Microphone Localization for Conferencing System

Conferencing systems are often used during large-scale meetings. Think for example about meetings in the EU or government. Modern systems are wireless such that they can quickly be set up in any room by simply distributing the conferencing devices across the room. Each conferencing device is equipped with a loudspeaker and a microphone. For several purposes it is important to know the exact location of the microphones in each device. This can for example be used to perform beamforming, or, to automatically steer a camera in the direction of the person who is speaking. In this project, we will develop an algorithm for automatically detecting the microphones of a set of randomly distributed conferencing systems and to automatically steer a camera into the direction of the speaker. One way to localize the position of the microphones of the different devices is by transmitting signals and estimating the different time of arrivals at each device. In addition, the source location needs to be determined. Potentially, students can visit Bosch security systems who develops these systems to get more information and possibly also to use some of their equipment. The problems to solve might include: • Literature research on techniques to localize microphones by playing acoustic sounds. • Literature research on source localization techniques • Implementation of an algorithm for microphone localization in matlab/simulink • Implementation of the developed algorithm on real devices • Implementation of the camera steering algorithm • Error analysis. How accurate is the system. How well does the system work in case of background noise and reverberation? The responsibility for the solution of these problems can easily be divided over two subgroups, while tight co-operation is necessary for the successful realization of this project.

Contact

dr.ir. Richard Hendriks

Circuits and Systems Group

Department of Microelectronics

Last modified: 2017-12-05