Patent ID: 8718291

Claim:
An active noise cancellation controller for performing noise attenuation in a system over a predetermined frequency range, the active noise cancellation controller comprising: a first input for receiving a reference signal indicative of a noise level; a second input for receiving an error signal indicative of a remnant noise level; an output for providing a noise cancellation signal to a system in which noise attenuation is to be performed; a fixed feedback controller having a fixed infinite impulse response filter arranged for operation on an error signal received at the second input; a fixed feedforward controller having a fixed infinite impulse response filter arranged for operation on a reference signal received at the first input; and an adaptive feedforward controller having a digital adaptive finite impulse response filter arranged for operation on a reference signal received at the first input and on an error signal received at the second input, the coefficients of the digital adaptive filter being determined by: in the frequency domain, independently generating a set of initial coefficients for each of a plurality of subbands into which the predetermined frequency range is divided, said sets of initial coefficients being generated in accordance with a predetermined adaptive algorithm; and transforming said sets of initial coefficients into the time domain for use as the said coefficients of the digital adaptive filter; wherein the fixed feedback controller, fixed feedforward controller and adaptive feedforward controller are arranged to, in use, provide a noise cancellation signal at the output in dependence on a reference signal received at the first input and an error signal received at the second input.