Enhancement of remotely controlled laboratory for Active Noise Control and acoustic experiments

The latest important developments in the remotely controlled Active Noise Control (ANC) and Acoustics laboratory at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH), Sweden, are introduced. The remotely controlled laboratory is based on the Virtual Instruments Systems in Reality (VISIR) concept, and concerns multi-channel measurement and control of the sound field in a heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) duct. Originally the ventilation duct was equipped with a fixed number of microphones at fixed spatial locations in the duct. A microphone positioning system has been designed and implemented. It enables control of the spatial positions of a number of microphones inside the HVAC duct using a suitable web interface for controlling stepper motors via a National Instruments (NI) PXI system. With the new developments, the spatial number of selectable positions for the microphones have been extended substantially. The new microphone positioning control system is presented and to enhance the user interaction with the laboratory equipment, an audio and visual system is also proposed.