Signal Processing Challenges for Active Noise Cancellation Headphones

The evolving field of headphones, particularly hearables, and current developments in low power audio processing chips raise the interest in active approaches to address the problem of ambient noise. Methods of Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) are well suited as a supplement to passive attenuation, as they work specifically well at low frequencies. They are offering more flexibility to account for changing acoustic conditions and requirements. This contribution gives an overview of the ANC headphone problem and addresses the specific algorithm design challenges.