Evolution of Active Noise Control techniques for NICUs

Since the inception of Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) many improvements have been done in them time to time to make them safer and better for the infants. DSP processors played an important role in efficient implementation of algorithms, which helped in reducing the noises generated by medical equipment and other external factors. A zone of silence (ZoS) is created in the vicinity of baby´s head using different Active Noise Control (ANC) techniques. The focus was on designing an active noise control system, which not only eliminates the noise but also plays the good sounds for the baby along with other tactics that can be helpful in monitoring without disturbing the baby. In this paper various active noise control techniques are reviewed which are developed over the period of time for NICUs. The evolution of new techniques takes place to overcome the earlier problems and pitfalls in designs and implementation, cost effective systems, and different algorithms and techniques used to enhance the quality of noise control.