Sound source localisation on Android smartphones: A first step to using smartphones as auditory sensors for training A.I systems with Big Data

The ability to estimate positions of sound sources is one that gives animals a 360° awareness of their acoustic environment. This helps complement the visual scene which is restricted to 180° in humans. Unfortunately, deaf people are left out on this ability. Smart phones are rapidly becoming a common tool amongst mobile users in developed and emerging markets. Their processing ability has more than doubled since their introduction to mass consumer markets by Apple in 2007. Top-end smart phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Series; 3, 4, and 5 models, have two microphones with which one can acquire stereo recordings. The purpose of this research project was to establish a feasible Sound source localization algorithm for current top-end smart phones, and to recommend hardware improvements for future smart phones, to pave way for the use of smart phones as advanced auditory sensory devices capable of acting as avatars for intelligent remote systems to learn about different acoustic scenes with help of human users.