Binaural Heterophasic Superdirective Beamforming
The superdirective beamformer, while attractive for processing broadband acoustic signals, often suffers from the problem of white noise amplification. So, its application requires well-designed acoustic arrays with sensors of extremely low self-noise level, which is difficult if not impossible to a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/1/74 |
| _version_ | 1797543541655732224 |
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| author | Yuzhu Wang Jingdong Chen Jacob Benesty Jilu Jin Gongping Huang |
| author_facet | Yuzhu Wang Jingdong Chen Jacob Benesty Jilu Jin Gongping Huang |
| author_sort | Yuzhu Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The superdirective beamformer, while attractive for processing broadband acoustic signals, often suffers from the problem of white noise amplification. So, its application requires well-designed acoustic arrays with sensors of extremely low self-noise level, which is difficult if not impossible to attain. In this paper, a new binaural superdirective beamformer is proposed, which is divided into two sub-beamformers. Based on studies and facts in psychoacoustics, these two filters are designed in such a way that they are orthogonal to each other to make the white noise components in the binaural beamforming outputs incoherent while maximizing the output interaural coherence of the diffuse noise, which is important for the brain to localize the sound source of interest. As a result, the signal of interest in the binaural superdirective beamformer’s outputs is in phase but the white noise components in the outputs are random phase, so the human auditory system can better separate the acoustic signal of interest from white noise by listening to the outputs of the proposed approach. Experimental results show that the derived binaural superdirective beamformer is superior to its conventional monaural counterpart. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T13:46:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-093ed6712de541c5aefa5a39a393076f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T13:46:06Z |
| publishDate | 2020-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-093ed6712de541c5aefa5a39a393076f2023-11-21T02:31:20ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202020-12-012117410.3390/s21010074Binaural Heterophasic Superdirective BeamformingYuzhu Wang0Jingdong Chen1Jacob Benesty2Jilu Jin3Gongping Huang4Center of Intelligent Acoustics and Immersive Communications, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127 Youyi West Road, Xi’an 710072, ChinaCenter of Intelligent Acoustics and Immersive Communications, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127 Youyi West Road, Xi’an 710072, ChinaINRS-EMT, University of Quebec, 800 de la Gauchetiere Ouest, Montreal, QC H5A 1K6, CanadaCenter of Intelligent Acoustics and Immersive Communications, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127 Youyi West Road, Xi’an 710072, ChinaAndrew and Erna Viterby Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa 32000, IsraelThe superdirective beamformer, while attractive for processing broadband acoustic signals, often suffers from the problem of white noise amplification. So, its application requires well-designed acoustic arrays with sensors of extremely low self-noise level, which is difficult if not impossible to attain. In this paper, a new binaural superdirective beamformer is proposed, which is divided into two sub-beamformers. Based on studies and facts in psychoacoustics, these two filters are designed in such a way that they are orthogonal to each other to make the white noise components in the binaural beamforming outputs incoherent while maximizing the output interaural coherence of the diffuse noise, which is important for the brain to localize the sound source of interest. As a result, the signal of interest in the binaural superdirective beamformer’s outputs is in phase but the white noise components in the outputs are random phase, so the human auditory system can better separate the acoustic signal of interest from white noise by listening to the outputs of the proposed approach. Experimental results show that the derived binaural superdirective beamformer is superior to its conventional monaural counterpart.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/1/74microphone arraysbinaural beamformingheterophasicsuperdirective beamformerwhite noise gaindirectivity factor |
| spellingShingle | Yuzhu Wang Jingdong Chen Jacob Benesty Jilu Jin Gongping Huang Binaural Heterophasic Superdirective Beamforming Sensors microphone arrays binaural beamforming heterophasic superdirective beamformer white noise gain directivity factor |
| title | Binaural Heterophasic Superdirective Beamforming |
| title_full | Binaural Heterophasic Superdirective Beamforming |
| title_fullStr | Binaural Heterophasic Superdirective Beamforming |
| title_full_unstemmed | Binaural Heterophasic Superdirective Beamforming |
| title_short | Binaural Heterophasic Superdirective Beamforming |
| title_sort | binaural heterophasic superdirective beamforming |
| topic | microphone arrays binaural beamforming heterophasic superdirective beamformer white noise gain directivity factor |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/1/74 |
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