Joint DOA and TDOA estimation for 3D localization of reflective surfaces using eigenbeam MVDR and spherical microphone arrays

Abstract

Methods of 3D direction of arrival (DOA) estimation, coherent source detection and reflective surface localization are studied, based on recordings by a spherical microphone array. First, the spherical harmonics domain minimum variance distortionless response (EB-MVDR) beamformer is employed for the localization of broadband coherent sources, which is characterized by simpler frequency focusing matrices than the corresponding element-space implementation, and by a higher resolution than conventional spherical array beamformers. After the DOA estimation step, the source signals are extracted by EB-MVDRs. Then, by computing the crosscorrelation functions between the extracted signals, the coherent sources are detected and their time differences of arrival (TDOA) are estimated. Given the positions of the array and the reference source, and the estimated DOA and TDOA of the coherent sources, the positions of the major reflectors can be inferred. Experimental results in a real room validate the proposed method.