The performance of active noise-canceling headphones in different noise environments

Ang, Linus Yinn Leng; Koh, Yong Khiang; Lee, Heow Pueh

doi:10.1016/j.apacoust.2017.02.005

Cited by 24 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Therefore, the presented results would only serve as relative measurements for benchmarking of the composite earmuffs with the reference earmuff. The same limitation was highlighted in a recent study by Ang et al [22]. In this case, the presented results must not be misunderstood as a direct indication of real-ear attenuation values, which is one of the most accurate evaluation methods for hearing protection devices [23].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 82%

Low-Frequency Noise Reduction by Earmuffs with Flax Fibre-Reinforced Polypropylene Ear Cups

Ang

Tran

Phillips

et al. 2018

Advances in Acoustics and Vibration

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Soldiers and supporting engineers are frequently exposed to high low-frequency (<500 Hz) cabin noise in military vehicles. Despite the use of commercial hearing protection devices, the risk of auditory damage is still imminent because the devices may not be optimally customised for such applications. This study considers flax fibre-reinforced polypropylene (Flax-PP) as an alternative to the material selection for the ear cups of commercial earmuffs, which are typically made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Different weaving configurations (woven and nonwoven) and various noise environments (pink noise, cabin booming noise, and firing noise) were considered to investigate the feasibility of the proposed composite earmuffs for low-frequency noise reduction. The remaining assembly components of the earmuff were kept consistent with those of a commercial earmuff, which served as a benchmark for results comparison. In contrast to the commercial earmuff, the composite earmuffs were shown to be better in mitigating low-frequency noise by up to 16.6 dB, while compromising midfrequency acoustical performance. Consequently, the proposed composite earmuffs may be an alternative for low-frequency noise reduction in vehicle cabins, at airports, and at construction sites involving heavy machineries.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 82%

Low-Frequency Noise Reduction by Earmuffs with Flax Fibre-Reinforced Polypropylene Ear Cups

Ang

Tran

Phillips

et al. 2018

Advances in Acoustics and Vibration

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As such, the results obtained from the simulator were only valid as relative measurements for benchmarking of the composite earmuffs with the commercial earmuff. Ang et al [36] highlighted the same limitation in a recent study. Therefore, the presented results must not be misunderstood as a direct indication of real-ear attenuation values, which is one of the most accurate evaluation methods for HPDs [18].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 83%

Low-Frequency Noise Reduction by Earmuffs with Coir and Coir/Carbon Fibre-Reinforced Polypropylene Ear Cups

et al. 2017

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Natural fibres have been extensively studied due to their potential in a wide range of applications. This study aims to demonstrate the viability of composite earmuffs for low-frequency noise reduction in continuous and transient noise environments. Pink noise and aircraft take-off exterior noise were considered for the former and the latter, respectively. The assembly components of the composite earmuffs were kept identical to a commercial earmuff, which served as a reference for results comparison. Based on the profile of the ear cups from the commercial earmuff, composite ear cups were fabricated from coir fibre and coir/carbon fibre fabrics reinforced with polypropylene. In contrast to the commercial earmuff, the composite earmuffs showed improvements in insertion loss at specific frequencies in the respective noise environments. In pink noise, up to 12 dB improvement in insertion loss was achieved. In aircraft take-off exterior noise, up to 8.6 dB improvement in insertion loss was achieved at 160-544 Hz particularly by the coir fibre-reinforced polypropylene earmuff. Consequently, the proposed earmuffs may find applications in areas where noise exposure is predominantly low-frequency-in some vehicle cabins, at airports, and at construction sites, for example.

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“…In particular, sound attenuation achieved in the higher frequency range by active control is below that which can be simply achieved through passive control, i.e. earmuffs, with these often delivering over 30 dB reduction 33,34 . However, such comparison is unfair since the aim of an ANC headrest system is to eliminate the use of the passive attenuation materials which deliver such reduction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultra-broadband local active noise control with remote acoustic sensing

Xiao

Qiu

Halkon

2020

Sci Rep

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One enduring challenge for controlling high frequency sound in local active noise control (ANC) systems is to obtain the acoustic signal at the specific location to be controlled. In some applications such as in ANC headrest systems, it is not practical to install error microphones in a person’s ears to provide the user a quiet or optimally acoustically controlled environment. Many virtual error sensing approaches have been proposed to estimate the acoustic signal remotely with the current state-of-the-art method using an array of four microphones and a head tracking system to yield sound reduction up to 1 kHz for a single sound source. In the work reported in this paper, a novel approach of incorporating remote acoustic sensing using a laser Doppler vibrometer into an ANC headrest system is investigated. In this “virtual ANC headphone” system, a lightweight retro-reflective membrane pick-up is mounted in each synthetic ear of a head and torso simulator to determine the sound in the ear in real-time with minimal invasiveness. The membrane design and the effects of its location on the system performance are explored, the noise spectra in the ears without and with ANC for a variety of relevant primary sound fields are reported, and the performance of the system during head movements is demonstrated. The test results show that at least 10 dB sound attenuation can be realised in the ears over an extended frequency range (from 500 Hz to 6 kHz) under a complex sound field and for several common types of synthesised environmental noise, even in the presence of head motion.

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The performance of active noise-canceling headphones in different noise environments

Cited by 24 publications

References 13 publications

Low-Frequency Noise Reduction by Earmuffs with Flax Fibre-Reinforced Polypropylene Ear Cups

Low-Frequency Noise Reduction by Earmuffs with Flax Fibre-Reinforced Polypropylene Ear Cups

Low-Frequency Noise Reduction by Earmuffs with Coir and Coir/Carbon Fibre-Reinforced Polypropylene Ear Cups

Ultra-broadband local active noise control with remote acoustic sensing

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