Optimal Microphone Placement for Source Localization using Time Delay Estimation

A commonly used method for Acoustic Source Localization is based on Time Delay Estimation (TDE). In general discrete TDE algorithms are used which result in discrete Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) estimates, i.e. range differences. The Position Location of an acoustic source can be calculated using a set of TDOAs. The accuracy of the position greatly depends upon the accuracy of the estimated TDOAs. In this paper it is shown that discrete TDOAs result in a non-uniformly distributed spatial resolution across the room furthermore it is shown how the sample frequency and the microphone distance effect the spatial resolution. Finally the effect upon spatial resolution for different microphone setups is demonstrated. Keywords—Source localization, Time Delay Estimation, Optimal Microphone Placement.