Method and system for controlling noise

1 . A method for controlling noise for a human subject, comprising:

receiving an acoustic signal by the human subject through a headphone, the acoustic signal comprising a noise signal;

generating a cancellation signal based on a hearing target curve that is related to acoustic magnitude and frequency; and

applying the cancellation signal to the acoustic signal such that the noise signal is attenuated,

wherein the hearing target curve comprises a relationship between noise attenuation in decibel (dB) and acoustic frequency,

wherein the method further comprises:

determining a neutral response for the human subject by performing a power function curve fitting

y

i

=

a

⁡

(

x

i

b

)

+

c

,

 where y i is an ith mean perception rating, x i is an ith intensity level, a, b, c are coefficients;

determining, based on a hearing perception curve, a sound intensity hearing level that corresponds to the neutral response; and

computing the noise attenuation based on a difference between the sound intensity hearing level and a noise level.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the acoustic frequency is in a range from 250 Hz to 8000 Hz.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing a clustering algorithm on a plurality of human subjects.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the clustering algorithm comprises an agglomerative hierarchical algorithm.

5 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising performing electroencephalography test on the plurality of human subjects to obtain neural response of the plurality of human subjects in response to sound stimuli.

6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

recording data measured by the electroencephalography test;

re-referencing the data to obtain re-referenced data;

filtering the re-referenced data to obtain filtered data; and

determining a search window to identify a first peak P1, a second peak P2, and a trough point N1.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising performing baseline correction on the filtered data.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising averaging the filtered data in the search window.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

configuring the acoustic signal such that the acoustic signal travels along a primary path and evolves into a residual signal; and

performing superposition of the residual signal and the cancellation signal to generate an error signal.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

measuring the error signal;

computing a difference between the acoustic signal and the error signal; and

comparing the difference and the cancellation signal.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

if the difference and the cancellation signal is greater than a threshold, tuning at least one parameter of an adaptive filter.

12 . A system for controlling noise for a human subject, comprising:

a headphone configured to receive an acoustic signal; and

a computer device configured to generate a cancellation signal based on a hearing target curve that is related to acoustic magnitude and frequency, and apply the cancellation signal to the acoustic signal such that the noise signal is attenuated,

wherein the hearing target curve comprises a relationship between noise attenuation in decibel (dB) and acoustic frequency,

wherein the computer device is further configured to:

determine a neutral response for the human subject by performing a power function curve fitting

y

i

=

a

⁡

(

x

i

b

)

+

c

,

 where y i is an ith mean perception rating, x i is an ith intensity level, a, b, c are coefficients;

determine, based on a hearing perception curve, a sound intensity hearing level that corresponds to the neutral response; and

compute the noise attenuation based on a difference between the sound intensity hearing level and a noise level.

13 . The system of claim 12 , further comprising:

a primary path configured to transmit the acoustic signal such that the acoustic signal evolves into a residual signal; and

a secondary path configured to transmit the cancellation signal,

wherein superposition operation is performed for the residual signal and the cancellation signal at an intersection of the primary path and a secondary path such that an error signal is generated.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the headphone comprises:

a reference microphone configured to measure the acoustic signal; and

an error microphone configured to measure the error signal.

15 . The system of claim 14 , further comprising an adaptive filter disposed on the secondary path.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the computer device is configured to

compute a difference between the acoustic signal and the error signal; and

compare the difference and the cancellation signal.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the computer device is configured to tune at least one parameter of the adaptive filter when the difference and the cancellation signal is greater than a threshold.