Acoustic direction of arrival estimation, a comparison between root-music and SRP-PHAT

Conference and video telephony, home automation and Surveillance appliances use microphone arrays for localization of sound sources. It is therefore of interest to study different algorithms with respect to implementation and performance in real environments. Three algorithms have been employed in this study: Coherent Wideband Root-MUSIC and near-field and far-field versions of an algorithm based on Steered Response Power - Phase Transform. Results show that Root- MUSIC is the most computationally efficient. However due to simplistic model assumptions it fails in highly reverberant environments. The two algorithms employing Steered Response Power - Phase Transform maintain good performance measures even under reverberant conditions and low signal to noise ratios.