Final Report

The project explores how Active Noise Control or ANC technology cancels noise coming out of a designated area, allowing the area to be used as a "noisy room" where people can converse freely without disturbing others. The project aims to improve productivity by allowing office workers in nearby cubicles to work without being disturbed by people in the "noisy room". The planned system creates an output wave exactly 180 degrees out of phase with the input wave - this causes cancellation at an error microphone placed close to the listeners. The system achieves this through using a Least-Mean Squares (LMS) filter, a type of adaptive filter that uses feedback to adapt filter weights. The report discusses the problem of conversational noise in offices and formulates 10 design criteria to solve this. The report details the selection of the concept of the "noisy room" from three different concepts based on the central design criteria. A number of high-level implementation details are discussed – these include the acoustic model, algorithms and hardware designs, component selection and costings. A MATLAB model and simulation is constructed to demonstrate how the concept works. A discussion is then made of further work and how the design may be extended. The report concludes that making a full system will require more time available than provided, but that full development of a product is feasible given enough research of the acoustic environment and careful component selection.

Below is a link to download our Final Report