Non-Line-of-Sight Passive Acoustic Localization Around Corners

Abstract

Non-line-of-sight (NLoS) imaging is an important challenge in many fields ranging from autonomous vehicles and smart cities to defense applications. Several recent works in optics and acoustics tackle the challenge of imaging targets hidden from view (e.g. placed around a corner) by measuring time-of-flight (ToF) information using active SONAR/LiDAR techniques, effectively mapping the Green functions (impulse responses) from several sources to an array of detectors. Here, leveraging passive correlations-based imaging techniques, we study the possibility of acoustic NLoS target localization around a corner without the use of controlled active sources. We demonstrate localization and tracking of a human subject hidden around the corner in a reverberating room, using Green functions retrieved from correlations of broadband noise in multiple detectors. Our results demonstrate that the controlled active sources can be replaced by passive detectors as long as a sufficiently broadband noise is present in the scene.