Selective signal cancellation for multiple-listener audio applications: an information theory approach

Selectively cancelling signals at specific locations within an acoustical environment with multiple listeners is of significant importance for home theater, teleconferencing, office, industrial and other applications. The traditional noise cancellation approach is impractical for such applications because it requires sensors that must be placed on the listeners. We propose an alternative method to minimize signal power in a given location and maximize signal power in another location of interest. A key advantage of this approach would be the need to eliminate sensors. We investigate the use of an information theoretic criterion known as mutual information to design filter coefficients that selectively cancel a signal in one audio channel, and transmit it in another (complementary) channel. Our results show an improvement in power gain at one location in the room relative to the other