In this paper, we propose an edge case-enhanced active noise cancellation (EC-ANC) system that integrates a piezo microphone, a signal processor, and a wireless module into the charging case of TWS earbuds. Considering the fact that sound travels much faster in solid materials than in the air, the piezo microphone on the edge case will pick up a lookahead signal before it reaches the earbuds. The lookahead signal is very useful for real-time noise cancellation, especially for eliminating high-frequency, unpredictable, and high dynamic range noises. Benefiting from the speed advantage of sound traveling in solid materials, EC-ANC performs well when the charging case is either close to the user or near the noise source. This allows EC-ANC to be easily applied to various noise cancellation scenarios. We implemented EC-ANC on Intel MAX 10 FPGA, and then validated its advantages over the popular ANC method adopted by Bose, Sony, and Apple. According to experiment results, EC-ANC can achieve higher noise attenuation in the 4 kHz range compared with Bose QuietComfort 20 (QC20) and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (QCE). Even without the noise-absorbing material, EC-ANC’s performance at higher frequencies is comparable to QC20 and QCE.

中文翻译：

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EC-ANC：边缘盒增强型主动降噪，适用于真正的无线立体声耳塞


在本文中，我们提出了一种边缘盒增强型主动噪声消除（EC-ANC）系统，该系统将压电麦克风、信号处理器和无线模块集成到 TWS 耳塞的充电盒中。考虑到声音在固体材料中的传播速度比在空气中快得多，边缘外壳上的压电麦克风将在到达耳塞之前拾取前向信号。前瞻信号对于实时噪声消除非常有用，特别是对于消除高频、不可预测和高动态范围噪声。受益于声音在固体材料中传播的速度优势，当充电盒靠近用户或靠近噪声源时，EC-ANC 表现良好。这使得EC-ANC可以轻松应用于各种噪声消除场景。我们在 Intel MAX 10 FPGA 上实现了 EC-ANC，然后验证了其相对于 Bose、Sony 和 Apple 采用的流行 ANC 方法的优势。根据实验结果，与 Bose QuietComfort 20 (QC20) 和 Bose QuietComfort Earbuds (QCE) 相比，EC-ANC 在 4 kHz 范围内可以实现更高的噪声衰减。即使没有吸噪材料，EC-ANC 在较高频率下的性能也与 QC20 和 QCE 相当。