Novel active noise-reducing headset using earshell vibration control

Active noise-reducing (ANR) headsets are available commercially in applications varying from aviation communication to consumer audio. Current ANR systems use passive attenuation at high frequencies and loudspeaker-based active noise control at low frequencies to achieve broadband noise reduction. This paper presents a novel ANR headset in which the external noise transmitted to the user's ear via earshell vibration is reduced by controlling the vibration of the earshell using force actuators acting against an inertial mass or the earshell headband. Model-based theoretical analysis using velocity feedback control showed that current piezoelectric actuators provide sufficient force but require lower stiffness for improved low-frequency performance. Control simulations based on experimental data from a laboratory headset showed that good performance can potentially be achieved in practice by a robust feedback controller, while a single-frequency real-time control experiment verified that noise reduction can be achieved using earshell vibration control.     

Acoustic analysis by spherical microphone array processing of room impulse responses

Spherical microphone arrays have been recently used for room acoustics analysis, to detect the direction-of-arrival of early room reflections, and compute directional room impulse responses and other spatial room acoustics parameters. Previous works presented methods for room acoustics analysis using spherical arrays that are based on beamforming, e.g., delay-and-sum, regular beamforming, and Dolph-Chebyshev beamforming. Although beamforming methods provide useful directional selectivity, optimal array processing methods can provide enhanced performance. However, these algorithms require an array cross-spectrum matrix with a full rank, while array data based on room impulse responses may not satisfy this condition due to the single frame data. This paper presents a smoothing technique for the cross-spectrum matrix in the frequency domain, designed for spherical microphone arrays, that can solve the problem of low rank when using room impulse response data, therefore facilitating the use of optimal array processing methods. Frequency smoothing is shown to be performed effectively using spherical arrays, due to the decoupling of frequency and angular components in the spherical harmonics domain. Experimental study with data measured in a real auditorium illustrates the performance of optimal array processing methods such as MUSIC and MVDR compared to beamforming.     

Growth, optical and thermal studies on organic nonlinear optical crystal: 2-Furoic acid

2-Furoic acid (2FA), an organic third order nonlinear optical single crystal, has been synthesized and grown successfully by slow solvent evaporation technique. The space group and lattice parameters of the grown crystals were obtained by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The presence of the functional groups was confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Optical absorption studies reveal low absorption in the UV and visible regions and the UV cut-off wavelength is found to be at 240 nm. The thermal stability of the material examined by TGA analysis, reveals that the material is thermally stable up to 130 °C. The third order nonlinear optical parameters (nonlinear refractive index, nonlinear absorption coefficient and real and imaginary parts of the third order nonlinear optical susceptibility) were derived by Z-scan technique. This reveals that the crystal has a negative refractive index, which indicates the defocusing nature of the material.     

Growth, optical, mechanical and dielectric studies on NLO active pure and metal ion doped single crystals of bis-thiourea zinc chloride

Good quality single crystals of pure and metal ion (Ni²⁺) doped bis-thiourea zinc chloride (BTZC) possessing excellent nonlinear optical properties have been grown from aqueous solution by the slow solvent evaporation technique. The lattice parameters of the grown crystals are determined by single crystal X-ray analysis. The well defined sharp peaks in the powder X-ray diffraction pattern reveals the crystalline perfection and the EDAX spectrum confirms the presence of dopant in the lattice of the parent crystal. The DRS UV-visible spectral study reveals improved transparency for the doped crystal, ascertaining the inclusion of metal ion in the lattice. The optical band gap of the pure and doped crystals was calculated to be 4.8 and 5.2 eV respectively from the UV transmission spectrum. The vickers hardness test brings forth higher hardness value for Ni²⁺doped BTZC as compared to pure BTZC crystal. The dielectric measurement exhibits very low dielectric constant and dielectric loss at higher frequencies for both the pure and Ni²⁺doped BTZC. The existence of second harmonic generation signals in the crystal also has been confirmed by performing the Kurtz powder test.     

High-resolution plane-wave decomposition in an auditorium using a dual-radius scanning spherical microphone array

The spatial and temporal distribution of early reflections in an auditorium is considered important for sound perception. Previous studies presented measurement and analysis methods based on spherical microphone arrays and plane-wave decomposition that could provide information on the direction and time of arrival of early reflections. This paper presents recent results of room acoustics analysis based on a spherical microphone array, which employs high spherical harmonics order for improved spatial resolution, and a dual-radius spherical measurement array to avoid ill-conditioning at the null frequencies of the spherical Bessel function. Spatial-temporal analysis is performed to produce directional impulse responses, while analysis based on the windowed Fourier transform is employed to detect direction of arrival of individual reflections at selected frequencies. Experimental results of sound-field analysis in a real auditorium are also presented.     

Multiple filamentation induced by input-beam ellipticity

We provide what is to our knowledge the first experimental evidence that multiple filamentation (MF) of ultra-short pulses can be induced by input beam ellipticity. Unlike noise-induced MF, which results in complete beam breakup, the MF pattern induced by small input beam ellipticity appears as a result of nucleation of annular rings surrounding the central filament. Moreover, our experiments show that input beam ellipticity can dominate the effect of noise (transverse modulational instability), giving rise to predictable and highly reproducible MF patterns. The results are explained with a theoretical model and simulations.     

The physics of categorization

In the context of cognition, categorization is the process through which several elements (i.e., words) are grouped into a single set which by naming becomes an abstraction of its elements. For example, tiger, kitty, and max can be categorized as Cats. In this article, we aim to show how the physical, biological and cognitive dimensions are related in the process of categorization or abstraction through the physics of computation. Drawing on Landauer's principle, we show that the price paid in terms of entropy is higher when grouping elements of low ranking (high probability) than when grouping elements of high ranking (low probability). Therefore, the logic of the cognitive process of abstraction is explained through constraints imposed by memory on the computation of categories. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 269–274, 2016