Time-variant acoustic front-end measurements of active noise cancellation headphones

Authors:

Fabry, J. ,  Hilkert, D. ,  Liebich, S. ,  Jax, P.

Book Title:

Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress on Acoustics (ICA)

Organization:

DEGA

Publisher:

EAA

Date:

Sep. 2019

Language:

English

Abstract

A robust design of active noise cancellation (ANC) headphones by means of digital signal processing requires a deep understanding of the underlying acoustic front-end. Particularly knowledge about the primary path, which is commonly defined as the transfer path between the outer and inner microphone of the headphone, and the secondary path, which is the transfer path between the loudspeaker and the inner microphone, is required to designing an ANC system. These paths may vary due to e.g. fitting of the headphone, the physiology of the user or the direction of arrival of ambient noise.
In this contribution, we present the results of a measurement series. The objective is to examine acoustic paths for their intra-person variances considering jaw movement, head rotation and refitting of the headphone, as well as inter-person variance between different subjects. The measurements were conducted in an anechoic chamber with 25 participants from age 21 to 61. Furthermore, the implications on the performance for time-invariant ANC solutions will be considered and the benefit of calibrating the secondary path will be investigated.

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