Design of robust nearfield wideband beamformers with optimum subband constraints

Design of nearfield wideband beamformers robust against microphone mismatches is of great interest in practical applications. The state-of-the-art design approach is based on the fullband processing. In this paper, the over-constraint problem suffered by the fullband design approach is studied, which typically leads to the undesired signal distortion with low-pass filtered characteristics. To combat the over-constraint problem, a new design approach for robust nearfield wideband beamformers with optimum subband constraints is proposed. The performance of the proposed design approach is evaluated and compared with the fullband design counterpart via design examples.