotive vehicle, and wherein the acoustic signal producing means includes correcting means for correcting the acoustic signals based on a steering angle of the steering wheel and supplying corrected acoustic signals to the second pair of loudspeakers of the sound generating means.