Distributed estimation and equalization of room acoustics in a wireless acoustic sensor network

In this paper, the use of a wireless acoustic sensor network (WASN) for the estimation and equalization of room acoustics is proposed as a flexible and promising alternative to the traditional wired implementations. We consider a multiple-point equalization problem based on a common-acoustical-pole (CAP) room model. Instead of collecting microphone signals in a central processing unit to compute the CAP model estimate in a centralized fashion, we deploy a large number of autonomous nodes with local sensing, processing, and communication capabilities to solve the CAP model estimation problem in a distributed manner. Even though the WASN nodes are restricted to exchange information with neighboring nodes only, the use of a distributed averaging algorithm results in a CAP model estimate with an accuracy and equalization performance comparable to a wired implementation.