Adaptive separation of mixed broadband sound sources with delays by a beamforming Herault-Jutten network

The Herault-Jutten network has been used to separate independent sound sources that have been linearly mixed. The problem of separating a mixture of several independent signals in free-field conditions or a signal and echoes in confined spaces is compounded by propagation time delays between the source(s) and the microphones because the conventional Herault-Jutten network cannot tolerate time delays. In this paper, we combine a symmetrically balanced beamforming array with the conventional Herault-Jutten network. The resulting system can adaptively separate signals that include delays introduced by the propagation medium. The proposed algorithm has been simulated in digital communication multipath channels where intersymbol interference exists. The simulation results show two clear advantages of the proposed method over the conventional adaptive equalization: (1) there is no penalty for very long impulse responses caused by long delays, and (2) no training signals are needed for equalization. The design of a multibeamformer to handle the source separation of multiple broad-band signals is also presented