Multirate Audio-Integrated Feedback Active Noise Control Systems Using Decimated-Band Adaptive Filters for Reducing Narrowband Noises.

Audio-integrated feedback active noise control (AFANC) systems deliver wideband audio signals and cancel low frequency narrowband noises simultaneously. The conventional AFANC system uses single-rate processing with fullband adaptive active noise control (ANC) filter for generating anti-noise signal and fullband audio cancelation filter for audio-interference cancelation. The conventional system requires a high sampling rate for audio processing. Thus, the fullband adaptive filters require long filter lengths, resulting in high computational complexity and impracticality in real-time system. This paper proposes a multirate AFANC system using decimated-band adaptive filters (DAFs) to decrease the required filter lengths. The decimated-band adaptive ANC filter is updated by the proposed decimated filtered-X least mean square (FXLMS) algorithm, and the decimated-band audio cancelation filter can be obtained by the proposed on-line and off-line decimated secondary-path modeling algorithms. The computational complexity can be decreased significantly in the proposed AFANC system with good enough noise reduction and fast convergence speed, which were verified in the analysis and computer simulations. The proposed AFANC system was implemented for an active headrest system, and the real-time performances were tested in real-time experiments.

Multi-channel real time active noise control system for infant incubators.

Excessive noise levels inside infants incubators in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) contribute to number of harmful effects on the infant's health. This paper develops and implements practical active noise control (ANC) systems for the infant incubators. The filtered-X least mean square (FXLMS) algorithm is used to cancel the noise inside the incubator. The multi-channel and pseudo multi-channel ANC systems are proposed to enhance the noise cancellation performance in terms of cancellation gain and quiet zone. An experimental setup based on real Giraffe incubator from GE Healthcare is used for real-time experiments. The results show that the ANC system can dramatically reduce the noise and cost effective.

Active noise control for infant incubators.

This paper presents an active noise control system for infant incubators. Experimental results show that global noise reduction can be achieved for infant incubator ANC systems. An audio-integration algorithm is presented to introduce a healthy audio (intrauterine) sound with the ANC system to mask the residual noise and soothe the infant. Carbon nanotube based transparent thin film speaker is also introduced in this paper as the actuator for the ANC system to generate the destructive secondary sound, which can significantly save the congested incubator space and without blocking the view of doctors and nurses.