Multi-channel real time active noise control system for infant incubators

Excessive noise levels inside infants incubators in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) contribute to number of harmful effects on the infant's health. This paper develops and implements practical active noise control (ANC) systems for the infant incubators. The filtered-X least mean square (FXLMS) algorithm is used to cancel the noise inside the incubator. The multi-channel and pseudo multi-channel ANC systems are proposed to enhance the noise cancellation performance in terms of cancellation gain and quiet zone. An experimental setup based on real Giraffe incubator from GE Healthcare is used for real-time experiments. The results show that the ANC system can dramatically reduce the noise and cost effective.