MOBILE DEVICE LOCATOR

A method and apparatus of determining the position of a mobile device in a region of a vehicle cabin are described. The mobile device has a speaker and at least one microphone. The vehicle has an audio system comprising at least two speakers. The mobile device detects first and second acoustic signals respectively transmitted via the first and second vehicle speaker. The acoustic signals comprise a respective detection pattern. The detection patterns are mutually orthogonal. The detected acoustic signals may be compared or correlated with the detection patterns and a respective matched acoustic signal generated. The location of the mobile device within a region of the vehicle cabin may be determined based on the time difference of arrival of the first matched acoustic signal and the second matched acoustic signal. The mode of operation of the mobile device may be set or changed dependent on the location of the mobile device.