Enhancing 3-D Sound Event Localization and Detection With Distance Estimation Using Reverberation and Spatial Coherence Features

Sound event localization, detection, and distance estimation [3-D sound event localization and detection (SELD)] is pivotal for applications such as acoustic monitoring, surveillance, and robotic navigation. Despite significant advances in SELD, achieving accurate sound distance estimation (SDE) remains challenging due to complex real-world reverberation and the limited efficacy of existing methods. To address these challenges, we propose the coherence and direct-path dominance (CDPD) feature, specifically designed to overcome current limitations in SDE accuracy. By explicitly integrating complementary spatial coherence and reverberation cues into conventional SELD features, the CDPD feature captures robust distance-related information even under challenging reverberant conditions. The experimental results on the Sony-TAu Realistic Spatial Soundscapes 2023 (STARSS23) dataset demonstrate that incorporating the CDPD feature significantly enhances overall 3-D SELD performance, reducing the class-dependent relative distance error by up to 6.07% and improving the location-dependent F-score by up to 8.90%. Comparative analyses on the Detection and Classification of Acoustic Scenes and Events (DCASE) Challenge 2024 Task 3 validation set further confirm that our approach attains competitive performance while requiring fewer training resources. These findings highlight the potential of leveraging CDPD cues to advance 3-D SELD in real-world reverberant environments.