Spherical harmonic representation of sound field using a velocity microphone for source localization and source separation

The rapid emergence of voice interfaces in our everyday devices has driven the need to develop audio systems that are robust to noisy environments. Traditionally, arrays of pressure based microphones are used to listen into a specific sound and block out the surrounding noise. However, this comes at a tradeoff of increased size and decreased audio quality. Recently, Soundskrit has developed a new type of microphone that can directly measure the particle velocity of a sound field. This microphone inherently measures the vector components of the incoming sound, providing directional information of the acoustic environment. In this project, we will investigate how information on the sounds particle velocity can be leveraged to perform accurate sound source localization and separation while maintaining a relatively small footprint. Such a system could enable new features in a variety of consumer devices.

Faculty Supervisor:

Philippe-Aubert Gauthier

Student:

Lucas Henrique Teixeira Carneiro

Partner:

TandemLaunch Technologies Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

Program: