Mirage: 2D Source Localization Using Microphone Pair Augmentation with Echoes

It is commonly observed that acoustic echoes hurt per mance of sound source localization (SSL) methods. We troduce the concept of microphone array augmentation echoes (MIRAGE) and show how estimation of early-e characteristics can in fact benefit SSL. We propose a learn based scheme for echo estimation combined with a phys based scheme for echo aggregation. In a simple scenario volving 2 microphones close to a reflective surface and source, we show using simulated data that the proposed proach performs similarly to a correlation-based metho azimuth estimation while retrieving elevation as well from 2 microphones only, an impossible task in anechoic settings.