Patent ID: 6999881

Claim:
A method of detecting and locating noise sources each emitting a respective signal S j with j=1 to M, detection being provided by means of acoustic wave or vibration sensors each delivering a respective time-varying electrical signal s i with i lying in the range 1 to N, the method comprising: taking the time-varying electrical signals delivered by the sensors, each signal s i (t) delivered by a sensor being the sum of the signals S j emitted by the noise sources; amplifying and filtering the time-varying electrical signals as taken; digitizing the electrical signals; calculating the functional f, such that: f ⁡ ( n l , … ⁢ , n j , … ⁢ , n M ) = det ⁡ ( < T k ⁡ ( ω ) , T l * ⁡ ( ω ) > k , l = 0 ⁢ ⁢ to ⁢ ⁢ M ) det ⁡ ( < T k ⁡ ( ω ) , T l * ⁡ ( ω ) > k , l = 1 ⁢ ⁢ to ⁢ ⁢ M ) with ( T k ⁡ ( ω ) ) i = ⅇ J ⁢ ⁢ ω ⁢ < n k , c i > c <.,.> being the scalar product; c i being the vector constructed between the center of gravity of the sensors and the position of sensor i; n j being the unit vector in the direction defined by the center of gravity of the senors and source j; with T 0 =s; and with c=the speed of sound; and in minimizing the functional f relative to the vectors n j for j=1 to M in such a manner as to determine the directions n j of the noise sources, wherein ω is angular frequency, <T k (ω), T i *(ω)> is the scalar product between T k (ω), and T l *(ω), J corresponds to the imaginary number in mathematics.