Abstract
Human beings can localize a target sound by using binaural cues. On the other hand, we can also localize a target sound by using monaural cues. The monaural modulation spectrum (MMS) can be regarded as an important cue of monaural sound localization. A method of estimating direction of arrival (DOA) using a machine learning scheme for classification of MMS patterns has been proposed. However, this method cannot account for the monaural DOA mechanism by using MMS patterns. To further investigate how the MMS plays an important role in monaural sound localization, we aimed to find cues in the human ability formonaural sound localization and propose a method of estimating DOA by using these cues. We investigated how the MMS of observed signals vary with the azimuth. As a result, shapes of the MMS were drawn as arcs with azimuth variations. We then proposed a method of estimating monaural DOA using these results. Simulations were carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. We found that the proposed method could estimate DOA using the MMS, except with front-back confusion discrimination.
