Method and Apparatus for Acoustic Area Monitoring by Exploiting Ultra Large Scale Arrays of Microphones
First Claim
1. A method to create an acoustic map of an environment having at east one acoustic source, comprising:
- a processor determining a plurality of spatial masks covering the environment, each mask defining a different pass region for a signal and a plurality of complementary rejection regions, wherein the environment is monitored by a plurality of microphones;
the processor determining for each mask in the plurality of spatial masks a subset of microphones in the plurality of microphones and a beamforming filter for each of the microphones in the subset of microphones that maximizes a gain for the pass region and minimizes gain for the complementary rejection regions associated with each mask according to an optimization criterion that does not depend on the at least one acoustic source in the environment; and
the processor applying the plurality of spatial masks in a scanning action across the environment on signals generated by microphones in the plurality of microphones to detect the acoustic source and its location in the environment.
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Abstract
Systems and methods are provided to create an acoustic map of a space containing multiple acoustic sources. Source localization and separation takes place by sampling an ultra large microphone array containing over 1020 microphones. The space is divided into a plurality of masks, wherein each masks represents a pass region and a complementary rejection region. Each mask is associated with a subset of microphones and beamforming filters that maximize a gain for signals coming from the pass region of the mask and minimizes the gain for signals from the complementary region according to an optimization criterion. The optimization criterion may be a minimization of a performance function for the beamforming filters. The performance function is preferably a convex function. A processor provides a scan applying the plurality of masks to locate a target source. Processor based systems to perform the optimization are also provided.
72 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method to create an acoustic map of an environment having at east one acoustic source, comprising:
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a processor determining a plurality of spatial masks covering the environment, each mask defining a different pass region for a signal and a plurality of complementary rejection regions, wherein the environment is monitored by a plurality of microphones; the processor determining for each mask in the plurality of spatial masks a subset of microphones in the plurality of microphones and a beamforming filter for each of the microphones in the subset of microphones that maximizes a gain for the pass region and minimizes gain for the complementary rejection regions associated with each mask according to an optimization criterion that does not depend on the at least one acoustic source in the environment; and the processor applying the plurality of spatial masks in a scanning action across the environment on signals generated by microphones in the plurality of microphones to detect the acoustic source and its location in the environment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system to create an acoustic map of an environment having at least one acoustic source, comprising:
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a plurality of microphones; a memory enabled to store data; a processor enabled to execute instructions to perform the steps; determining a plurality of spatial masks covering the environment, each mask defining a different pass region for a signal and a plurality of complementary rejection regions, wherein the environment is monitored by the plurality of microphones; determining for each mask in the plurality of spatial masks a subset of microphones in the plurality of microphones and a beamforming filter for each of the microphones in the subset of microphones that maximizes a gain for the pass region and minimizes gain for the complementary rejection regions associated with each mask according to an optimization criterion that does not depend on the at least one acoustic source in the environment; and applying the plurality of spatial masks in a scanning action across the environment on signals generated by microphones in the plurality of microphones to detect the acoustic source and its location in the environment. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification