JOINT OPTIMIZATION OF MICROPHONE ARRAY GEOMETRY AND REGION-OF-INTEREST BEAMFORMING WITH SPARSE CIRCULAR SECTOR ARRAYS

This paper focuses on two key aspects: region-of-interest beamforming and optimal sparse circular sector array design. The aim is to address the problem of the unknown direction of arrival within a given region of interest while optimizing the array geometry layout and beamformer taps. This is done while meeting the maximum broadband array directivity criterion. To ensure that the desired signal is not distorted, we apply appropriate optimization constraints while maintaining a sufficiently high white noise gain. Our proposed approach outperforms a recently suggested approach in terms of the directivity factor, especially when the direction of arrival of the desired source significantly deviates from its nominal value.