Loudspeaker Localization Based on Audio Watermarking

Localizing the positions of loudspeakers can be useful in a variety of applications, above all the calibration of a home theater setup. For this aim, several existing approaches employ a microphone array and specifically designed signals to be played back by the loudspeakers, such as sine sweeps or maximum length sequences. While these systems achieve good localization accuracy, they are unsuitable for those applications in which the end-user should not be made aware that the localization is taking place. This contribution proposes a system which fulfills these requirements by employing an inaudible watermark to carry out the localization. The watermark is specifically designed to work in reverberant environments. Results from realistic simulations confirm the practicability of the proposed system.