Psychoacoustic subband active noise control algorithm

Abstract

The active noise control (ANC) algorithm is widely used nowadays for different applications and areas. However, problem with conventional ANC algorithm is the high computational cost for high order FIR filter that is required for better broadband noise attenuation performance. Subband ANC algorithms, which are based on the subband adaptive filter, are used to reduce computational burdens of the conventional ANC. In headphone based application, perceptual quality of noise attenuation is an important factor, and ANC algorithm must be designed to account for the psychoacoustic parameters. In this paper, we propose a new approach in psychoacoustic ANC algorithm, which achieves a similar sound perception quality as the conventional ANC, but it requires lesser computational cost, by using psychoacoustic model to attenuate only audible noise components during music playback in the headphones and without producing artificial distortion to the music signal. Moreover, we propose a new weight transformation algorithm for delayless non-uniform subband adaptive filter (SAF). Objective perceptual tests and computational complexity are evaluated for the proposed algorithm and other conventional subband ANC algorithms.