Acoustic Array Systems

Preface

This monograph provides an overview on the theory and implementation of farfield and nearfield acoustic array technologies aimed primarily at sound source identification, sound field visualization, speech enhancement, sound field reconstruction, and sound field rendering. Considering that the intended audience is postgraduate students and academic or industrial researchers, this book is self-contained and comprehensive in that it provides not only the theoretical background required in the microphone or loudspeaker array systems but also the technical ingredients necessary for implementing array systems to meet real-world applications.

As for the motivation, this monograph can be regarded as the documentation of the acoustics education and research on acoustic array systems by the first author's 21-year career in National Chiao-Tung University (NCTU) and 2-year career in National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Taiwan. The first author also feels privileged to ask the other two prominent experts, Professor Ih (specializing in inverse vibro-acoustics and sound field rendering) at KAIST, Korea, and Professor Benesty (specializing in audio signal processing), to join this great endeavor. The paradigm of acoustic array has great promise in addressing the needs of the industries in Computers, Communications, Consumer electronics and Cars, the so-called 4C industries, with emphasis placed on telecom acoustics, eletroacoustics, audio signal processing, and noise control involved ...