Criterion D - How does Noise Cancellation Work?

Almost every single person in the world is using Image#1 shows person wearing headphones

headphones to either listen to music, attend

meetings or even watching Netflix in peace

and people use it for multiple hours in a day.

In fact, in the age group of 19-29 people use

their headphone for about 10hours every

which is about 1hour 30mins of continuous

sound in your ear through earphones every day. Many times, people use headphones when

they are outside going to another place and a common problem which people face is that the

audio that is being played is not loud and clear enough for them to listen (HLT). This is because

of the background noise that is there around the person, the person could try increase the

volume, but it would become too loud for the person’s ears to handle. According to

‘headphonesty.com’ 90% of people face this problem when wearing headphones and because

of this exact problem a lot of people have stopped buying headphones as it did not fully serve

their needs. This lowered the sales of many companies as their headphones and earphones

were not bought by people. A solution must be found and created to restrict or minimize the

volume of the background sound which is being heard by a person wearing headphones which

hinders with the audio that they are trying to listen through the headphones. (“Headphonesty”)
One of the top headphones company, Bose, came up with a solution which is Active Noise

Cancellation or ANC, with this technology in headphones people can listen to music without

much disturbance caused by background music around the person. To completely understand

the physics behind this technology it is important to

first understand the characteristics of a sound wave

that make it possible for this technology to work.

Sound is actually just the compression and

decompression of the particles in the medium it

runs through and in this case the medium is air.

Image#2 shows labelled parts of a sound wave
Imagine sound as something that moves back and forth across the atmosphere. The air

pressure varies quickly and very slightly as a result of those moving air particles. The amplitude

of these fluctuations in air pressure is what we refer to as. These pressure fluctuations are

detected by the ears and the brain, which then interpret them as sound that we can hear. You

get a waveform similar to the one shown that is shown on the right if you plot the amplitude

with time. The sound is louder when the amplitude of the wave is larger (from the equilibrium)

and the pitch increases as the frequency of vibrations increases. (“Frequency and Pitch of

Sound Study Guide | Inspirit”) (“How Do Noise Cancelling Headphones Work?”).

The ANC technology works by cancelling out the outside sound that reaches the person, and

this is done by using the physics of ‘phase inversion’ to create ‘anti-noise’. Two waves are

considered to be "in-phase" when they are lined up with each other, matching up their peaks

and troughs, resulting in a greater wave when added together (louder sound). But what

happens if you precisely delay one of the waves by a half wavelength (the distance between
same peaks (adjacent crests) in successive waves), lining up its peaks and troughs with those of

the other wave as seen in the image below. (“How do noise cancelling headphones like Apple

Airpods Pro work?”) (Rosencrance and Scarpati)

Image#3 shows how the

two waves act against
each other

The positive pressures of one wave are acting against the negative pressures of the other, and

vice versa, causing the two waves to be "out of phase" and subtract from one another. Since

they subtract from each other a new wave is formed which has almost no amplitude causing

there to be no or very less sound. Imagine trying to add

one and removing one from it, which results in only 0 and, in

this instance, no sound. Now with the understandings of

sound waves and phase inversion, there is a theoretical

solution to the problem, but this solution must be executed

in a way. Utilizing tiny built-in microphones, headphones

must continuously monitor and sample background noise in

order to produce the anti-noise sound waves. They "listen"

Image #4 shows process of ANC
to the background noise you are surrounded by, and the onboard electronics process what they
hear (“Cancellation”). After processing the sound wave from outside, the electronic inside

create the new wave which will cancel out the sound and this will play through the same

speakers the music is being played from. In total there will be three main sound waves entering

a person’s ear, first I will be the noise from outside, the second is the new wave which the

headphones produce that cancels out with the sound wave from outside and finally the main

audio that the person is listening to. The image on the right sums up the whole process of

Active Noise Cancellation in headphones. (“Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) Technology Types

Explained”) (“BOSE”). The solution is completely theoretical as practically speaking noise-

cancellation is difficult and it is close to impossible to completely cancel out all the sound. Low

pitched noises like hums and engines on airplanes are easier to cancel out compared to sudden

sounds like a person talking.

Just like any other technology in the world, Active Noise Cancellation comes with its pros and

cons that are more than just “cancelling noise”. Two main positive implications are that they in

a way help build better relationships with co-workers/friends, and they also protect the ground

crew in an airport. Firstly, it is very inconvenient to answer calls in a noise environment because

the other person cannot be heard properly causing the listener to ask him to repeat many times

and this might affect how to other person connects with them as they might find them not very

easy to approach. Even when taking office meetings from your homes, it will be very beneficial

to avoid loud background noises like the vacuum cleaner or a baby crying. But with ANC it

removes almost all background sound so that audio can be heard completely clear (“Benefits of

Noise Canceling Headsets - Headsets Direct”). ANC is used a lot by the ground crew in airports,
since they must stand next to engines of airplanes for multiple hours and because of such loud

noises it will affect your hearing capabilities. For this reason, almost all ground crew members

are seen wearing ANC headphones to restrict the loud engine noises and protect their ears.

(“The Pros and Cons of Noise-Canceling Headphones (Published 2019)”)

Two important negative implication are that the ANC technology arises some safety issue which

could possibly hurt people severely and economic implications as these ANC headphones are

far more expensive than regular headphones. When you are on the road, it's not a good idea to

wear noise-cancelling headphones because they can make you less aware of your surroundings

and block out sounds like car horns, train horns, and sirens. Moreover, if you're listening to

music while using the noise cancellation, you won't even notice when someone is yelling at you

to move. There were 116 reports of death or injury of pedestrians wearing headphones in 2021

alone and this number will keep increasing as more people will start to own ANC headphones

as time passes (Lichenstein et al.). Additionally, some people (according to soundguys.com)

have reported that they are experiencing dizziness and disorientation when they are using

noise-cancelling headphones, the main reason for this is that extremely low-frequency

vibrations produced by noise cancellation technologies can activate balancing receptors linked

to our hearing hair cells, or stereocilia, in our ears. The result is that, even while one's eyes are

fixed, these receptors miscommunicate to the brain that the head is moving. Such conflicting

signals can deceive the brain into sensing motion and, as a result, dizziness. (“Pros and Cons of

Active Noise-Cancelling Headphones”). Another negative implication is that headphones with

noise-cancelling are very expensive, the minimum for a decent quality of headphones would be
about 400$ even thought their ability to cancel out sound is not greatest till now, and that price

tag is a lot compared to just about 100$ for regular headphones. (Abdulgafar).

In conclusion, ANC technology uses the ideas of phase inversion by understanding the

characteristics of waves to create an anti-nose which is played that cancels out ambient sound

outside so that the person can hear the audio which they wish to listen which less disturbance

and more clarity. By laying out a few pros and cons of the ANC it can be said that the

implications are balanced, the ANC technology is still a work in progress as headphones

companies still need to find solution to solve smaller problems faced by it.
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