Acoustic source localization in wireless sensor networks

In recent years, wireless sensor networks have become an evolving technology that has a wide range of potential applications. Acoustic source localization is a hot research topic with many possible application areas, such as voice enhancement, intruder detection, sniper localization, and automatic tracking of speakers in an e-conferencing environment. Utilization of wireless sensor networks for acoustic source localization can provide good coverage, which not only enhances the accuracy, but also increases the robustness of the overall system. In this paper, we gave an overview of the acoustic source localization based on wireless sensor networks. Firstly, we analyzed the characteristics of acoustic source localization in wireless sensor networks. Then, we classified the existing typical acoustic source localization alogrithms in wireless sensor networks into centralized alogrithms and distributed algorithms. At the same time, we introduced the algorithms and discussed both merits and drawbacks of the algorithms. Finally, we pointed out the design issues of related middleware services.