Volume 3 · Issue 5 (2026)
DOI number:
10.66521/2938-9933-2026052501
On the Feasibility and Tolerance Limits of Local Quiet Zone Generation via Spatial Sound Field Control
Weilin Wu
Guangzhou Foreign Language School, Guangdong, China
Corresponding Author: Weilin Wu (18028053218@163.com)
Abstract: Local quiet-zone generation has emerged as a promising approach for spatially selective acoustic control in shared environments. However, its practical feasibility and tolerance limits remain insufficiently understood under realistic constraints. This paper investigates local quiet-zone formation from a spatial sound field control perspective and formulates it as a region-based optimization problem. A tolerance-aware evaluation framework is proposed, incorporating spatial metrics, including effective radius and attenuation area, as well as robustness metrics with respect to listener displacement and environmental perturbations. Two representative control strategies, acoustic contrast control (ACC) and pressure matching (PM), are systematically compared under identical conditions. Experimental results demonstrate that quiet zones form as spatially continuous attenuation regions rather than isolated cancellation points. A fundamental trade-off between peak attenuation and spatial robustness is observed, with PM exhibiting improved tolerance at the cost of slightly reduced peak performance. Furthermore, a nonlinear feasibility boundary is identified, revealing diminishing returns in enlarging the quiet-zone radius under limited power budgets. These findings provide a unified framework for evaluating and designing local quiet-zone systems, shifting the focus from algorithmic performance comparison toward engineering feasibility and robustness considerations.
Keywords: Local quiet zone; Spatial sound field control; Acoustic contrast control; Pressure matching; Active noise control; Spatial robustness; Feasibility boundary
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