Study on Acoustic Source Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks using Centralized and Distributed Algorithms

In recent years, wireless sensor networks have become an evolving technology that has a wide range of potential applications. The emergence of miniature low-power devices that integrate micro-sensing and actuation with onboard processing and wireless communication capabilities has stimulated great interests in developing wireless sensor network Acoustic source localization is a research topic with many application areas, such as voice enhancement, intruder detection, sniper localization, and automatic tracking of speakers in an e-conferencing environment. Utilization of wireless sensor networks for acoustic source localization can provide good coverage, which not only enhances the accuracy, but also increases the robustness of the overall system. In this paper, we gave an overview of the acoustic source localization based on wireless sensor networks. We also briefly survey a large and growing body of sensor localization algorithms. This paper is intended to emphasize the basic statistical signal processing background necessary to understand the state-of-the-art and to make progress in the new and largely open areas of sensor network localization research.we analyzed the characteristics of acoustic source localization in wireless sensor networks. Then, we classified the existing typical acoustic source localization algorithms in wireless sensor networks into centralized algorithms and distributed algorithms. At the same time, we have introduced the algorithms and discussed both merits and drawbacks of the algorithms. Finally, we pointed out the design issues of related middleware services.