A binaural sound source localization model based on time-delay compensation and interaural coherence

Abstract

Binaural sound source localization is an important technique involving speech capture and enhancement. However, the simple array structure makes it hard to localize sources in complex noisy conditions. This paper presents a novel algorithm based on time-delay compensation (TDC) and interaural coherence for binaural sound localization. Firstly, the TDC of binaural signals is used to estimate interaural timedelay (ITD) and interaural intensity difference (IID) instead of generalized cross correlation and logarithmic energy ratio. Then the interaural coherence is utilized to select reliable frames and reduce the variance of ITDs. Finally, a hierarchical framework, which successfully reduces computation complexity, is applied to make a decision of location based on Bayesian rule. Our innovation lies in that both ITD and IID are foremost yielded by TDC. Compared with other popular algorithms, experiments show that the most extrusive superiority of this method is complexity for both time and storage. Index Terms— Sound source localization, time-delay compensation, interaural coherence, hierarchical framework