Patent ID: 8861756

Claim:
A method for enhancing a target sound signal from a plurality of sound signals, comprising: providing a microphone array system comprising an array of sound sensors positioned in an arbitrary configuration, a sound source localization unit, an adaptive beamforming unit, and a noise reduction unit, wherein said sound source localization unit, said adaptive beamforming unit, and said noise reduction unit are in operative communication with said array of said sound sensors; receiving said sound signals from a plurality of disparate sound sources by said sound sensors, wherein said received sound signals comprise said target sound signal from a target sound source among said disparate sound sources, and ambient noise signals; determining a delay between each of said sound sensors and an origin of said array of said sound sensors as a function of distance between each of said sound sensors and said origin, a predefined angle between each of said sound sensors and a reference axis, and an azimuth angle between said reference axis and said target sound signal, when said target sound source that emits said target sound signal is in a two dimensional plane, wherein said delay is represented in terms of number of samples, and wherein said determination of said delay enables beamforming for arbitrary numbers of said sound sensors and a plurality of arbitrary configurations of said array of said sound sensors; estimating a spatial location of said target sound signal from said received sound signals by said sound source localization unit; performing adaptive beamforming for steering a directivity pattern of said array of said sound sensors in a direction of said spatial location of said target sound signal by said adaptive beamforming unit, wherein said adaptive beamforming unit enhances said target sound signal and partially suppresses said ambient noise signals; and suppressing said ambient noise signals by said noise reduction unit for further enhancing said target sound signal.