Low-cost active/passive system for acoustic imaging based on large arrays of MEMS microphones

Villacorta, J. J. Dpto. Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones e Ingeniería Telemática, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, España, juavil@tel.uva.es

Izquierdo, A. Dpto. Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones e Ingeniería Telemática, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, España

del Val, L. Dpto. Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones e Ingeniería Telemática, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, España

Abstract

This work presents an acoustic signal acquisition and processing architecture that, using an extensive array of MEMS microphones and mixed processing systems with multicore processors and FPGAs, obtains high-resolution acoustic images. The system allows, by means of beamforming techniques, to know the spatial position of acoustic sources (working in passive mode, i.e. in a listening mode) and the position of objects in a surveillance space (working in active mode, i.e. in acoustic radar mode). The applications of this system are manifold, ranging from noise mapping to object localization. Additionally, the paper includes a set of case studies for the main applications of use for both modes of operation.

Keywords:

active/passive

low-cost

MEMS microphone large array

acoustical imaging.

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