Detection and localization of selected acoustic events in acoustic field for smart surveillance applications

A method for automatic determination of position of chosen sound events such as speech signals and impulse sounds in 3-dimensional space is presented. The events are localized in the presence of sound reflections employing acoustic vector sensors. Human voice and impulsive sounds are detected using adaptive detectors based on modified peak-valley difference (PVD) parameter and sound pressure level. Localization based on signals from the multichannel acoustic vector probe is performed upon the detection. The described algorithms can be employed in surveillance systems to monitor behavior of public events participants. The results can be used to detect sound source position in real time or to calculate the spatial distribution of sound energy in the environment. Moreover, the spatial filtration can be performed to separate sounds arriving from a chosen direction.