Particle Filtering Algorithms for Tracking Multiple Sound Sources using Microphone Arrays

A particle filtering algorithm using the parameters in the EM (expectation-maximization) algorithm is proposed for tracking multiple sound sources. Differently from the conventional EM based algorithms, the proposed algorithm can track multiple sound sources without knowing their starting points. Moreover, an idea of the group tracking is applied to the particle filtering algorithm so that better tracking performances can be obtained. Experimental results show the validity of the proposed algorithm.