Psychoacoustic optimization of a feedback controller for active noise cancelling headphones

In this paper different cost functions are studied for the optimization of FIR filters as minimum variance controllers in active noise cancelling headphones. The resulting controllers are implemented in a headphones prototype and their attenuation performances are measured using a dummy-head. The measurements are then compared and evaluated in terms of psychoacoustic objective metrics, in order to establish which one of the cost functions relates more closely to the human perception of noise.