Sound focusing in rooms. II. The spatio-temporal inverse filter.

The potential of time reversal processing for room acoustics has been extensively investigated in the companion of this paper [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 113(3), 1533-1543 (2003)]. In particular, a simple implementation of a loudspeaker time reversal antenna able to take advantage of the multiple reflections in reverberating rooms demonstrates its potential for audible range acoustics while improving focusing both in space and time. However, loss of information (e.g., sound absorption in walls or nonequalized bandwidths of the loudspeakers) during a time reversal experiment degrades the quality of time reversal focusing. In this paper, a more sophisticated technique called spatio-temporal inverse filtering is investigated that achieves time and space deconvolution of the propagation operator between the loudspeakers antenna and a set of microphones embedded inside the insonified volume. Theoretical and experimental comparisons between time reversal and inverse filter focusing are presented. Finally, advantages and limitations of both focusing approaches are highlighted.