NOISE CONTROLLER, NOISE CONTROLLING METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20200135167A1
• Filed: 10/21/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: KANO, Hiroyuki
• Granted Patent: US 10,891,937 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17823 Reference signals, e.g. ambient acoustic environment
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17825 Error signals
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17854 the filter being an adaptive filter
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17881 the reference signal being an acoustic signal, e.g. recorded with a microphone
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17885 additionally using a desired external signal, e.g. pass-through audio such as music or speech
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/12821 Rolling noise; Wind and body noise
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/3026 Feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/3028 Filtering, e.g. Kalman filters or special analogue or digital filters
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/503 Diagnostics; Stability; Alarms; Failsafe

Abstract

A noise controller includes: a noise detector; a control filter that performs signal processing on a noise signal using a control factor; a speaker that reproduces an output signal from the control filter; an error microphone that detects a residual noise at a control point; a transmission characteristics correction filter that performs signal processing on the noise signal, using characteristics of sound transmission from the speaker to the error microphone; a factor updater that updates the control factor; a correction filter that performs signal processing on an output signal from the control filter, using the characteristics of sound transmission; a subtractor that subtracts, from an error signal indicative of the residue noise, an output signal from the correction filter; and an effect measuring unit that measures a noise reduction effect at the control point based on a difference between an output signal from the subtractor and the error signal.

Claims

1. A noise controller comprising:

a noise detector that detects a noise generated by a noise source;

a control filter that performs signal processing on a noise signal indicative of the noise detected by the noise detector, using a predetermined control factor;

a speaker that reproduces an output signal from the control filter, as a control sound;

an error microphone that is disposed at a control point where interference between the noise propagated from the noise source and the control sound reproduced by the speaker occurs, and detects a residual noise that is left at the control point as a result of the interference;

a transmission characteristics correction filter that performs signal processing on the noise signal, using characteristics of sound transmission from the speaker to the error microphone;

a factor updater that updates the control factor to minimize an error signal, using the error signal indicative of the residual noise detected by the error microphone and an output signal from the transmission characteristics correction filter;

a correction filter that performs signal processing on an output signal from the control filter, using the characteristics of sound transmission from the speaker to the error microphone;

a subtractor that subtracts, from the error signal, an output signal from the correction filter; and

an effect measuring unit that processes an output signal from the subtractor as a control-off signal representing a noise not yet subjected to control by the interference and processes the error signal as a control-on signal representing a noise having been subjected to control by the interference, and measures a noise reduction effect at the control point based on a difference between the control-off signal and the control-on signal.

2. The noise controller according to claim 1, further comprising an adaptation enabling state determining unit that determines whether or not to cause the factor updater to update the control factor.

3. The noise controller according to claim 1, wherein

the factor updater updates the control factor, using a predetermined convergence constant,

the effect measuring unit measures a difference between the control-off signal and the control-on signal as the noise reduction effect, and performs a determination process of determining whether the noise reduction effect has achieved a predetermined target value,

when determining in the determination process that the noise reduction effect has achieved the predetermined target value, the effect measuring unit concludes that the control factor has converged to an optimum value, and stops the factor updater from updating the control factor to fix the control factor to the optimum value, and

when determining that the noise reduction effect has not achieved the predetermined target value, the effect measuring unit concludes that the control factor has not converged to the optimum value, and creates a new convergence constant by adding a predetermined value to the convergence constant used by the factor updates at time of measurement of the noise reduction effect and causes the factor updates to resume updating of the control factor using the new convergence constant.

4. The noise controller according to claim 3, wherein the effect measuring unit performs signal processing on the control-off signal and the control-on signal, using an A characteristics factor indicative of A characteristics imitating human auditory characteristics, and measures a difference between the control-off signal having been subjected to the signal processing and the control-on signal having been subjected to the signal processing, as the noise reduction effect.

6. The noise controller according to claim 1, wherein the effect measuring unit include

a frequency analyzer that calculates frequency characteristics of the control-off signal and the control-on signal,

an overall calculating unit that calculates an overall value for the control-off signal and an overall value for the control-on signal in whole frequency bands, using the frequency characteristics, and

an overall value difference effect calculating unit that calculates a second difference representing a difference between the overall value for the control-off signal and the overall value for the control-on signal, as an index for the noise reduction effect.

