Bio-inspired synchronization of wireless sensor networks for acoustic event detection systems

Detection of events using a network of simple field sensors has gained interest due to its low cost and robustness. Sensor networks have been extensively analyzed recently in terms of stability, robustness, and efficiency. Time synchronization has proven to be critical in sensor fusion applications where time of arrival is a decision property, and thus an accurate common time reference is required. In this work, we analyze the dependence on time synchronization of an acoustic event detection system, and we present a bio-inspired synchronization algorithm for wireless sensor networks capable of providing the system with a common time reference to enable accurate detection.