Patent ID: 6683964
Filing Date: 2004-01-27
Classification: H04R

Abstract:
A direction finder comprising:a plurality of transducer means, each of said plurality of transducer means being in a predetermined spatial orientation relative to the others of said transducer means, for deriving a plurality of polar directivity patterns, each of said polar diredtivity patterns pointing in a predetermined direction relative to each of the other polar directivity patterns, said pluralitv of polar directivity patterns detecting a plurality of amplitude values of a propagating wave arriving at each of said plurality of transducers, the arriving wave being at different angles relative to each of said plurality of spatially oriented polar directivity patterns; and means for processing the plurality of detected wave amplitude values to determine a current estimate of the direction of the source of the arriving wave including means supplied with the plurality of detected wave amplitude values for determining an estimate of the directional orientation of a hypothetical polar directivity pattern which is an estimate a direction pointing toward a source of the arriving wave, means for orienting the hypothetical polar directivity pattern along a current estimate of the direction toward the source of the arriving wave, means for obtaining amplitude values of the hypothetical polar directivity pattern in the directions of each of the predetermined polar directivity patterns, means for obtaining a representation of a total error between the hypothetical amplitude values and the detected wave amplitude values and means for utilizing the total error for generating a new estimate of the source direction {circumflex over (&THgr;)} of the arriving wave source.