Citation

BibTex format

@article{Ikhwanuddin:2026:10.1121/10.0046897,
author = {Ikhwanuddin, R and Le, Penru NP and Sethi, SS and Picinali, L},
doi = {10.1121/10.0046897},
journal = {The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America},
pages = {3754--3769},
title = {A comparative evaluation of lab-generic and site-specific impulse response-based beamforming for enhanced automated bird call detection},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/10.0046897},
volume = {160},
year = {2026}
}

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB - <jats:p>Automated ecoacoustic monitoring supports biodiversity conservation but struggles with signal degradation in noisy forests. Microphone-array recorders enable beamforming to focus on target directions and reduce background noise, yet their effectiveness in autonomous settings remains underexplored. This study evaluates filter-and-sum beamforming using measured impulse responses (IRs) to enhance bird-call classification. It compares lab-generic IRs from a semi-anechoic chamber with site-specific IRs measured in a forest. Playback experiments were conducted with a multichannel autonomous recorder using Eurasian blue tit calls in a real forest (1 to 64 m) and a 31-speaker virtual soundscape (signal-to-noise ratios from +30 to –30 dB). BirdNET performed classification, with metrics including detection count and confidence improvements versus the omnidirectional baseline. Both beamforming methods outperformed the baseline. Site-specific IR beamforming excelled at intermediate and long ranges. Both significantly raised confidence scores (p &lt; 0.001), with site-specific IRs showing a modest advantage (mean Δ confidence 0.15 vs 0.11; p = 0.00001). These results confirm the value of beamforming for passive acoustic monitoring: site-specific IRs perform best, while lab-generic IRs provide a robust alternative for large-scale use.</jats:p>
AU - Ikhwanuddin,R
AU - Le,Penru NP
AU - Sethi,SS
AU - Picinali,L
DO - 10.1121/10.0046897
EP - 3769
PY - 2026///
SP - 3754
TI - A comparative evaluation of lab-generic and site-specific impulse response-based beamforming for enhanced automated bird call detection
T2 - The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/10.0046897
UR - https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0046897
VL - 160
ER -

Postgraduate research

Interested in studying a PhD at the Department of Life Sciences? Find out more about postgraduate research opportunties.