Introduction

Beamforming - Spatial filtering

Array of sensors
Signal processing

Direct or block the radiation or the reception of signals in

specified directions
Sensor arrays in Speech Processing
Comparatively newer area of research
Use in hands free speech acquisition
Microphone arrays
Set of microphones arranged in specific geometries
Beamformer
Processes received signals to extract the desired signal
1

Adaptive LCMV Beamformer

Figure2: Adaptive LCMV Beamformer[6]

Recorded signals represented as

rk ( n) sk ( n) I k ( n), k 1,...K

rk (n)

..(1)

= received signal

sk (n) =desired signal

I k (n) =interference

Steering delays
Steering delays:
Compensate the relative
propagation delay from source to
microphone
Find unit vector v

v [sin cos

sin sin

Compute the delay

cos ]T

m.v
c
3

Adaptive LCMV Beamformer

Constraint matrix
formation
Weight
computation
Filtering

Adaptive LCMV Beamformer

output

y ( n) W T X ( n)

..(2)

Optimization problem can be stated as

2
T
E
[
y
(
n
)
]

W
min
min RXX W
W

..(3)

Under the constraint

C TW f
C=constraint matrix
f=constraint vector

..(4)

Weight computation
Solution to the optimization problem
1

1
xx

Wopt Rxx C[C R C ]

T

..
(6)

Assumes knowledge of Rxx

Rxx close to singular, matrix inverses may be incorrect
Initial Weight vector

W (0) F

..(7)

W ( n 1) P W ( n)

F C[C T C ]1 f
P I C[C T C ]1 C T

y ( n) X ( n)
X ( n)

F ..(8)

..(9)
..(10)
6

Wideband Constraints
Pair of constraints

[c, s ]T W [ A cos( ), A sin( )]T

A desired

..(12)

gain

phaseshift

c cos( 1 ) ... cos( K ) ... ... cos( K 1 ) ... cos( KL )

s sin( 1 ) ... sin( K ) ... ... sin( K 1 ) ... sin( KL )

..(13)

to fix the beamformer response in one particular direction

at one frequency Fc

Beamforming system

Figure 3: Block diagram of beamforming system[6]

Bank of bandpass
filters to split the input
into frequency subbands
Each have its own
adaptive beamformer
Constraints covering
only its respective
subband
A set of frequencies
within the band of
interest is chosen
A group of constraints
at each of these
frequency points is
defined

Source Tracking

Segment of the beamformer output

output of the steering delay block

Compute cross correlation

the lag ( n peak ) at which maxima

occurs

0
Steering delays are correct

Lag

0
Compensation required

Results

10

Signal Modeling
Microphone array:
Microphone coordinates chosen to form a planar array

Signal Input:
Desired signal s(n) :a segment of previously recorded
speech
Interference I(n) :another speech segment, measured for the
duration of the desired signal
Background white noise also added

11

Input Simulation
DOA (direction of arrival) for each of the signals
Desired Source : =10, =40
Interfering Source : =40, =40

Source location is denoted as unit vector v

Microphone location is denoted by vector mk
Path difference is obtained as the scalar product of v and mk
Delay difference is found by dividing it by speed of sound
s(n) and I(n) appropriately delayed to model the delay pattern
seen at microphones

12

amplitude-->

amplitude-->

amplitude-->

Results: Input Simulation

source

2
0
-2

0.5

1.5

2
2.5
no.of samples-->

3.5

4
4

x 10

interference

2
0
-2

0.5

1.5

2
2.5
no.of samples-->

3.5

4
4

x 10

microphone output

2
0
-2

0.5

1.5

2
2.5
no.of samples-->

3.5

4
4

x 10

13

Steering Delay Compensation

Calculate the maximum delay suffered among all the channels
Make all other channels to suffer the same delay
intentionally adding the appropriate delays to each of the
channels
Desired signal component is the same on all channels

14

Results: Steering Delay Compensation

Before steering
delay
compensation

After steering
delay
compensation

15

Adaptive LCMV beamforming

Simulation of Adaptive LCMV beamforming with K=8, L=20
is performed
Time domain plot of desired signal at various stages is plotted
Applying the algorithm resulted in an interference reduction
of around 20dB

16

amplitude-->

amplitude-->

amplitude-->

Results: Time domain plot of the desired speech

signal at various stages
source

2
0
-2

0.5

1.5

2
2.5
no.of samples-->

3.5

4
4

x 10

microphone output

2
0
-2

0.5

1.5

2
2.5
no.of samples-->

3.5

4
4

x 10

beamformer output

2
0
-2

0.5

1.5

2
2.5
no.of samples-->

3.5

4
4

x 10

17

Results: Simulation using sine wave

amplitude--->

desired signal
1

F=1000Hz

0
-1

900
0

100

200

300
400
no. of samples--->

500

600

700

Interferenc
e 40

microphone output

amplitude-->

1
0
-1

amplitude-->

-2

100

200

300

400
500
no.of samples-->
beamformer output

600

700

F=1000Hz

0
-1
0

100

200

300

400
500
no.of samples-->

600

700

800

Time domain representation at various stages

18

Results: Frequency response

40

40

30

30

30

20

20

10

-10

-10

2000

4000

6000

8000
10000
frequency--->

12000

frequency response
before beamforming
F=1000Hz, 1600Hz

14000

-20
16000 0

X: 1000
Y: 17.09

20

10

-20

X: 1600
Y: 17.74

gain in dB--->

gain in dB--->

gain in dB--->

40

10

-10

2000

4000

6000

8000
10000
frequency--->

12000

14000

frequency response after

beamforming
Source
100
F 1000 Hz
Interference 400
F 1600 Hz

16000

-20

2000

4000

6000

8000 10000
frequency--->

12000

14000

frequency response after

beamforming
Source
100
F 1600 Hz
0
Interference 40
F 1000 Hz

19

16000

Null steering
The gain pattern of the adaptive beamformer
There is a null at the direction of the interference (elevation
50)
The response at angles which have no interference source
present shows less attenuation or even amplification of the
signal

