Multichannel nonlinear phase analysis for time-frequency data fusion

Abstract

A general method for time delay of arrival (TDOA) estimation for time-frequency information fusion is analyzed. This technique, for which the generalized cross correlation method and histogram methods are special cases, results in a low TDOA estimation error and high efficiency in computation. The proposed method relies on a non-linear phase-error selector function, which acts as a reward and punish method for the phase error at each frequency. Three different selector function candidates, consisting of cosine, rectangular, and triangular functions are analyzed using simulations. In the presence of Gaussian noise, the rectangular selector function performs better than the cosine at signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) higher than 10dB while for lower SNRs the cosine function performs better. With speech noise, the cosine function, which corresponds to the generalized cross correlation technique, has higher anomaly percentages and higher root-mean-square errors than the rectangular function. This suggests that in general, the rectangular selector function, which can be computed more easily than the cosine selector function, is superior technique to the generalized cross correlation method for real-time applications.