The problem of acoustic noise is becoming increasingly serious with the growing use of industrial and medical equipment, appliances, and consumer electronics. Active noise control (ANC), based on the principle of superposition, was developed in the early 20th century to help reduce noise. However, ANC is still not widely used owing to the effectiveness of control algorithms, and to the physical and economical constraints of practical applications. In this paper, we briefly introduce some fundamental ANC algorithms and theoretical analyses, and focus on recent advances on signal processing algorithms, implementation techniques, challenges for innovative applications, and open issues for further research and development of ANC systems.

We propose a new design criterion for subband adaptive filters (SAFs). The proposed multiple-constraint optimization criterion is based on the principle of minimal disturbance, where the multiple constraints are imposed on the updated subband filter outputs. Compared to the classical fullband least-mean-square (LMS) algorithm, the subband adaptive filtering algorithm derived from the proposed criterion exhibits faster convergence under colored excitation. Furthermore, the recursive tap-weight adaptation can be expressed in a simple form comparable to that of the normalized LMS (NLMS) algorithm. We also show that the proposed multiple-constraint optimization criterion is related to another known weighted criterion. The efficacy of the proposed criterion and algorithm are examined and validated via mathematical analysis and simulation.

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This paper presents the design and implementation of an adaptive feedback active noise control (ANC) system for headphone applications. The ideal position of the error microphone in the ear-cup was studied and determined experimentally, and music signals were used for adaptive system identification of the secondary path. The designed ANC headphone was implemented using the TMS320C32 digital signal processor for real-time experiments. Performance has been evaluated and compared with a high-end commercial ANC headphone using the same set of primary noises including real-world engine noises. Experiment results show the proposed ANC headphone achieves higher noise cancellation, especially for low-frequency harmonics