7. The noise controller according to claim 1, wherein the effect measuring unit includes

a frequency analyzer that calculates frequency characteristics of the control-off signal and the control-on signal,

a frequency difference effect calculating unit that, for each frequency making up the frequency characteristics, calculates a first difference representing a difference between the control-off signal and the control-on signal, as an index for the noise reduction effect,

an overall calculating unit that calculates an overall value for the control-off signal and an overall value for the control-on signal in whole frequency bands, using the frequency characteristics, and

an overall value difference effect calculating unit that calculates a second difference representing a difference between the overall value for the control-off signal and the overall value for the control-on signal, as an index for the noise reduction effect.

8. The noise controller according to claim 6, wherein

the effect measuring unit further includes a band limiting unit that extracts signals with frequencies within a predetermined evaluation target frequency band from the control-off signal and from the control-on signal, using the frequency characteristics,

the overall calculating unit calculates an overall value for a signal extracted from the control-off signal by the band limiting unit and an overall value for a signal extracted from the control-on signal by the band limiting unit, in whole frequency bands, and

the overall value difference effect calculating unit calculates a difference between the overall value for the signal extracted from the control-off signal by the band limiting unit and the overall value for the signal extracted from the control-on signal by the band limiting unit, as the second difference.

10. The noise controller according to claim 6, wherein

the factor updater updates the control factor using a predetermined convergence constant,

the effect measuring unit performs a determination process of determining whether the noise reduction effect has achieved a predetermined target value,

when, in the determination process, the second difference has achieved a predetermined second target value corresponding to the target value, the effect measuring unit determines that the noise reduction effect has achieved the target value to conclude that the control factor has converged to an optimum value, and stops the factor updater from updating the control factor to fix the control factor to the optimum value, and

when the second difference has not achieved the second target value, the effect measuring unit determines that the noise reduction effect has not achieved the target value to conclude that the control factor has not converged to the optimum value, and creates a new convergence constant by adding a predetermined value to the convergence constant used by the factor updater at time of calculation of the second difference and causes the factor updater to resume updating of the control factor using the new convergence constant.

11. The noise controller according to claim 7, wherein

the factor updater updates the control factor using a predetermined convergence constant,

the effect measuring unit performs a determination process of determining whether the noise reduction effect has achieved a predetermined target value,

when, in the determination process, the first difference at over half of entire frequencies included in a predetermined evaluation target frequency hand has achieved a predetermined first target value corresponding to the target value, the first difference being calculated by the frequency difference effect calculating unit, and the second difference has achieved a predetermined second target value corresponding to the target value, the effect measuring unit determines that the noise reduction effect has achieved the target value to conclude that the control factor has converged to an optimum value, and stops the factor updater from updating the control factor to fix the control factor to the optimum value,

when the first difference at over half of the entire frequencies included in the evaluation target frequency band has not achieved the first target value, the first difference being calculated by the frequency difference effect calculating unit, the effect measuring unit determines that the noise reduction effect has not achieved the target value to conclude that the control factor has not converged to the optimum value, and creates a new convergence constant by adding a predetermined value to the convergence constant used by the factor updater at time of calculation of the first difference and causes the factor updater to resume updating of the control factor using the new convergence constant, and

when the second difference has not achieved the second target value, the effect measuring unit determines that the noise reduction effect has not achieved the target value to conclude that the control factor has not converged to the optimum value, and creates a new convergence constant by adding a predetermined value to the convergence constant used by the factor updater at time of calculation of the second difference and causes the factor updater to resume updating of the control factor using the new convergence constant.

14. The noise controller according to claim 3, comprising a plurality of the error microphones, wherein

the effect measuring unit performs the determination process on each of the plurality of error microphones, with a location where each of the plurality of error microphones is disposed being defined as the control point and a separate target value set in advance for each of the plurality of error microphones being defined as the target value.

15. The noise controller according to claim 14, wherein

the separate target values are given priority orders, and

when determining in the determination process that the noise reduction effect has achieved the target value, the determination process using the separate target value given a highest priority order, as the target value, the effect measuring unit determines that the noise reduction effect has achieved the target value at every control point at which the determination process is performed.

