A Noise Control Method Using Adaptive Adjustable Parametric Array Loudspeaker to Eliminate Environmental Noise in Real Time

Long-term exposure to environmental noise is dangerous to human health. Therefore, there is an urgent need to suppress or eliminate environmental noise. Due to the limitation of environmental space, the use of reverse sound waves emitted by loudspeakers for noise elimination has been widely used in noise control. However, because of the omni-directionality of sound propagation, a traditional voice coil loudspeaker (VCL) is used as a secondary source (emission reverse sound wave). It is easy to increase the sound pressure in non-target areas and form significant acoustic feedback to the reference source. Therefore, we propose an online secondary path modeling method using an adjustable parametric array loudspeaker (PAL) based on ultrasounds to eliminate environmental noise in real time. According to the different distance of the target, the size of the PAL is adjusted adaptively to realize the noise control of different long-distance targets. The distribution of quiet areas is discussed. The experimental results showed that a PAL as a secondary source had the same noise reduction effect as a traditional VCL, but it had longer propagation distance, smaller sound feedback and a more regular and controllable distribution of quiet areas. These research findings have great potential for improving environmental noise and creating a quiet environment.

Sub-array equalization technique for the parametric array loudspeaker to reduce nonlinear distortion

The parametric array loudspeaker (PAL) is a directional loudspeaker which uses the nonlinear acoustic effect, namely the parametric array, to produce an audio beam from narrow ultrasonic beams. The PAL can efficiently deliver audible information, without generating noise to the surroundings. One significant drawback of the PAL is the nonlinear distortion. Therefore, many sophisticated methods have been proposed to preprocess the input signal of the PAL. However, those methods usually request a flat frequency response of the ultrasonic transducer array (UTA). In the past, equalization has been tried out for the whole UTA, but the performance was sometimes not satisfactory due to the inconsistent productions of ultrasonic transducers. This paper proposes to group the ultrasonic transducers by their impedances. Several sub-arrays are thereafter formed and equalized individually. The comparison results demonstrate that the propose sub-array equalization technique can suppress the nonlinear distortion of the PAL more effectively than the previous method.