Positioning system for mobile terminals using a microphone array network as an intuitive interface

Physical positions are quite useful to realize an intuitive interface for communication among mobile terminals. We propose the placement of a microphone array on mobile terminals and the use of a network as an intuitive interface. The mobile terminals can obtain their relative positions by emitting a sound, which facilitates estimation of the directions of arrival (DOAs) among them. We produced a prototype using a tablet PC, 16 microphones, and an FPGA board. Then, we implemented two applications, exploiting the positioning system to elucidate its wider possibilities.