A study of subjective effect on active noise control system

In recent years, the influence of various noises on human beings in our daily life has become a problem. Especially, the low-frequency noise has been considered to have a serious influence on work efficiency of people who are working under the noise exposure. On the other hand, active noise control (ANC) systems have achieved the efficient reduction noise, especially for the low-frequency noise. Actually, a number of successful ANC systems have been reported. Therefore, ANC systems may improve our work efficiency. In this paper, features of various noises are observed to get a representative value to be a sound source for subjective listening tests. Then, the effectiveness of the ANC system is evaluated to observe a physiological reaction of subjects. For that, response times to the short-term memory task will be measured in three different conditions, such as usual condition, under the noise exposure, and that with a running ANC system.