Multisignal time difference estimator with application to the sound ranging problem

A procedure is given for estimating time differences from a set of received microphone signals that could be used with a position estimator to locate a transient sound source. The procedure described consists of four basic parts: (1) selection of a rough starting point, (2) a prefiltering operation, (3) a pair by pair correlation, and (4) an overall least-square time fit. A Fortran program implementing the procedure was tested on data from the PASS experiment conducted at White Sands Missile Range and preliminary results show that good time difference estimates are obtained.