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The LOCATA challenge: acoustic source localization and tracking

The LOCATA challenge: acoustic source localization and tracking
The LOCATA challenge: acoustic source localization and tracking

The ability to localize and track acoustic events is a fundamental prerequisite for equipping machines with the ability to be aware of and engage with humans in their surrounding environment. However, in realistic scenarios, audio signals are adversely affected by reverberation, noise, interference, and periods of speech inactivity. In dynamic scenarios, where the sources and microphone platforms may be moving, the signals are additionally affected by variations in the source-sensor geometries. In practice, approaches to sound source localization and tracking are often impeded by missing estimates of active sources, estimation errors, as well as false estimates. The aim of the LOCAlization and TrAcking (LOCATA) Challenge is an open-access framework for the objective evaluation and benchmarking of broad classes of algorithms for sound source localization and tracking. This article provides a review of relevant localization and tracking algorithms and, within the context of the existing literature, a detailed evaluation and dissemination of the LOCATA submissions. The evaluation highlights achievements in the field, open challenges, and identifies potential future directions.

Acoustic signal processing, reverberation, source localization, source tracking
2329-9304
1620-1643
Evers, Christine
93090c84-e984-4cc3-9363-fbf3f3639c4b
Loellmann, Heinrich W.
51140377-306a-4259-89a1-21dbb851cf20
Mellmann, Heinrich
c09d4614-32c3-412c-bfd7-771e26ec85e7
Schmidt, Alexander
364b69e1-ac6c-4528-979c-861419bb16ec
Barfuss, Hendrik
c68aea09-f353-48a5-ba52-ff876c8f6b78
Naylor, Patrick A.
13079486-664a-414c-a1a2-01a30bf0997b
Kellermann, Walter
4b3c33f7-9451-4559-896a-01aa917b056a
Evers, Christine
93090c84-e984-4cc3-9363-fbf3f3639c4b
Loellmann, Heinrich W.
51140377-306a-4259-89a1-21dbb851cf20
Mellmann, Heinrich
c09d4614-32c3-412c-bfd7-771e26ec85e7
Schmidt, Alexander
364b69e1-ac6c-4528-979c-861419bb16ec
Barfuss, Hendrik
c68aea09-f353-48a5-ba52-ff876c8f6b78
Naylor, Patrick A.
13079486-664a-414c-a1a2-01a30bf0997b
Kellermann, Walter
4b3c33f7-9451-4559-896a-01aa917b056a

Evers, Christine, Loellmann, Heinrich W., Mellmann, Heinrich, Schmidt, Alexander, Barfuss, Hendrik, Naylor, Patrick A. and Kellermann, Walter (2020) The LOCATA challenge: acoustic source localization and tracking. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing, 28, 1620-1643, [9079214]. (doi:10.1109/TASLP.2020.2990485).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The ability to localize and track acoustic events is a fundamental prerequisite for equipping machines with the ability to be aware of and engage with humans in their surrounding environment. However, in realistic scenarios, audio signals are adversely affected by reverberation, noise, interference, and periods of speech inactivity. In dynamic scenarios, where the sources and microphone platforms may be moving, the signals are additionally affected by variations in the source-sensor geometries. In practice, approaches to sound source localization and tracking are often impeded by missing estimates of active sources, estimation errors, as well as false estimates. The aim of the LOCAlization and TrAcking (LOCATA) Challenge is an open-access framework for the objective evaluation and benchmarking of broad classes of algorithms for sound source localization and tracking. This article provides a review of relevant localization and tracking algorithms and, within the context of the existing literature, a detailed evaluation and dissemination of the LOCATA submissions. The evaluation highlights achievements in the field, open challenges, and identifies potential future directions.

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Accepted/In Press date: 13 April 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 27 April 2020
Additional Information: Funding Information: Manuscript received August 1, 2019; revised January 31, 2020 and April 3, 2020; accepted April 13, 2020. Date of publication April 27, 2020; date of current version June 5, 2020. This work was supported by the UK EPSRC Fellowship Grant EP/P001017/1, awarded to C. Evers. The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and approving it for publication was Prof. Jun Du. (Corresponding author: Christine Evers.) Christine Evers was with the Department Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BU, U.K. She is now with the School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, U.K. (e-mail: c.evers@soton.ac.uk).
Keywords: Acoustic signal processing, reverberation, source localization, source tracking

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 439585
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/439585
ISSN: 2329-9304
PURE UUID: a33e89ce-9a96-49cf-a810-7bf68c792484
ORCID for Christine Evers: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0757-5504

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Date deposited: 27 Apr 2020 16:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:01

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Contributors

Author: Christine Evers ORCID iD
Author: Heinrich W. Loellmann
Author: Heinrich Mellmann
Author: Alexander Schmidt
Author: Hendrik Barfuss
Author: Patrick A. Naylor
Author: Walter Kellermann

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