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Scientific Papers

Sound leakage study of active noise control headphones using particle velocity sensors

ABSTRACT

Active noise control (ANC) headphones have received wide attention globally in recent years.
Apart from developing more advanced noise cancellation algorithms, another challenge the
ANC headphone industry faces is the selection of microphone positioning, which would
significantly influence the performance of active noise cancellation. The materials and
structures of the headphone cups lead to inhomogeneous distribution of sound leakage. When
the microphone is placed on positions with different leakage, it sends different feedback to the
ANC system and results in different performance. Therefore, the positioning of the microphone
plays a critical role in the noise cancellation effect. The particle velocity sensor can significant
restrict background noise due to its high directivity, and thus suitable to apply for in-situ sound
localization. This work applies the particle velocity sensor to thoroughly scan around the ANC
headphones and localize the main leaking spots. The microphone is then placed in the detected
spots, and the noise cancellation performance is compared.

Meng, F., Yu, A., Fernandez Comesana, D. (2020). Sound leakage investigation of ANC headphones using particle velocity sensors. In Proceedings of International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering (The 49th Inter-noise 2020).

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