Integrated circuit for detection of acoustic emergency signals in road traffic

In larger cities, emergency vehicles of fire services, emergency services and police are often impeded by other road users. Although the emergency vehicles use visual and acoustic warning signals to become noticeable, they are not always perceived soon by other road users. This can lead to dangerous traffic situations and unacceptable delay of the emergency vehicle. To address this issue, and raise the awareness and lower the reaction time of the driver, a driver assistance system is developed which monitors the ambient noise behind the car and informs the driver when an acoustic signal is detected. Special attention was paid to simplicity of the algorithm for easy implementation in an integrated circuit.