Simultaneous Calibration of Positions, Orientations, and Time Offsets, Among Multiple Microphone Arrays

Abstract

This paper examines estimation of positions, orientations, and time offsets among multiple microphone arrays and resultant sound 10-cation. Conventional methods have limitations including requiring multiple steps for calibration, assuming synchronization between multiple microphone arrays, and necessity of a priori information, which results in convergence to a local optimal solution and large convergence time. Accordingly, we propose a novel calibration method that simultaneously optimizes positions and orientations of microphone arrays and the time offsets between them. Numerical simulations achieved accurate and fast calibration of microphone parameters without falling into a local optimum solution even when using asynchronous microphone arrays.