Linear and Circular Microphone Array for Remote Surveillance: Simulated Performance Analysis

Acoustic beamforming with a microphone array represents an adequate technology for remote acoustic surveillance, as the system has no mechanical parts and it has moderate size. However, in order to accomplish real implementation, several challenges need to be addressed, such as array geometry, microphone characteristics, and the digital beamforming algorithms. This paper presents a simulated analysis on the effect of the array geometry in the beamforming response. Two geometries are considered, namely, the linear and the circular geometry. The analysis is performed with computer simulations to mimic reality. The future steps comprise the construction of the physical microphone array, and the software implementation on a multichannel digital signal processing (DSP) system.