An Enhanced Binaural 3D Sound Localization Algorithm

Abstract

For sound localization methods to be useful in realtime scenarios, the processing power requirements must be low enough to allow real time processing of audio inputs. we propose a new binaural sound source localization technique based on using only two microphones placed inside the ear canal of a robot dummy head. The head is equipped with artificial ears and is mounted on a torso. In contrast to existing 3D sound source localization methods using microphone arrays, the novel method presented employs only two microphone and is based on a simple correlation approach using a generic set of HRTFs. The proposed method is demonstrated through simulation and is further tested in a household environment. This set up proves to be very noise-tolerant and is able to localize sound sources in free space with high precision.

Sound Source Localization Based on Robot Hearing and Vision

“…That is, when first get the direction of the sound source from the auditory system, the robot rotate its head to get the visual information, when the object is in the view of the robot, it could be localized precisely using the vision information. Our sound source localization system consists of an auditory module and a visual module [8], and a control module to rotate the head. The localization realization of the proposed system is shown in (1) A sound source is presented at a random position in the robot working environment.…”

A Sound Source Tracking System Based on Robot Hearing and Vision

“…(2) For a given source location, the estimated TDOA and those geometry model could be used to evaluate the source location [4][5].…”

High performance 3D sound localization for surveillance applications

“…In the binaural localization case we use the system in [2]. In this context, the original signal is extracted from the received inputs, in such a way that only the HRTFs will be The sound source is canceled out and the location of the sound source is estimated by finding the maximum correlation coefficient between incoming and saved HRTF ratios.…”

“…Many specialized cells in the auditory pathway contribute to the highly complex signal processing, which by far exceeds the performance of modern computers. Hence, we have recently proposed a minimal-complexity sound localization system inspired by the important role of the human pinnae to focus and amplify sound [1,2]. Based on the intelligence encapsulated within the HRTFs, which can also be interpreted as the directivity characteristics of the two pinnae [3], the model allows robots to perform localization in an indoor/outdoor environment using two synthetic pinnae and a HRTF database.…”