Sound source localization using Phased Array System Toolbox

I want to use a microphone array to localize sound sources, i.e. find the directions (and possibly distances) of sound sources from the array. I have examined the Direction of Arrival (DoA) finding tools in the Phased Array System Toolbox, but I am not sure if I could use these for my application. All these tools assume that the signal arriving at the array is narrowband, i.e. a single carrier frequency with some modulation. However, the sounds I am interested in are wideband, like most sounds.

Could I sub-divide my wideband sounds into a set of narrowband components (e.g. using a filter bank), and then apply the narrowband DoA tools to each sub-band separately? How could I then combine the multiple sub-band DoA's to best estimate the overall DoA? Is this approach valid, or are the narrowband DoA tools simply not applicable to sound signals?

Any help is much appreciated.

[Chris Sabillon]

Can you provide insight in what hardware/code should I use for a similar activity?

[Amjad Iqbal]

Sure, I am using BLMS algorithm before, but it's not much useful, now i want try it by GCC-PHAT or ML. I have four audio recordings of real time drone fly in real niosy place, so first is to remove noise, that has been done, next is to detect drone by using GCC algorithm, need to take six recults as follows, (mix1,mix2), (mix1,mix3), (mix1,mix4), (mix2,mix3),(mix2,mix4),and (mix3,mix4). and after that need to calculate DOA.

[Harwanto Zidqi Putro]

Amjad Iqbal : helo, i have data from 5 mic array, but its in analog read (voltage) not in sound. How to proccess this data before we can use in TDOA algorithm?

[Bitragunta Venkata sasikumar]

i need the code for localization of the under water devices using the hydrophone data by array of beam forming

Answer 1

[Honglei Chen]

Most DOA estimator shipped in Phased Array System Toolbox is indeed narrow band so they are probably not the best tool for wideband audio signals.

However, you could consider using a wideband beamformer to scan the space and look for the direction where you get the maximum peak. There are several wideband beamformers available in Phased Array System Toolbox. The phased.SubbbandPhaseShiftBeamformer uses the subband approach you described in your post. You can also use phased.TimeDelayBeamformer to perform time domain beamforming which does not assume whether the signal is narrowband or wideband.

Does this address your concern? Please let me know if you need any further clarification.

[James Rex]

Thanks for this info. I can see how a beamformer could be tried with various beam directions, and the direction that gives the highest output amplitude could be assumed to be the source direction. However, I imagine this approach needs a lot of computation to get an accurate source direction, since a large number of directions need to be tried. But I may adopt this approach for my initial tests.