Designing the Acoustic Camera using MATLAB with respect to different types of microphone arrays

In order to design an acoustic camera, it is necessary to determine the shape of the camera as well as the number of microphones and their position on the camera. Therefore, simulations were performed for linear, square, circular and spiral arrays, as well as for arrays in the shape of a hemisphere, with varying number of microphones and varying spacing between the microphones. Based on these simulations, a decision was made on the shape of the microphone array, i.e. the acoustic camera. Furthermore, an algorithm called Hemisphere was written in MATLAB in order to determine the number of microphones and their location on the hemisphere. Results have shown that the gain in the desired direction as well as the number of side lobes and their gain, for that type of microphone array, is very frequency dependent. Increasing the frequency at which the design of the acoustic camera was made, increases the cutoff frequency, i.e. the maximum frequency for which the camera can be used thus, enables the design of a broadband camera.