Patent ID: 6999593

Claim:
A computer-implemented sound source localization process for finding the location of a sound source using signals output by a microphone array having a plurality of audio sensors, comprising the following process actions: inputting the signal generated by each audio sensor of the microphone array; and selecting as the location of the sound source, a location that maximizes the sum of the weighted cross correlations between the input signal from a first sensor and the input signal from the second sensor for pairs of interest of array sensors, wherein the cross correlations are weighted using a weighting function that enhances the robustness of the selected location by mitigating the effect of uncorrelated noise and/or reverberation, and wherein the sum of the weighted cross correlations are computed via the equation ∑ f ⁢ ∑ r M ⁢ ⁢ ∑ s ≠ r M ⁢  W r ⁢ ⁢ s ⁡ ( f ) ⁢ X r ⁡ ( f ) ⁢ X s * ⁡ ( f ) ⁢ exp ⁡ ( - j ⁢ ⁢ 2 ⁢ ⁢ π ⁢ ⁢ f ⁡ ( τ r - τ s ) )  2 , where r and s refer to the first and second sensor, respectively, of each pair of array sensors of interest, X r (f) is the N-point FFT of the input signal from the first sensor in the sensor pair, X s (f) is the N-point FFT of the input signal from the second sensor in the sensor pair, τ r is the time it takes sound to travel from the selected sound source location to the first sensor of the sensor pair, τ s is the time it takes sound to travel from the selected sound source location to the second sensor of the sensor pair, such that X r (f)X s *(f)exp(−j2πf(τ r −τ s )) is the FFT of the cross correlation shifted in time by τ r −τ s , and where W rs is the weighting function.