Blind separation of delayed instantaneous mixtures: a cross-correlation based approach

A cross-correlation based method is proposed for blind separation of statistically uncorrelated i.i.d. signals. In contrast to much of the existing work in the area, the proposed method allows the separation of more sources than sensors and the sensors are not restricted to have non-Gaussian distributions. The mixed signals are modelled as a sum of attenuated and delayed source signals. As compared to the delayless mixture model commonly employed in the literature, incorporating delays in the model may offer better fit to practical applications, such as source separation in an anechoic environment. We estimate the delay and attenuation parameters from the peak locations and strengths of the cross-correlation function, respectively. Using these parameters, we then discuss the use of four methods for the recovery of source signals. These methods are compared and their usage is proposed under different operating conditions. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.