Real-time Sound Source Localization on an Embedded GPU Using a Spherical Microphone Array
Abstract Spherical microphone arrays are becoming increasingly important in acoustic signal processing systems for their applications in sound field analysis, beamforming, spatial audio, etc. The positioning of target and interfering sound sources is a crucial step in many of the above applications. Therefore, 3D sound source localization is a highly relevant topic in the acoustic signal processing field. However, spherical microphone arrays are usually composed of many microphones and running signal processing localization methods in real time is an important issue. Some works have already shown the potential of Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) for developing high-end real-time signal proce…
Hybrid CPU–GPU implementation of the transformed spatial domain channel estimation algorithm for mmWave MIMO systems
Abstract Hybrid platforms combining multicore Central Processing Units (CPU) with many-core hardware accelerators such as Graphic Processing Units (GPU) can be smartly exploited to provide efficient parallel implementations of wireless communication algorithms for Fifth Generation (5G) and beyond systems. Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems are a key element of the 5G standard, involving several tens or hundreds of antenna elements for communication. Such a high number of antennas has a direct impact on the computational complexity of some MIMO signal processing algorithms. In this work, we focus on the channel estimation stage. In particular, we develop a parallel impleme…
On the performance of multi-GPU-based expert systems for acoustic localization involving massive microphone arrays
Sound source localization is an important topic in expert systems involving microphone arrays, such as automatic camera steering systems, human-machine interaction, video gaming or audio surveillance. The Steered Response Power with Phase Transform (SRP-PHAT) algorithm is a well-known approach for sound source localization due to its robust performance in noisy and reverberant environments. This algorithm analyzes the sound power captured by an acoustic beamformer on a defined spatial grid, estimating the source location as the point that maximizes the output power. Since localization accuracy can be improved by using high-resolution spatial grids and a high number of microphones, accurate …
An Efficient Implementation of Parallel Parametric HRTF Models for Binaural Sound Synthesis in Mobile Multimedia
The extended use of mobile multimedia devices in applications like gaming, 3D video and audio reproduction, immersive teleconferencing, or virtual and augmented reality, is demanding efficient algorithms and methodologies. All these applications require real-time spatial audio engines with the capability of dealing with intensive signal processing operations while facing a number of constraints related to computational cost, latency and energy consumption. Most mobile multimedia devices include a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) that is primarily used to accelerate video processing tasks, providing high computational capabilities due to its inherent parallel architecture. This paper describes…
On the Use of a GPU-Accelerated Mobile Device Processor for Sound Source Localization
Abstract The growing interest to incorporate new features into mobile devices has increased the number of signal processing applications running over processors designed for mobile computing. A challenging signal processing field is acoustic source localization, which is attractive for applications such as automatic camera steering systems, human-machine interfaces, video gaming or audio surveillance. In this context, the emergence of systems-on-chip (SoC) that contain a small graphics accelerator (or GPU), contributes a notable increment of the computational capacity while partially retaining the appealing low-power consumption of embedded systems. This is the case, for example, of the Sam…
A Parallel Approach to HRTF Approximation and Interpolation Based on a Parametric Filter Model
[EN] Spatial audio-rendering techniques using head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) are currently used in many different contexts such as immersive teleconferencing systems, gaming, or 3-D audio reproduction. Since all these applications usually involve real-time constraints, efficient processing structures for HRTF modeling and interpolation are necessary for providing real-time binaural audio solutions. This letter presents a parametric parallel model that allows us to perform HRTF filtering and interpolation efficiently from an input HRTF dataset. The resulting model, which is an adaptation from a recently proposed modeling technique, not only reduces the size of HRTF datasets signific…
Practical considerations for acoustic source localization in the IoT era: Platforms, energy efficiency, and performance
The rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT) has posed important changes in the way emerging acoustic signal processing applications are conceived. While traditional acoustic processing applications have been developed taking into account high-throughput computing platforms equipped with expensive multichannel audio interfaces, the IoT paradigm is demanding the use of more flexible and energy-efficient systems. In this context, algorithms for source localization and ranging in wireless acoustic sensor networks can be considered an enabling technology for many IoT-based environments, including security, industrial, and health-care applications. This paper is aimed at evaluating impo…
Real-time Sound Source Localization on Graphics Processing Units
Abstract Sound source localization is an important topic in microphone array signal processing applications, such as camera steering systems, human-machine interaction or surveillance systems. The Steered Response Power with Phase Transform (SRP- PHAT) algorithm is one of the most well-known approaches for sound source localization due to its good performance in noisy and reverberant environments. The algorithm analyzes the sound power captured by a microphone array on a grid of spatial points in a given room. While localization accuracy can be improved by using a high resolution spatial grid and a high number of microphones, performing the localization task in these circumstances requires …
Design and Implementation of Acoustic Source Localization on a Low-Cost IoT Edge Platform
The implementation of algorithms for acoustic source localization on edge platforms for the Internet of Things (IoT) is gaining momentum. Applications based on acoustic monitoring can greatly benefit from efficient implementations of such algorithms, enabling novel services for smart homes and buildings or ambient-assisted living. In this context, this brief proposes extreme low-cost sound source localization system composed of two microphones and the low power microcontroller module ESP32. A Direction-Of-Arrival (DOA) algorithm has been implemented taking into account the specific features of this board, showing excellent performance despite the memory constraints imposed by the platform. …