Arrangements of phased microphone arrays for acoustic source localization based on deconvolution algorithms

Abstract

Nowadays phased microphone arrays have become a standard technique for acoustic source localization. Until now microphone arrangement is generally based on the conventional beamforming. Compared to the conventional beamforming, deconvolution algorithms such as DAMAS can achieve significantly improved spatial resolution. Recently the computing speeds of deconvolution algorithms have become faster and faster due to the developments of acceleration algorithms and computer ability. In this paper, phased microphone arrays based on deconvolution algorithms is preliminarily investigated in this paper. Three common microphone arrangements (circle array, grid array and spiral array) with same microphone channels are designed firstly. Subsequently their dynamic ranges with deconvolution algorithms are compared. At low frequency, these three arrays have nearly the same dynamic range. However at high frequency, circle array nearly has the same dynamic range with spiral array, while grid array has smallest dynamic range. Considering the experimental costs, circle array could replace spiral array as the first choice of microphone arrangement based on deconvolution algorithms