A theoretical study on the placement of microphone arrays for improving the localization accuracy of a fall

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2014:2014:4523-6. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944629.

Abstract

Falling is a common health problem for elderly. To address the problem, we are currently developing an acoustic fall detection system, FADE, which automatically detects a fall and reports to the caregiver. Of great importance of the fall detection system is a low false alarm rate that can be achieved by knowing where the acoustic signal comes from. The previous work showed the sound source localization can be determined by using an 8-microphone circular array, but the accuracy varies when placing the array at different positions. To further improve the localization accuracy, a second array can be added. In this paper we investigate the variations of localization accuracy of a fall signal when one or two arrays are placed at different positions in a room. The accuracy is evaluated by the Cramér-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB). The CRLB aids the determination of the best theoretical placement of one or two arrays in a room for locating the sound source.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Accidental Falls / prevention & control*
  • Acoustics / instrumentation*
  • Algorithms
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
  • Models, Theoretical*