The idea of this project is to use distributed microphones, connected together by wireless communication, for sophisticated acoustic applications. Examples include detecting the location of a speaker, echo cancellation, denoising a recording, or selecting the best microphone for alternating speakers. These acoustic applications can be useful in use cases like class rooms, conference or lecture halls, or meeting rooms. 

A challenge here is that these applications require high-resolution audio streams, resulting in high data rate, possibly over longer distances (e.g., in conference halls). In addition, latency should be low. To support these requirements, it is promising to distribute signal-processing functions directly onto the microphones (or possibly, intermediate nodes). This can reduce data rates and improve latency and overall quality of experience. 

This idea is investigated as project P1 of the DFG Research Group (DFG Forschergruppe) FOR 2457 Acoustic Sensor Networks. 

This is a research project funded by the DFG collaborative research center SFB 901 "On-The-Fly-Computing". The research center investigates individually and automatically configured IT services which are composed from and executed on a marked of world wide traded combinalbe services and execution platforms. Within this research center our research group investigates the the communication network as one important ingredient for such market platform. Our research covers the realization and optimization of overlays over real networks as well as the optimized allocation of resources in single- and multi-site data centers. More details can be found on adedicated web page.