Transforming the vehicle into a microphone

When an emergency vehicle is approaching but its blaring siren isn't heard by nearby motorists, all are at risk. Engineers at Harman International have developed novel sensor technology that detects both the sound and its direction, in effect piping that screaming siren into vehicles so-equipped, to alert the driver.

“What we're in essence doing is turning the vehicle into a giant microphone,” Mitul Jhala, senior director of automotive embedded audio for Harman, explained in an SAE Media interview.