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Inter-channel Phase Difference

Inter-channel phase difference (IPD) is a useful feature in the estimation of the direction-of-arrival (DOA) of a sound source.

While the actual form of the IPD varies from implementation to implementation, it should always reflect the phase differences between the audio channels.

Phase Difference between audio channels

Given

  • \(X_m \left( f,t \right) \in \mathbb{C}\): The short-time fourier transform (STFT) of the audio signal of the \(m\)-th channel at frequency \(f\) at time frame \(t\)
  • \(m_r\): The integer index of the reference audio channel

The phase difference between channel \(m\) and \(m_r\) is then

\[ \delta_{m} \left( f,t \right) = \angle X_m \left( f,t \right) - \angle X_{m_r} \left(f,t \right) \]

Possible forms of IPD

Form 1

One may define IPD as

\[ F_m \left(f,t \right) = \log \left( {X_{m_r}\left(f,t\right)} \over X_m\left(f,t\right) \right) \]

such that the phase difference can be derived from

\[ \delta_{m} \left( f,t \right) = - \mathfrak{I} \left( F_m \left(f,t\right) \right) \]

where \(\mathfrak{I}\left( \cdot \right)\) is the imaginary part operator

See https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6882340

Form 2

Another way to define IPD is

\[ F_m \left(f,t \right) = X_m \left( f,t \right) \cdot X_{m_r}^* \left( f,t \right) \]

such that the phase difference can be derived from

\[ \delta_{m} \left( f,t \right) = \angle F_m \left(f,t \right) \]

Reference