20

Results: Null steering

Desired source:10
Interfering source:50

azimuth=40
20
0

Gain(dB)

-20
-40
-60
-80
-100
-120

10

20

30

40
50
60
Elevation(degree)

70

80

90

100

21

Results: Planar and Linear Array

Desired source:10
Interfering source:40

planar array and linear array

40

linear array output

planar array output

20
0

Gain(dB)

-20
-40
-60
-80
-100
-120
-140
0

10

15

20
25
30
Elevation(degree)

35

40

45

50

22

Wide band Constraints

A signal arriving at away from steering direction is considered
The beamwidth at several frequencies both for the design with
wideband constraints and the one with classical LCMV
constraints was plotted

23

Results:
2
0
-2

Band Pass
filters

Band Pass Filter 1 opt

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4
4

1
0
-1

x 10

Band Pass Filter 2 opt

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4
4

0.5
0
-0.5

x 10

Band Pass Filter 3 opt

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4
4

0.5
0
-0.5

x 10

Band Pass Filter 4 opt

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4
4

x 10

24

Results:
2
0
-2

beamformer 1 opt

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4
4

1
0
-1

x 10

beamformer 2 opt

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4
4

0.5
0
-0.5

x 10

beamformer 3 opt

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4
4

0.5
0
-0.5

x 10

beamformer 4 opt

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4
4

x 10

25

amplitude-->
amplitude-->
amplitude-->
amplitude-->

2
0
-2

2
0
-2

2
0
-2

2
0
-2

source

0.5

1.5

2
2.5
no.of samples-->

3.5

4
4

x 10

interference

0.5

1.5

2
2.5
no.of samples-->

3.5

4
4

x 10

microphone output

0.5

1.5

2
2.5
no.of samples-->

3.5

4
4

x 10

beamformer output

0.5

1.5

2
2.5
no.of samples-->

3.5

4
4

x 10

26

Results:
no extra constraints

60

0.5KHz
1.5KHz
2.5KHz

20

20

-20

-20

-40

-40

-60

-60

-80

-80

-100

-100
0

10

15

20
25
30
35
elevation angle(degree)

40

45

0.5KHz
1.5KHz
2.5KHz

40

Gain(dB)

gain(dB)

40

-120

with wideband constraints

60

50

-120

10

15

20
25
30
35
elevation angle(degree)

40

45

50

27

Results:
wideband vs nowb(sine input)

with wideband constraints

without wideband constraints

0
-5
-10

Gain(dB)

-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-50

500

1000

1500

2000
2500
Frequency

3000

3500

4000

28

Results: Source Tracking

-3

-3

x 10

0.5
0
1

0.5
0
1
-3
x 10

10

0
1
-3
x 10

10

0
1

10

0
1
-3
x 10

10

0
1
-3
x 10

10

10

0.5
0
1
-3
x 10

10

0
1

0.5
0

0
1
-3
x 10

0.5

0.5
0

0
1

0.5
0

x 10

0.5
0

10

29

Reference
[1] Johnson , D H Dudgeon, Array Signal Processing, Concepts and Techniques,
Pentice Hall,1993
[2] Otis Lamont Frost, An Algorithm For Linearly ConstrainedAdaptive Array
Processing, proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 60, No. 8, August 1972
[3] K. M. Buckley, Spatial/spectral filtering with linearly constrained minimum
variance beamformers, IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech and
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[4] Barry D Van Veen, Kevin M Buckley, Beamforming: A Versatile Approach to
Spatial Filtering, IEEE ASSP Magazine, April 1988
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Microphone Arrray Beamforming From a MIMO Acoustic Signal Processing
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Processing, Vol. 56, No. 7, pp: 2812-2819, July 2008
[7]Olaf Jaeckel, Strengths and weaknesses of calculating beamforming in the time
domain, Berlin beamforming Conference 2010
30

Reference
[8]Iain McCowen, "Robust Speech Recognition using Microphone Arrays", PhD
Thesis Queensland University of Technology, Australia 2001
[9]Athanassios Manikas and Christos Proukakis, "Modeling and Estimation
ofAmbiguities in Linear Arrays, IEEE Transactions On Signal Processing, Vol.46,
No. 8, August 1998
[10] D Ward, "Theory and Application of Broadband Frequency Invariant
Beamforming", PhD thesis, Australian National University, July 1996
[11] R L Bouquin and G Faucon, "Using the coherence function for noise reduction",
IEEE proceedings,vol.139, pp 276-280,June 1992
[12]S. Gazor, S. Aes, and Y. Grenier, "Robust adaptive beamforming via
targettracking," IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, Signal Procesing., vol.44,
pp. 15891593, Jun. 1996.
[13] Y. Kaneda and J. Ohga, "Adaptive microphone-array system for noise reduc-tion,"
IEEE Trans. Acoustics. Speech, Signal Processing, vol. ASSP-34, no.6, pp.

13911400, Dec. 1986

[14] www.labbookpages.co.uk/audio/beamforming.html
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Thank You

32