Comments on: Three Inventions

By: Родион

Родион — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:07:43 +0000

Вообще, откровенно говоря, комментарии тут гораздо интересней самих сообщений. (Не в обиду автору, конечно :))

By: Steven Andrew Miller

Steven Andrew Miller — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:36:22 +0000

1. A car radio that gets louder as the background noise gets louder, so that the listener continues hear equally well.

My 1997 bare bones Chevy Cavalier had a radio with the option of the volume increasing with the speed of the car.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:15:48 +0000

The new Honda Civics (and other Hondas presumably) have a feature that increases the volume of the radio as one travels faster (since the exterior noise increases as this happens). As others have mentioned, systems like this are a feature on many cars these days.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 03:13:42 +0000

Jim’s link to the UV detector is a good one. It looks like the device is just what I was thinking of, at cost $80.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 01:25:20 +0000

A friend of mine’s Volvo had the speed-adjust-volume thing. Except that it only had used about 4 volume levels, so there were steps, cleverly placed at various common highway cruising speeds. It was comical for a bit, and after that very irritating…

By: Luke

Luke — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 01:13:29 +0000

Our old (~96?) Toyota Land Cruiser adjusted the stereo volume based on the car’s speed. There was a ring around the volume knob that controlled how sensitive the radio volume would be to car speed.

I always wished it had been keyed in to whether the windows were open—speed doesn’t make *so* much noise if the windows are closed.

And a microphone doesn’t sound like a great idea. If I’m trying to talk over the radio, I don’t want the radio getting louder…

Luke

By: jm

jm — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 19:53:11 +0000

Wish number one already exists in many car radios, except that it’s tied to the speedometer, which is a pretty good proxy for background noise.

Wish number 3 granted http://www.wirelessalarm.com/NU300.htm. I also recall seeing cheap disposable things that do the same thing.

By: Dick King

Dick King — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 19:28:55 +0000

Alex, there are fairly good proxies for background noise available in base model Priuses; speed is the most obvious one.

-dk

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 18:15:10 +0000

Many luxury cars have invention number one. So does the Toyota Prius but only if you have the bluetooth cell-phone option. Why? Because that requires a microphone inside the car making the volume normalizer a software change, not hardware.

Anton, if you leave my parents’ [Pontiac] minivan’s turn signal on, it makes a loud beeping noise that in no way suggests you just left your turn signal on.

By: John

John — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:20:54 +0000

They actually have some steros that do this:
Infinity has one: http://www.carzunlimited.com/review_00024.html
So does JVC: http://mobile.jvc.com/product.jsp?pathId=54&modelId=MODL015070&page=1
Here is a copy of sony’s patent for one version: http://www.priorartdatabase.com/IPCOM/000127430/

By: Mae

Mae — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:09:22 +0000

My 1980 Nissan/Datsun had a radio that was an analog of what you want. It flattened the volume. So — in the extreme — if you played Bolero it sounded like the same thing a million times. But was really good for most music with normal dynamics that would play while road-driving. I have no idea if they still make them. No subsequent cars of mine ever were so equipped.

By: Anton Sherwood

Anton Sherwood — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 00:36:28 +0000

A turn-signal that shuts itself off after (say) a mile, so the drivers around you on the freeway need not worry that you still might be planning a lane-shift.