The study and implementation of microphone arrays originated over 20
years ago. Thanks to the research and experimental developments pursued
to the present day, the field has matured to the point that array-based
technology now has immediate applicability to a number of current
systems and a vast potential for the improvement of existing products
and the creation of future devices. In putting this book together, our
goal was to provide, for the first time, a single complete reference on
microphone arrays. We invited the top re- searchers in the field to
contribute articles addressing their specific topic(s) of study. The
reception we received from our colleagues was quite enthusi- astic and
very encouraging. There was the general consensus that a work of this
kind was well overdue. The results provided in this collection cover the
current state of the art in microphone array research, development, and
technological application. This text is organized into four sections
which roughly follow the major areas of microphone array research today.
Parts I and II are primarily the- oretical in nature and emphasize the
use of microphone arrays for speech enhancement and source localization,
respectively. Part III presents a num- ber of specific applications of
array-based technology. Part IV addresses some open questions and
explores the future of the field.
