System for active noise control with audio signal compensation

• US 8,315,404 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2012
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Shridhar, Vasant, Wertz, Duane
• Primary Examiner(s): Choe, Henry
• Application Number:
  US13/418,095
• Publication Number:
  US 20120170763A1
• Time in Patent Office: 253 Days
• Field of Search: 381/71.14, 381/71.11, 341/110, 708/300, 708/322, 455/103, 455/114.1, 455/114.3
• US Class Current: 381/71.14
• 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 11/17827 Desired external signals, e.g. pass-through audio such as music or speech
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17854 the filter being an adaptive filter
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17857 Geometric disposition, e.g. placement of microphones
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17879 using both a reference signal and an error signal
• 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 2210/128 Vehicles

Abstract

An active noise control system generates an anti-noise signal to drive a speaker to produce sound waves to destructively interfere with an undesired sound in a targeted space. The speaker is also driven to produce sound waves representative of a desired audio signal. Sound waves are detected in the target space and a representative signal is generated. The representative signal is combined with an audio compensation signal to remove a signal component representative of the sound waves based on the desired audio signal and generate an error signal. The active noise control adjusts the anti-noise signal based on the error signal. The active noise control system converts the sample rates of an input signal representative of the undesired sound, the desired audio signal, and the error signal. The active noise control system converts the sample rate of the anti-noise signal.

Claims

1. A method of generating a plurality of estimated path filters of an active noise control system comprising:

selecting a first physical path present in the active noise control system;

selecting a second physical path present in the active noise control system;

inputting a first signal through the first physical path to generate a first output signal;

inputting the first signal through the second physical path to generate a second output signal;

comparing the first signal to the first output signal to generate a first transfer function based on the first physical path;

comparing the first signal to the second output signal to generate a second transfer function based on the second physical path; and

generating a first estimated path filter based on the first transfer function and a second estimated path filter based on the second transfer function.

2. The method of claim 1, where the first physical path includes a path traversed by an audio signal within the active noise control system.

3. The method of claim 2, where the first physical path further includes a path traversed by an audible signal representative of an audio signal.

4. The method of claim 1, where the second physical path includes a path traversed by an anti-noise signal within the active noise control system.

5. The method of claim 4, where the second physical path includes a path traversed by an audible signal representative of the anti-noise signal.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying the first estimated path filter to an audio signal, and applying the second estimated path signal to an undesired noise signal.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising generating an anti-noise signal using the audio signal filtered with the first estimated path filter, the undesired noise signal filtered with the second estimated path signal, and a microphone signal comprising undesired sound present at a listening location.

8. The method of claim 7, where the undesired sound comprises the audio signal detected as audible sound at the listening location, and the method further comprises removing the audio signal filtered with the first estimated path filter from the microphone signal to form an error signal, and generating the anti-noise signal using the undesired noise signal filtered with the second estimated path signal and the error signal.

9. An active noise control system comprising:

a first estimated path filter representative of a first physical path traversed by a test signal, the first estimated path filter generated based on comparison of the test signal before and after traversing the first physical path;

a second estimated path filter representative of a second physical path traversed by the test signal, the second estimated path filter generated based on comparison of the test signal before and after traversing the second physical path, the second estimated path filter being different from the first physical path filter; and

a processor configured to apply the first estimated path filter to an audio signal, and the second estimated path filter to an undesired sound signal to generate an anti-noise signal for output by a loudspeaker.

10. The active noise control system of claim 9, where the first physical path includes a first path traversed by the audio signal within the active noise control system, and the second physical path includes a second path traversed by the undesired sound signal within the active noise control system.

11. The active noise control system of claim 10, where the first physical path further includes a third path traversed by an audible signal representative of the audio signal, and the second physical path includes a fourth path traversed by an audible signal representative of the anti-noise signal.

12. The active noise control system of claim 9, further comprising a delay filter, where the delay filter is configured as a time delay of the audio signal to allow time for generation of the anti-noise signal so that the anti-noise signal is synchronized with the audio signal for output by the loudspeaker.

13. The active noise control system of claim 9, where the first estimated path filter is a plurality of first estimated path filters and the audio signal is a plurality of corresponding audio channel signals, and where each of the plurality of estimated path filters include a corresponding physical path traversed by a respective audible signal representative of a respective audio channel signal.

14. The active noise control system of claim 9, where the first physical path and the second physical path traversed by the test signal includes traversal of electronic components in the active noise control system, and physical space between the loudspeaker and a microphone.

15. The active noise control system of claim 9, where the processor is further configured to receive a microphone signal representative of audible sound at a listening location, the processor further configured to adjust the anti-noise signal to reduce the audible sound at the listening location using the microphone signal, the audio signal after application of the first estimated path filter, and the undesired sound signal after application of the second estimated path filter.

16. The active noise control system of claim 15, where the processor is further configured to remove the audio signal from the microphone signal representative of audible sound at the listening location, the audio signal removed after application of the first estimated path filter to the audio signal.