Active control system for global cancellation of noise while preserving wanted sound in multi-domains

This paper introduces an active sound control methodology based on difference potentials that provides several significant advantages over conventional noise control methods. The main distinctive feature of this methodology is its ability to automatically preserve "wanted" sounds within the shielded domains while selectively cancelling "unwanted" noise from outside the domains. Unlike many other conventional active control methods, the proposed approach does not require the explicit characterization of the wanted sounds to be preserved. This paper reports on the results of numerical simulation in 3D space and experimental validation with broadband sound sources for the methodology. It is experimentally and also numerically demonstrated and confirmed that while clearly preserving the wanted sounds, the developed approach can cancel out significantly the unwanted noise. These unique features of the proposed methodology can be very useful in the context of applications in noise control and room acoustics, and in particular for eliminating exterior noise inside without significantly interfering with the intelligibility of the wanted sound or communication among speakers in the room.