Smart Localization of Microphones inside an Automotive Cabin

Abstract

Interior sound measurements play an important role in vehicle development and refinement. Sometimes hundreds of microphones are installed in an automotive cabin. During test preparation and execution, a lot of time is spent in determining the microphone positions and in tracking cables to the data acquisition channel. A smart acoustic localization approach is presented to automate this process and to realize considerable time gains. It is based on estimating the distance between a microphone and (at least 4) sources by acoustic time-of-arrival measurements, combined with novel algorithms that cope with reflections and non-line-of-sight issues. The method will be illustrated using in-vehicle measurements.