Survey on acoustic vector sensor and its applications in signal processing

Acoustic vector sensor (AVS) was a newly developed device for signal capturing. Different to the conventional spatially displayed sensor array, a single AVS generally includes four sensors which are orthogonally co-located with each other. Equipped with one omni-directional sensor and three directional sensors, an AVS is able to localize source position and reduce the interruption from background noise and interference. Benefits from its small size and low weight, an AVS is more attractive for exploitation and commercialization on some portable devices than the conventional sensor array. This paper brings a brief survey on the recent research of AVS, including the hardware development and the algorithms on source localization, target tracking, and noise reduction. Then, a short discussion on challenges, future prospects, and potential applications of AVS is also given.