Estimation of multiple talker locations using randomly positioned microphones
Kazunori Kobayashi, Haruhide Hokari, Shoji Shimada · Electronics and Communications in Japan (Part III Fundamental Electronic Science) · 2000
The talker location estimation technique can be applied to the remote conference system with presence that simultaneously transmits the voice signal and the talker location information to reconstruct the acoustic field, and to the monitor system in which the focus of the television camera is automatically set to the sound source. In this paper, as a new multiple talker location estimation method, a method based on synchronous multiplication is proposed. Unique features of the proposed method include the possibility of detecting the locations of several talkers generating sounds at the same time and the suitability to real-time processing. By means of an experiment, location estimation is carried out for several talkers placed in a two-dimensional manner. It is confirmed that the proposed method is effective for estimation of multiple talker locations. Further, the method is compared with the synchronous addition method. It is demonstrated that the proposed method is superior in regard to the accuracy of the location estimation and separation of multiple talkers. © 2000 Scripta Technica, Electron Comm Jpn Pt 3, 84(4): 41–49, 2001