Minimally radiating sources for personal audio

Abstract

In order to reduce annoyance from the audio output of personal devices, it is necessary to maintain the sound level at the user position while minimizing the levels elsewhere. If the dark zone, within which the sound is to be minimized, extends over the whole far field of the source, the problem reduces to that of minimizing the radiated sound power while maintaining the pressure level at the user position. It is shown analytically that the optimum two-source array then has a hypercardioid directivity and gives about 7 dB reduction in radiated sound power, compared with a monopole producing the same on-axis pressure. The performance of other linear arrays is studied using monopole simulations for the motivating example of a mobile phone. The trade-off is investigated between the performance in reducing radiated noise, and the electrical power required to drive the array for different numbers of elements. It is shown for both simulations and experiments conducted on a small array of loudspeakers under anechoic conditions, that both two and three element arrays provide a reasonable compromise between these competing requirements. The implementation of the two-source array in a coupled enclosure is also shown to reduce the electrical power requirements.