Systems and methods for adaptive noise cancellation

• US 7,248,703 B1
• Filed: 06/13/2002
• Issued: 07/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Raytheon BBN Technologies Corp. (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BBN Technologies Corporation (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Preuss, Robert D., Coney, William B., Ver, Istvan L., Heine, John C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin; Vivian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Faulk; Devona E.
• Application Number:
  US10/171,293
• Time in Patent Office: 1,867 Days
• Field of Search: 381/71.1, 381/94.1, 381/71.11, 381/71.12, 381/189, 381/359, 181/296, 181/158, 367/901
• US Class Current: 381/71.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/406 microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2410/05 Noise reduction with a separate noise microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2410/07 Mechanical or electrical reduction of wind noise generated by wind passing a microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A system (400) for reducing non-acoustic noise includes a primary sensor (420), at least one secondary sensor (410), a filter (415), and a summation unit (425). The primary sensor (420) measures pressure and produces a primary pressure signal. The at least one secondary sensor (410) measures pressure and produce a secondary pressure signal. The filter (415) processes the secondary pressure signal to produce a filtered pressure signal. The summation unit (425) subtracts the filtered pressure signal from the primary pressure signal to reduce non-acoustic noise in the primary pressure signal.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

disposing a plurality of secondary sensors on an exterior surface of a three dimensional windscreen;

disposing a primary sensor within an interior of the three dimensional windscreen;

measuring pressure at the primary sensor to produce a primary pressure signal;

measuring pressure at the plurality of secondary sensors to produce secondary pressure signals;

filtering the secondary pressure signals to produce a filtered pressure signal; and

subtracting the filtered pressure signal from the primary pressure signal to reduce noise, induced by non-acoustic pressure disturbances, in the primary pressure signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein filtering the secondary pressure signals comprises employing a finite impulse response (FIR) filter.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein filtering the secondary pressure signals further comprises using the following relation:

y(k)=w₀s(k)+w₁s(k−

1)+w₂s(k−

2)+ . . . +w_N-1s(k−

N−

1)

wherein N comprises a number of filter coefficients of the FIR filter,

k comprises a time step,

{w₀, w₁, . . . , w_N-1} comprise filter coefficients of the FIR filter,

s corresponds to the secondary pressure signals, and

y comprises the filtered pressure signal.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

updating the filter coefficients of the FIR filter according to an adaptive algorithm.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the adaptive algorithm comprises a least-means-square (LMS) algorithm.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

updating the filter coefficients according to the relation;

W(k+1)=W(k)+2*mu*e(k)*S(k)

wherein S(k)=[s(k) s(k−

1) . . . s(k−

N+1)]^T,

W(k+1)=[w₀ w₁ w₂ . . . w_N-1]^T,

mu comprises an adaptation constant, and

e comprises the filtered pressure signal subtracted from the primary pressure signal.

7. A system, comprising:

a three dimensional windscreen having an exterior surface and an interior;

a primary sensor located within the interior of the windscreen and configured to measure pressure and to produce a primary pressure signal;

a plurality of secondary sensors disposed on the exterior surface of the windscreen and configured to measure pressure and to produce secondary pressure signals;

a filter configured to process the secondary pressure signals to produce a filtered pressure signal; and

a summation unit configured to subtract the filtered pressure signal from the primary pressure signal to reduce noise, induced by non-acoustic pressure disturbances, in the primary pressure signal.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the filter comprises a finite impulse response (FIR) filter.

9. The system of claim 8, the filter configured to process the secondary pressure signals according to the following relation:

y(k)=w₀s(k)+w₁s(k−

1)+w₂s(k−

2)+ . . . +w_N-1s(k−

N−

1)

wherein N comprises a number of filter coefficients of the FIR filter,

k comprises a time step,

{w₀, w₁, . . . , w_N-1}comprise filter coefficients of the FIR filter,

s corresponds to the secondary pressure signals, and

y comprises the filtered pressure signal.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

updating the filter coefficients of the FIR filter according to an adaptive algorithm.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the adaptive algorithm comprises a least-means-square (LMS) algorithm.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the LMS algorithm updates the filter coefficients according to the relation:

W(k+1)=W(k)+2*mu*e(k)*S(k)

wherein S(k)=[s(k) s(k−

1) . . . s(k−

N+1)]^T,

W(k+1)=[w₀ w₁ w₂ . . . w_N-1]^T,

mu comprises an adaptation constant, and

e comprises the filtered pressure signal subtracted from the primary pressure signal.

13. A method, comprising:

disposing a plurality of second sensors on an exterior surface of a three dimensional windscreen;

disposing a first sensor within an interior of the three dimensional windscreen;

sensing disturbances at the first sensor and the plurality of second sensors, the first sensor producing a first signal and the plurality of second sensors producing second signals;

adaptively filtering the second signals to produce a filtered signal; and

subtracting the filtered signal from the first signal to cancel the disturbances associated with the first signal.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein adaptively filtering the first signal comprises using a digital filter.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the digital filter comprises a plurality of filter coefficients.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein adaptively filtering the first signal second signals comprises:

adjusting the adaptive filtering according to a least-means-square algorithm.

17. A system for canceling disturbances from a sensor signal, comprising:

a first sensor and a plurality of second sensors configured to sense disturbances, the first sensor producing a first signal and the plurality of second sensors producing second signals;

a filter configured to adaptively filter the second signals to produce a filtered signal;

a summation unit configured to subtract the filtered signal from the first signal to cancel the disturbances from the first signal; and

a windscreen, wherein the first sensor is disposed within an interior of the windscreen and wherein the plurality of second sensors are disposed on an external surface of the windscreen.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the filter comprises a digital filter.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the digital filter comprises a plurality of filter coefficients.

20. The system of claim 19, the filter being further configured to:

update the filter coefficients according to a least-means-square algorithm.

21. A method, comprising:

measuring pressure with a first sensor located inside a windscreen to produce a measurement signal;

measuring pressure at a plurality of second sensors disposed on an exterior surface of the windscreen to infer a net pressure acting on the windscreen, the net pressure comprising acoustic and non-acoustic pressure;

filtering signals from the plurality of second sensors to estimate a component of the non-acoustic pressure that is correlated with the net pressure; and

subtracting the estimated component of non-acoustic pressure from the measurement signal to reduce noise in the measurement signal.