Virtual array beamforming based on linear prediction

The aperture of acoustic array should be increased to get high resolution in conventional beam-forming at a certain frequency.This is often not allowed in practical applications.Virtual array beamforming based on linear prediction is proposed in this paper.The output data of virtual sensors are estimated from the output of a physical array using linear prediction.The aperture of the total array is broadened in the virtual sense,thus high directivity narrow beam is realized for a small sized physical array.Effectiveness of this new method is verified in computer simulations.