An active noise cancellation (ANC) system including a selectable decimation rate decimator that receives an oversampled digital input and has an input that selects the decimation rate, a filter that receives an output of the decimator, and a selectable interpolation rate interpolator that receives an output of the filter and has an input that selects the interpolation rate. The selectable decimation rate decimator and the selectable interpolation rate interpolator operate to provide a selectable sample rate for the filter based on the selected decimation and interpolation rates. The filter may be an anti-noise filter, feedback filter, and/or a filter that models an acoustic transfer function of the ANC system. Rate selection may be static, or dynamically controlled based on battery or ambient noise level. A ratio of the decimation rate and the interpolation rate is fixed independent of the dynamically controlled decimation and interpolation rates.

Sensory outputs are synchronized to input tempos for providing soothing and other effects for children and other persons. In example embodiments, juvenile products such as rockers and swings have motors that are controlled to produce an oscillatory motion with an adaptive tempo that is synchronized to rhythmic inputs such as a parent's heartbeat. In other example embodiments, juvenile products such as music players are controlled to output signals to play songs via speakers with an adaptive tempo that is synchronized to rhythmic inputs such as an infant's respiratory rate.

A noise reduction system includes sensors configured to generate an input signal, an adaptive filter configured to represent a transfer function of a path traversed by the input signal, one or more processing devices, and one or more transducers. The processing devices receive the input signal and generate an updated set of filter coefficients of the adaptive filter by separating the input signal into frequency subbands; determining for each subband, coefficients of a corresponding subband adaptive module; and combining the coefficients of multiple subband adaptive modules. Determining the coefficients of the corresponding subband adaptive module includes selecting a subset of a precomputed set of filter coefficients of the adaptive filter. The processing devices process a portion of the input signal using the updated set of filter coefficients of the adaptive filter to generate an output that destructively interferes with another signal traversing the path represented by the transfer function.

A fan control system applied to N fans inside a computer system is disclosed, comprising: a main microphone, a control circuitry, a wave generation circuitry and a number N of fan controllers. The control circuitry calculates a basic frequency value according to a temperature inside the computer system, and continuously updates a parameter by any known optimization algorithm according to a main audio signal from the main microphone. The wave generation circuitry generates N square waves according to the basic frequency value and the parameter. The N fan controllers respectively form and transmit N modulation signals to the N fans according to the N square waves and N tachometric signals from the N fans. The parameter is one of a frequency variation and a set of phase differences, and the N square waves have the same frequency.

An audio processing system can include an Analog to Digital Converter structured to receive an analog input signal and convert the analog input signal to a digital input signal, a first processor coupled with the Analog to Digital Converter, the first processor including at least one programmable bi-quadratic filter chain structured to receive the digital input signal from the Analog to Digital Converter and perform audio processing on the received digital input signal at a first clock rate, and a second processor coupled with the first processor and the Analog to Digital Converter and structured to receive the digital input signal from the Analog to Digital Converter and perform audio processing on the received digital input signal at a second clock rate that is different from the first clock rate.

Sensory outputs are synchronized to input tempos for providing soothing and other effects for children and other persons. In example embodiments, juvenile products such as rockers and swings have motors that are controlled to produce an oscillatory motion with an adaptive tempo that is synchronized to rhythmic inputs such as a parent's heartbeat. In other example embodiments, juvenile products such as music players are controlled to output signals to play songs via speakers with an adaptive tempo that is synchronized to rhythmic inputs such as an infant's respiratory rate.

A noise cancellation system, comprising: an input for a digital signal, the digital signal having a first sample rate; a digital filter, connected to the input to receive the digital signal; a decimator, connected to the input to receive the digital signal and to generate a decimated signal at a second sample rate lower than the first sample rate; and a processor. The processor comprises: an emulation of the digital filter, connected to receive the decimated signal and to generate an emulated filter output; and a control circuit, for generating a control signal on the basis of the emulated filter output. The control signal is applied to the digital filter to control a filter characteristic thereof.

An audio system can include an analog portion having multiple input sensors and an output device, a first digital portion running at a first rate and having a first processor that is electrically coupled with the input sensors and the output device, and a second digital portion running at a second rate that is higher than the first rate and having a second processor that is electrically coupled with the first processor.

A digital circuit arrangement for an ambient noise-reduction system affording a higher degree of noise reduction than has hitherto been possible. The arrangement converts the analog signals into N-bit digital signals at sample rate f.sub.0, and then subjects the converted signals to digital filtering. The value of N in some embodiments is 1 but, in any event, is no greater than 8, and f.sub.0 may be 64 times the Nyquist sampling rate but, in any event, is substantially greater than the Nyquist sampling rate. This permits digital processing to be used without incurring group delay problems that rule out the use of conventional digital processing in this context. Furthermore, adjustment of the group delay can readily be achieved, in units of a fraction of a micro-second, providing the ability to fine tune the group delay for feed forward applications.

An active noise cancellation (ANC) system including a selectable decimation rate decimator that receives an oversampled digital input and has an input that selects the decimation rate, a filter that receives an output of the decimator, and a selectable interpolation rate interpolator that receives an output of the filter and has an input that selects the interpolation rate. The selectable decimation rate decimator and the selectable interpolation rate interpolator operate to provide a selectable sample rate for the filter based on the selected decimation and interpolation rates. The filter may be an anti-noise filter, feedback filter, and/or a filter that models an acoustic transfer function of the ANC system. Rate selection may be static, or dynamically controlled based on battery or ambient noise level. A ratio of the decimation rate and the interpolation rate is fixed independent of the dynamically controlled decimation and interpolation rates.