Estimation of the waveform of a sound source by using an iterative technique with many sensors

This paper proposes a method to estimate the waveform of sound sources. This is accomplished by using a microphone array where the microphones are not situated close to the sound sources. The waveform is estimated using the sound velocity and positions of the microphones and sound sources as the only fixed parameters. The positions of the sound sources can be estimated in advance by using a conventional method such as multiple signal classification method (MUSIC). An iteration method is introduced to reduce the effect of direct sounds and of significant image sources due to reflected noise and/or other sound sources, whose positions are known. Computer simulations and an experiment with loudspeakers were conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.