Response to anomalous acoustic environments

A method of monitoring an environment, the method comprising:

• receiving acoustic data collected from a plurality of microphones distributed within the environment;
• identifying sound sources from the received acoustic data as generative of the sound detected by the microphones;
• determining a quality of each of the identified sound sources by application fuzzy-logic sound quality rules to the received acoustic data;
• receiving data external to the environment;
• determining a motion pattern of at least some of the identified sound sources within the environment by triangulating positions of the at least some of the identified sound sources over time with the received acoustic data;
• characterizing an acoustic scene of the environment by application of fuzzy-logic acoustic-scene characterization rules to the received acoustic data, determined quality of the identified sound sources, received data external to the environment, and determined motion pattern;
• identifying the acoustic scene of the environment as anomalous according to parameter values deviant from a set of parameter values defining nonanomalous acoustic scenes;
• and
• initiating a remedial response to the environment in response to identifying the acoustic scene of the environment as anomalous.

A system for monitoring an environment, the system comprising:

• a plurality of microphones distributed within the environment;
• a sound-identification system in communication with the plurality of microphones and having programming instructions to identify sound sources from the received acoustic data as generative of sound detected by the microphones;
• an acoustic-scene characterization system in communication with the sound-identification system and having:
• programming instructions to characterize an acoustic scene of the environment by application of acoustic-scene characterization rules to the received acoustic data;
• and
• programming instructions to identify the acoustic scene of the environment as anomalous according to parameter values deviant from a set of parameter values defining nonanomalous acoustic scenes;
• and
• a response system in communication with the acoustic-scene characterization system and having programming instructions to initiate a remedial response to the environment in response to identifying the acoustic scene of the environment as anomalous.