Extension and evaluation of MDS for geometric microphone array calibration

Classical multidimensional scaling (MDS) is a simple, global, non-iterative technique for determining the locations of microphones given their interpoint distances, even when all such distances are not available. We extend this technique by showing how it can be used with a calibration target consisting of synchronized sound sources, which facilitates automatic calibration of large arrays when such a target is available. We also evaluate the sensitivity of the algorithm to the size and location of the target, as well as to the basis points in general, on several different microphone array configurations. Simulations and experiments demonstrate the accuracy of the algorithm for practical scenarios, yielding errors on the order of 1 cm.