Real-time localization and tracking of musical instruments with spherical microphone arrays

This research describes a method for dynamic beamforming with a particle filter to localize and track musical instruments in a real-time context. Using a spherical harmonic framework, spherical microphone arrays are able to decompose three-dimensional sound fields into their basic components, which enables detailed analysis and efficient spatial filtering algorithms. In recent years, methods for determining relative source positions around an array using steerable beams have been studied. By creating multiple weighting functions based on spherical harmonic components, many beams can be generated simultaneously and can be used to dynamically track instruments via an iterative process.