Active stereo sound localization

J Acoust Soc Am. 2003 Jan;113(1):185-93. doi: 10.1121/1.1518469.

Abstract

Estimating the direction of arrival of sound in three-dimensional space is typically performed by generalized time-delay processing on a set of signals from a fixed array of omnidirectional microphones. This requires specialized multichannel A/D hardware, and careful arrangement of the microphones into an array. This work is motivated by the desire to instead only use standard two-channel audio A/D hardware and portable equipment. To estimate direction of arrival of persistent sound, the position of the microphones is made variable by mounting them on one or more computer-controlled pan-and-tilt units. In this paper, we describe the signal processing and control algorithm of a device with two omnidirectional microphones on a fixed baseline and two rotational degrees of freedom. Experimental results with real data are reported with both impulsive and speech sounds in an untreated, normally reverberant indoor environment.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Analog-Digital Conversion*
  • Equipment Design
  • Humans
  • Microcomputers*
  • Phonetics
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / instrumentation*
  • Sound Localization*
  • Transducers