Real-time implementation of a GMM-based binaural localization algorithm on a VLIW-SIMD processor

Abstract

Localization algorithms have become of considerable interest for robot audition, acoustic navigation, teleconferencing, speaker localization, and many other applications over the last decade. In this paper, we present a real-time implementation of a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) based probabilistic sound source localization algorithm for a low-power VLIW-SIMD processor for hearing devices. The algorithm has been proven to allow for robust localization of multiple sound sources simultaneously in reverberant and noisy environments. Real-time computation for audio frames of 512 samples at 16 kHz was achieved by introducing algorithmic optimizations and hardware customizations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first real-time capable implementation of a computationally complex GMM-based sound source localization algorithm on a low-power processor. The resulting estimated core area without consideration of memory in 40nm low-power TSMC technology is 188,511 pm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> .