Array Geometry Optimization for Region-of-Interest Broadband Beamforming

Optimization of a microphone array geometry has an important impact on the beamforming performance. Though the environment settings may change in time, microphone locations are typically preserved. Thus, the selected locations are of significant importance. Moreover, if the source of interest emits a broadband signal from a location that varies in time, finding the optimal geometry becomes a challenging task. This paper introduces an efficient algorithm to find the optimal placements of microphones in a nonuniform linear array for broadband high directivity beamforming. The proposed method maintains high white noise gain (WNG) for sufficient robustness and considers several look directions in a region-of-interest (ROI) for a moving source. Compared to standard designs, our design achieves higher directivity toward any look direction in the ROI.