Adaptive noise control system

1. An active noise cancellation system for reducing, at a listening position, power of a noise signal radiated from a noise source to the listening position, the system comprising:

an adaptive filter that receives a reference signal representing the noise signal and provides a compensation signal;

at least one acoustic actuator that receives the compensation signal and radiates an audio compensation signal indicative of the compensation signal to the listening position;

a signal processing device that evaluates and assesses the stability of the adaptive filter;

an LMS adaptation unit to adjust filter characteristics of the adaptive filter using a least mean square algorithm, where the LMS algorithm has a step-size parameter and a leakage parameter;

a microphone disposed at the listening position, where the microphone senses and provides a residual error signal;

a filter connected downstream to the adaptive filter to provide an estimation of the compensation signal at the listening position;

a subtractor that subtracts the estimated compensation signal at the listening position from the error signal and provides an estimated noise signal at the listening position; and

a decider unit that receives signals indicative of the error signal, the estimated compensation signal at the listening position, and the estimated noise signal at the listening position and assesses the stability of the adaptive filter and provides a stability signal indicative thereof.

2. The system of claim 1 , where the least mean square algorithm is one of a filtered-x-LMS algorithm and a modified filtered-x-LMS algorithm.

3. The system of claim 1 , where the decider unit assesses the adaptive filter as stable, and if the ratio between the signal power of the estimated compensation signal at the listening position and the signal power of the estimated noise signal at the listening position is below a given threshold.

4. The system of claim 1 , where the decider unit assesses the adaptive filter as stable, and if the ratio between the power of the residual error signal and the power of the estimated noise signal at the listening position is within a given interval.

5. The system of claim 1 , where the decider unit deactivates the active noise control system if the adaptive filter is assessed as unstable.

6. The system of claim 5 , where the decider unit deactivates the active noise control system where the adaptive filter is assessed as unstable for longer than a pre-defined period.

7. The system of claim 1 , where the decider unit modifies at least one of the step size parameter and the leakage parameter where the adaptive filter is assessed as unstable.

8. The system of claim 1 , where the decider unit provides a signal indicating whether the adaptive filter is assessed as unstable.

9. The system of claim 1 , where the decider unit initiates a re-initialization of the system parameter where the adaptive filter is assessed as unstable.

10. The system of claim 1 , where the signal processing device evaluates and assesses the stability of the adaptive filter separately at different frequencies, which different frequencies include a base frequency and higher order harmonics thereof.

11. The system of claim 10 , where the adaptive filter multiplies each frequency component of the input signal with a complex filter coefficient.

12. The system of claim 10 , further comprising

a non-acoustical sensor that provides information about a base frequency of the noise signal; and

an oscillator that provides the reference signal;

where the reference signal is composed of harmonic oscillations with the base frequency and higher order harmonics thereof.

13. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a secondary path estimation system that estimates a transfer function describing transfer characteristics between the acoustic actuator and the microphone.

14. An active noise cancellation method for reducing, at a listening position, power of a noise signal radiated from a noise source to the listening position, the method comprising:

providing a reference signal correlated with the noise signal;

filtering the reference signal with an adaptive filter to provide a compensation signal;

radiating the compensation signal to the listening position;

sensing a residual error signal at the listening position;

adapting filter coefficients of the adaptive filter as a function of the error signal and the reference signal;

evaluating and assessing the stability of the adaptive filter;

estimating the compensation signal and the noise signal at the listening position, where the evaluating and assessing step comprises

determining the power of the estimated compensation signal, the estimated noise signal, and the residual error signal;

calculating stability parameters from the signal power values; and

comparing the stability parameters with given threshold values to evaluate stability of the adaptive filter.

15. The method of claim 2 , further comprising filtering the compensation signal with a compensation filter before radiating the compensation signal with an acoustic actuator, where the compensation filter includes a transfer characteristic chosen such that the total transfer characteristic characterizing a signal path from the acoustic actuator to the listening position is equalized.