A Wireless Self-Calibrating Ultrasound Microphone Array with Sub-Microsecond Synchronization

TL;DR

This paper introduces a wireless, self-calibrating ultrasound microphone array system with sub-microsecond synchronization, enabling scalable and precise acoustic sensing for various applications.

Contribution

It presents a novel architecture combining self-calibration, infrared tracking, and wireless synchronization for distributed ultrasound microphone networks.

Findings

Successful demonstration of wireless data acquisition and synchronization

Achieved sub-microsecond synchronization accuracy

Prototype verifies system feasibility for scalable acoustic sensing

Abstract

We present a novel system architecture for a distributed wireless, self-calibrating ultrasound microphone network for synchronized in-air acoustic sensing. Once deployed the embedded nodes determine their position in the environment using the infrared optical tracking system found in the HTC Vive Lighthouses. After self-calibration, the nodes start sampling the ultrasound microphone while embedding a synchronization signal in the data which is established using a wireless Sub-1GHz RF link. Data transmission is handled via the Wi-Fi 6 radio that is embedded in the nodes' SoC, decoupling synchronization from payload transport. A prototype system with a limited amount of network nodes was used to verify the proposed distributed microphone array's wireless data acquisition and synchronization capabilities. This architecture lays the groundwork for scalable, deployable ultrasound arrays for sound source localization applications in bio-acoustic research and industrial acoustic monitoring.