A Low-Cost High-Quality MEMS Ambisonic-Microphone
A Low-Cost High-Quality MEMS Ambisonic-Microphone
A Low-Cost High-Quality MEMS Ambisonic-Microphone
Convention Paper
Presented at the 143rd Convention
2017 October 18–21, New York, NY, USA
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The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, 41 Cooper Sq, New York, NY, 10003
Correspondence should be addressed to Gabriel Zalles ([email protected])
ABSTRACT
While public interest for technologies that produce and deliver immersive VR content has been growing, the
price point for these tools has remained relatively high. This paper presents a low-cost, high-quality first-order
ambisonics (FOA) microphone based on low-noise microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Namely, this
paper details the design, fabrication, and testing of a MEMS FOA microphone including its frequency and
directivity response. To facilitate high resolution directivity response measurements, a low-cost, automatic
rotating microphone mount using an Arduino was designed. The automatic control of this platform was
integrated into an in-house acoustic measurement library built in MATLAB, allowing the user to generate polar
plots at resolutions down to 1.8°. Subjective assessments compared the FOA mic prototype to commercially
available FOA solutions at higher price points.
outside exclusive University settings or Additionally, it does not rely on a specific speaker
professional-level studios. The goal is to develop a configuration. Rather, it decodes the localization
method for Universities and engineers to produce data obtained in the recording process during
FOA mics independently and encourage people in playback to achieve a full 360-degree immersive
general, through the process of building them, to representation of a soundfield.
become better acquainted with immersive audio
technologies. 1.2 MEMS Technology
In recent years, interest in MEMS microphones has
1.1 History of Ambisonics expanded due to their versatile design, greater
Ambisonic technology was first explored in the immunity to radio frequency interference (RFI) and
1970’s by Michael Gerzon and Peter Fellgett [1]. electromagnetic interference (EMI), as well as low
Gerzon’s work is based on the principle of spherical cost and environmental resiliency [4,5]. Current
harmonics. By using four highly coincident capsules MEMS models are generally 10 times smaller than
in a tetrahedral configuration, A-format signals can their more traditional electret counterparts. This
be encoded to a B-format matrix, which consists of miniaturization has allowed for additional circuitry,
three figure-eight pressure gradients and an such as a preamp stage and an analog to digital
omnidirectional pressure gradient, all coincidentally converter (ADC), to output digitized audio, in some
located. As noted by David Malham, the directional models, to be included within the MEMS enclosure.
encoding of an ambisonic system is based on the The production process used to manufacture these
ability of the spherical harmonics to approximate the devices also provides an extremely high level of
surface of a sphere [2]. part-to-part consistency, making them more
amenable to multi-capsule and multi-sensor arrays.
The FOA recording approach can also be considered
an extension of the Mid-Side (M/S) technique 1.3 Capture and Reproduction
created by the pioneer of stereophonic sound, Alan The most basic soundfield microphone, a FOA
Blumlein, in the 30s [3]. The concept of decoding microphone, consists of four cardioid capsules
audio signals via a set of sums and differences is mounted in a tetrahedral shape which captures a
augmented in the FOA model which takes four soundfield from a single point in space over four
signals and converts them into a zero-order channels resulting in A-format signals, in their raw,
information monophonic sound pressure component unprocessed state. More complex systems which
(W) and three first-order pressure gradients achieve higher-order ambisonics are possible by
corresponding to the X, Y and Z axes, as shown in incorporating a greater number of capsules [2].
Figure 1.
FOA relies on capsules with a cardioid response [1].
This aims to provide “acoustically transparent”
sound capture; the signals captured from one
microphone do not interfere with the signals from
another capsule allowing for accurate and realistic
reproduction of sound source location.
1 2
invensense.com/products/analog/ics-40720 stratasys.com/3d-printers/mojo
Zalles et al. A Low-Cost MEMS Microphone
Total $87
Figure 5: Single capsule frequency response of Ambeo VR
The unit cost of $27 USD comes in well below the & MEMS microphones
retail price of the Sennheiser Ambeo VR at $1650
USD as of July 2017, even when considering the
3
markups involved on retail products including R&D nti-audio.com/Portals/0/data/en/NTi-Audio-Turntab
le-Product-Data.pdf
Zalles et al. A Low-Cost MEMS Microphone
3.2 Directionality
Using the ARM2 rotating platform, the directivity of Figure 7: Mounted MEMS capsule directivity plot at
a single capsule from our MEMS prototype was varying frequencies (rho values in dB)
measured. A single capsule of the Sennheiser
Ambeo VR was also measured for comparison. Both
3.3 Subjective Evaluation
microphones in question were measured with their
respective capsules facing the speaker at a fixed A preliminary subjective assessment was carried out
distance of 1m. The ARM2 was used to ensure that using an online survey in order to determine the
the capsule-speaker distance remains constant relative preference between the two recording
throughout the measurement cycle. solutions. Thirty-two participants were recruited
from various university’s music technology
programs, audio-related mailing lists and small
groups of non-audio experienced subjects.
Participants were asked to select the recording they As shown in Figure 9, of the total valid number of
prefered overall, if any. Participants were also asked subjects whose data was analyzed, 18.8% said they
to optionally provide, in written form, a short prefered the MEMS recording to the Ambeo VR
comment on their opinions regarding the two mic. Of those, 50% reported a score of 3 or above in
recordings in open text response format. All data in terms of their experience with music technology.
the following analysis was submitted by subjects 3.1% of the total population reported that the two
who were wearing headphones during the survey recordings sounded the same. Overall, a preference
period. towards the Ambeo mic can be seen as per the mean
values shown in Table 3 for the three subjective
4 Results and Discussion criteria and the overall preference question. While
Preliminary findings showed that subjects perceived these results were expected, results are promising
a significant low-frequency reduction within the considering the large price difference between our
MEMS microphone recording, even though the prototype solution and the Sennheiser Ambeo VR
measured low-frequency response showed little microphone.
difference between the MEMS capsules and the
Ambeo VR electret capsules. It is possible that the
MEMS’s omnidirectional polar response contributed
to the subtraction of highly correlated low-frequency
content during the encoding stage.
6 Conclusions 8 References
The prototype MEMS-based ambisonics microphone
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5
cm-gitlab.stanford.edu/ambisonics/SpHEAR