I-Corps: Real Time Acoustic Beamforming for Directed Listening

Dartmouth College, Hanover NH

Investigators

Abstract

This I-Corp project investigates sensor systems for enhancing communication in noisy environments through real-time beamforming. The investigation will determine potential of a system incorporating multiple microphones, a field programmable gate array, and associated electronics to implement beamforming in real time to enhance signal-to-noise ratio in listening to acoustic sources. The system is best described as "acoustic binoculars" as it enables the listener to hear soft sounds originating away from the listener or normal sounds in noisy environments. The proposed innovation addresses the problem of directing listening attention in noisy environments and in amplifying quiet sources. It overcomes shortcomings in existing products for acoustic beamforming, which include significant computational delay, presentation of only the direction of an acoustic source (without providing the beamformed signal for listening), and lack of scalability to large numbers of microphones. The prototype system is scalable and performs beamforming in real time; hence, it has the capacity to increase signal-to-noise ratio dramatically as well as to provide the beamformed signal 100 kHz data rates for listening. The technology has potential impact in the form of a number of products, e.g., listening devices for pilots, passengers, and operators of noisy equipment/vehicles to enhance listening attention in noisy environments and devices for audio-based surveillance from a safe distance. The proposed technology may also extend to medical and structural ultrasonic imaging devices, although existing prototypes have been directed only towards acoustic beamforming. Extending the real-time beamforming architecture to ultrasonic imaging (medical or structure imaging), provides the potential to enhance images derived from what is one of the safest non-invasive imaging methods in existence.