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Microphone Arrays for Source Location

Microphone Arrays for Source Location

Note: This page is derived, with some editing and additions, from the Microphone Array Source Location System Description page located on Rutgers University CAIP (Computer Aids for Industrial Productivity) Center website. Much of the material on this page is Copyright © 1996-1999 Rutgers University.

Overview

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A PC-based sound source location system has been implemented at Rutgers Univesity CAIP (Computer Aids for Industrial Productivity) Center. The system consists of a multichannel Lucent (formerly AT&T Microelectronics) DSP32C-based Sig32C-8 board and a host PC. The Sig32C-8 board provides 8-channel sigma-delta analog I/O, with software-programmable sampling rates from 4 kHz to 48 kHz, built-in anti-alias filters, and nearly linear phase response. Eight (8) electret microphones are used to capture audio signals which are digitized by the DSP board. The host PC automatically points a video camera at the sound source, and audio is captured by treating the microphone array as a beamforming line.

The system operates in real-time, performs in a robust fashion, and may be installed in less than an hour. Approximate overall system cost is USD 9000.

Automatic Videoconferencing

  • Microphone Arrays provide a means for determining the point of sound origin (e.g. the location of a speaker)

  • Speaker coordinates may be used to direct a camera at a member of an audience during a question-and-answer session, and can also provide directed sound capture

  • A microphone array system may be used to eliminate the need for a human camera operator in an auditorium or conference hall environment

Source Location Algorithm

  • Select speech frame with sufficient speech energy

  • Determine time delay of arrival (TDOA): The relative delay in source sound arrival for selected microphone pairs using the Cross-Power Spectrum Phase Algorithm

  • Estimate source location by searching space to minimize error between estimated delays and computed delays for microphone pair aggregate

System Diagram

Principle Investigators

Principle researchers currently, or formerly, at Rutgers University CAIP Center:

For More Information...

  • Microphone Array Home Page at CAIP Center

  • CAIP Center Home Page

  • Online Papers

  • Publications. Below is a partial list of related publications. To download, go to the microphone array publications page at the CAIP Center; however, please be warned most of these papers are in PostScript format, not PDF.

    • D.V. Rabinkin, R.J. Renomeron, A. Dahl, J. French, J. Flanagan and M. Bianchi, "A DSP Implementation of Source Location Using Microphone Arrays", J. Acous. Soc. Am., Vol 99, No. 4 Pt. 2, p. 2503, April 1996 (131st Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, May 1996)

    • D. Rabinkin, R. Renomeron, A. Dahl, J. French, J. Flanagan, and M. Bianchi "A DSP Implementation of Source Location Using Microphone Arrays", Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol 2846, pp. 88-99, Denver, Colorado, August 1996.

    • D. Rabinkin, D. Macomber, R. Renomeron and J. Flanagan, "Optimal Truncation Time for Matched Filter Array Processing", In Proceedings of ICASSP 98, Vol VI, p. 3629-3632, Seattle, WA, May 1998.

    • R. Renomeron, D. Rabinkin, J. French, and J. Flanagan, "Small-Scale Matched Filter Array Processing for Spatially Selective Sound Capture" J. Acous. Soc. Am., Vol. 102, No. 5 Pt. 2, p. 3208, Nov. 1997. (134th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Dec. 1997)

    • .D. Rabinkin, R. Renomeron and J. Flanagan, "Microphone Array Sensor Placement Optimization in Reverberant Environments", J. Acous. Soc. Am., Vol. 102, No. 5 Pt. 2, p. 3207, Nov. 1997. (134th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Dec. 1997)

    • D. Rabinkin, R. Renomeron, J. French and J. Flanagan, "Optimum Microphone Placement for Array Sound Capture", In Advanced Signal Processing: Algorithms, Architectures, and Implementations VII, Franklin T. Luk, Editor, Proceedings of SPIE Vol 3162, pp. 227-239, 1997.

    • H. Silverman, W. Patterson, J. Flanagan and D. Rabinkin, "A Digital Processing System for Source Location and Sound Capture by Large Microphone Arrays", In Proceedings of ICASSP 97, Munich, Germany, April 1997.

    • D. Rabinkin, R. Renomeron, J. French and J. Flanagan, "Estimation of Wavefront Arrival Delay Using the Cross-Power Spectrum Phase Technique", J. Acous. Soc. Am., Vol. 100, No. 4 Pt. 2, p. 2697, October 1996 (132nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, December 1996).

  • Principle Investigators

  • Sig32C-8 Board


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