Scene reconstruction using distributed microphone arrays

A method for the joint localization and orientation estimation of a directional sound source using distributed microphones is presented. By modeling the signal attenuation due to the microphone directivity, the source directivity, and the source-microphone distance, a multi-dimensional search over all possible sound source scene reconstruction algorithm is presented in the context of an experiment with 24 microphones and a dynamic speech source. At a signal-to-noise ratio of 20 dB and with a reverberation time of approximately 0.1 s, accurate location estimates (20 cm error) and orientation estimates (less than 10/spl deg/ average error) are obtained.