An Efficient VLSI Architecture of Frequency Domain Kurtosis for Non-Stationary Acoustic Noise Measurements

Recent research shows that the conventional energy-based metrics used for acoustic noise measurements underestimate the hazardous effects of non-stationary noises on hearing conservation practice. New strategies that adopt higher-order statistical metrics to quantify noise measurements are needed to better assess potential damage to hearing. This paper proposes an efficient architecture of the frequency domain kurtosis metric that is a higher-order statistical metric. The architecture emphasizes efficiency on area and time to meet the technological challenges of compactness and portability for the acoustic noise measurement instruments.