Recent Technological Advances in Spatial Active Noise Control Systems

This article provides a broad overview of the recent advances in the field of active noise control techniques to reduce unwanted noise over a certain spatial region of interest. By both commercial and technological advances in local active noise control systems extending the size of the quiet zone seems to be a crucial step to develop the next generation of active control systems for a more personalized and quieter audio products. In this review article, the advances over the past decade in design and development of spatial active noise control techniques to enlarge the controlled sound zone is reviewed. The focus is specifically on the adaptive control techniques and the methods proposed in the frequency domain to control the sound field. The study has paid a specific attention into the most important performance measures in designing a spatial active noise control system such as convergence rate, stability and robustness of the algorithm, and the size of quite zone and how it can be enlarged by configuring the loudspeaker and microphone array geometries. Finally, the authors will discuss the current and future challenges that should be overcome to improve the effectiveness of the recently proposed methods to expand the silence zone.