16. The noise controller according to claim 2, wherein when a value given by averaging instantaneous value levels of the error signal in a predetermined period is within a predetermined threshold range, the adaption enabling state determining unit determines to cause the factor updater to update the control factor.

5. The noise controller according to claim I, wherein the effect measuring unit includes

a frequency analyzer that calculates frequency characteristics of the control-off signal and the control-on signal, and

a frequency difference effect calculating unit that, for each frequency making up the frequency characteristics, calculates a first difference representing a difference between the control-off signal and the control-on signal, as an index for the noise reduction effect.

9. The noise controller according to claim 5, wherein

the factor updater updates the control factor using a predetermined convergence constant,

the effect measuring unit performs a determination process of determining whether the noise reduction effect has achieved a predetermined target value,

when, in the determination process, the first difference at over half of entire frequencies included in a predetermined evaluation target frequency band has achieved a predetermined first target value corresponding to the target value, the first difference being calculated by the frequency difference effect calculating unit, the effect measuring unit determines that the noise reduction effect has achieved the target value to conclude that the control factor has converged to an optimum value, and stops the factor updater from updating the control factor to fix the control factor to the optimum value, and

when the first difference at over half of the entire frequencies included in the evaluation target frequency hand has not achieved the first target value, the first difference being calculated by the frequency difference effect calculating unit, the effect measuring unit determines that the noise reduction effect has not achieved the target value to conclude that the control factor has not converged to the optimum value, and creates a new convergence constant by adding a predetermined value to the convergence constant used by the factor updater at time of calculation of the first difference and causes the factor updater to resume updating of the control factor using the new convergence constant.

12. The noise controller according to claim 9, wherein when, in the determination process, the first difference at a predetermined number or more of frequencies out of frequencies in a predetermined noise increasing band included in the evaluation target frequency band, the first difference being calculated by the frequency difference effect calculating unit, exceeds a predetermined tolerance set in accordance with the target value, the effect measuring unit concludes that a problem with the control factor has occurred and stops the factor updater from updating the control factor.

13. The noise controller according to claim 12, wherein the predetermined number is 1.

17. A noise control method performed by a computer of a noise controller, the noise control method comprising:

detecting a noise generated by a noise source, using a sensor;

performing first signal processing on a noise signal indicative of the noise detected by the sensor, using a predetermined control factor;

causing a speaker to reproduce a signal resulting from the first signal processing, as a control sound;

detecting a residual noise that is left at a control point as a result of interference, using an error microphone disposed at the control point where the interference between the noise propagated from the noise source and the control sound reproduced by the speaker occurs;

performing second signal processing on the noise signal, using characteristics of sound transmission from the speaker to the error microphone;

updating the control factor to minimize an error signal, using the error signal indicative of the residual noise detected by the error microphone and a signal resulting from the second signal processing;

performing third signal processing on a signal resulting from the first signal processing, using the characteristics of sound transmission from the speaker to the error microphone;

subtracting, from the error signal, a signal resulting from the third signal processing; and

processing a signal given by subtraction as a control-off signal representing a noise not yet subjected to control by the interference and processing the error signal as a control-on signal representing a noise having been subjected to control by the interference, and measuring a noise reduction effect at the control point based on a difference between the control-off signal and the control-on signal.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing therein a program that causes a computer to execute the noise control method according to claim 17.

19. A noise controller comprising:

a noise detector that detects a noise generated by a noise source;

a control filter that performs signal processing on a noise signal indicative of the noise detected by the noise detector, using a predetermined control factor;

a speaker that reproduces an output signal from the control filter, as a control sound;

an error microphone that is disposed at a control point where interference between the noise propagated from the noise source and the control sound reproduced by the speaker occurs, and detects a residual noise that is left at the control point as a result of the interference;

a correction filter that performs signal processing on an output signal from the control filter, using characteristics of sound transmission from the speaker to the error microphone;

a subtractor that subtracts, from the error signal, an output signal from the correction filter; and

an effect measuring unit that processes an output signal from the subtractor as a control-off signal representing a noise not yet subjected to control by the interference and processes the error signal as a control-on signal representing a noise having been subjected to control by the interference, and measures a noise reduction effect at the control point based on a difference between the control-off signal and the control-on signal.