ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some of the algorithms and technologies in digital signal processing that are used in audio and electroacoustics (A&E). Because A&E embraces a wide range of topics, it is impossible for us to go into any depth in any one of them. The chapter looks at steerable microphone arrays, digital hearing aids, spatial processing, audio coding, echo cancelation, and active noise and sound control. Steerable microphone arrays have controllable directional characteristics. One important application is in teleconferencing. Sound pickup can be highly degraded by reverberation and room noise. One solution to this problem is to utilize highly directional microphones. Commonly used hearing aids attempt to compensate for both conductive and sensorineural hearing loss by delivering an amplified acoustic signal to the external ear canal. Underwater acoustics entails the development and employment of acoustical methods to image underwater features, to communicate information via the oceanic wave-guide, or to measure oceanic properties.
