Applying matched field array processing and machine learning to computational auditory scene analysis and source separation challenges

Abstract

Matched field processing (MFP) techniques employing physics-based models of acoustic propagation have been successfully and widely applied to underwater target detection and localization, while machine learning (ML) techniques have enabled detection and extraction of patterns in data. Fusing MFP and ML enables the estimation of Green’s Function solutions to the Acoustic Wave Equation for waveguides from data captured in real, reverberant acoustic environments. These Green’s Function estimates can further enable the robust separation of individual sources, even in the presence of multiple loud, interfering, interposed, and competing noise sources. We first introduce MFP and ML and then discuss their application to Computational Auditory Scene Analysis (CASA) and acoustic source separation. Results from a variety of tests using a binaural headset, as well as different wearable and free-standing microphone arrays are then presented to illustrate the effects of the number and placement of sensors on the residual noise floor after separation. Finally, speculations on the similarities between this proprietary approach and the human auditory system’s use of interaural cross-correlation in formulation of acoustic spatial models will be introduced and ideas for further research proposed.