From statistical room acoustics and acoustic intensity to spatial audio

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2020-10, Vol.148 (4), p.2630-2630
• Main Author: Elko, Gary W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.5147315

Jiri Tichy was my graduate student advisor at Penn State. Jiri introduced me to statistical room acoustics and sound power measurements using a single pressure microphone in a reverberation room. From there we moved on to the measurement of sound power using acoustic intensity. We developed spatial microphone array probes with 2–4 microphones that measured the complex vector acoustic intensity in one to three dimensions. After graduation, the fundamentals developed analyzing the estimation of the complex acoustic intensity were applied to the development of a spherical microphone array that realized any first-order superdirectional directivity pattern pointing in any direction. It later became clear that higher-order arrays were needed to achieve higher directional gain. This led to the development of the Eigenmike® spherical microphone array with 32 pressure microphones and capable of 4th order spherical harmonic decomposition of the sound field. This array is finding application into AR/VR and statistical room acoustic analysis … bringing the technology full circle. I am incredibly lucky and grateful to have had Jiri as my mentor. He showed me how to look at acoustics problems and set the foundations of the many acoustic signal processing areas I have worked on in my career.