Patent ID: 9651649
Date: 2017-05-16
CPC Classifications: G01S

Claim:
1. A passive acoustic sensing system comprising at least one cluster of at least four acoustic sensors having a data connection with a computing device, the at least one cluster of at least four acoustic sensors arranged in a polyhedral arrangement with at least one of the acoustic sensors of the cluster at each vertex of the polyhedral arrangement and at least one of the acoustic sensors of the cluster being an upper acoustic sensor that is at a position above a plane described by at least three other acoustic sensors of the cluster, each acoustic sensor of the cluster of acoustic sensors being configured to receive acoustical signals generated by at least one target and propagating from the at least one target to the at least one cluster of at least four acoustic sensors through air, the computing device configured to receive the acoustical signals from the at least one cluster of at least four acoustic sensors via the data connection and to process the acoustical signals and provide at least one of (a) a detection of presence of the at least one target, (b) a determination of direction of arrival of an acoustic wave emitted by the at least one target, and (c) a classification of the at least one target, wherein the at least one cluster of at least four acoustic sensors includes a minimal subset of sensors selected by an algorithm running on the computing device to provide an estimate of the direction of arrival of the acoustic wave such that the estimate has the lowest uncertainty corresponding to the minimal subset of sensors, based on geometry of the sensor arrangement in the minimal subset.