Sound field reconstruction using neural processes with dynamic kernels

Abstract

Accurately representing the sound field with the high spatial resolution is critical for immersive and interactive sound field reproduction technology. To minimize experimental effort, data-driven methods have been proposed to estimate sound fields from a small number of discrete observations. In particular, kernel-based methods using Gaussian Processes (GPs) with a covariance function to model spatial correlations have been used for sound field reconstruction. However, these methods have limitations due to the fixed kernels having limited expressiveness, requiring manual identification of optimal kernels for different sound fields. In this work, we propose a new approach that parameterizes GPs using a deep neural network based on Neural Processes (NPs) to reconstruct the magnitude of the sound field. This method has the advantage of dynamically learning kernels from simulated data using an attention mechanism, allowing for greater flexibility and adaptability to the acoustic properties of the sound field. Numerical experiments demonstrate that our proposed approach outperforms current methods in reconstructing accuracy, providing a promising alternative for sound field reconstruction.