Active noise control: A review in the context of the 'cube of difficulty'

Abstract

Over the past twenty years active control of noise has developed into a mature research field and into a product for some technical companies. This paper reviews the current state of the art in both the research and development fields using the context of a cube of difficulty. The cube illustrates how the three physical quantaties: frequency bandwidth, spatial extent and signal coherence, contribute to the difficulty of achieving control performance. The literature is reviewed and placed within the cube to reveal patterns in research and areas of further work.