A survey on acoustic sensing

The rise of Internet-of-Things (IoT) has brought many new sensing mechanisms. Among these mechanisms, acoustic sensing attracts much attention in recent years. Acoustic sensing exploits acoustic sensors beyond their primary uses, namely recording and playing, to enable interesting applications and new user experience. In this paper, we present the first survey of recent advances in acoustic sensing using commodity hardware. We propose a general framework that categorizes main building blocks of acoustic sensing systems. This framework consists of three layers, i.e., the physical layer, processing layer, and application layer. We highlight different sensing approaches in the processing layer and fundamental design considerations in the physical layer. Many existing and potential applications including context-aware applications, human-computer interface, and aerial acoustic communications are presented in depth. Challenges and future research trends are also discussed.