Direction of Arrival Estimation of Acoustic-Signals From Acoustic Source Using Sub-Array Selection

A method for processing acoustic signals, comprising:

• in a signal processing apparatus that comprises a plurality of circuits that are communicatively coupled to a microphone-array:
• identifying, by the plurality of circuits, a plurality of microphone sub-arrays from the plurality of microphones in the microphone-array, wherein each microphone sub-array of the identified plurality of microphone sub-arrays comprises a pair of microphones spaced apart by a specific distance;
• selecting, by the plurality of circuits, a set of microphone sub-arrays from the identified plurality of microphone sub-arrays of the microphone-array based on a maximum distance between each pair of microphones of the plurality of microphone sub-arrays of the microphone-array;
• computing, by the plurality of circuits, a relative time-delay for an arrival of the acoustic signals between each pair of microphones of the selected set of microphone sub-arrays, wherein the relative time-delay corresponds to an estimated time-delay for the arrival of the acoustic signals between each pair of microphones of the selected set of microphone sub-arrays;
• determining, by the plurality of circuits, a first microphone sub-array from the selected set of microphone sub-arrays based on a maximum time-delay from the computed relative time-delay for each of the selected set of microphone sub-arrays, wherein the determined first microphone sub-array is a desired microphone sub-array from the identified plurality of microphone sub-arrays in the microphone-array;
• and
• estimating, by the plurality of circuits, a direction of arrival of the acoustic signals with reference to the determined first microphone sub-array, based on the computed relative time-delay for the arrival of the acoustic signals at the determined first microphone sub-array.