With the rapid development of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), spatial audio recording and reproduction have gained increasing research interest. Higher Order Ambisonics (HOA) stands out for its adaptability to various playback devices and its ability to integrate head orientation. However, current HOA recordings often rely on bulky spherical microphone arrays (SMA), and portable devices like smartphones are limited by array configuration and number of microphones. We propose a method for HOA encoding using a smartphone microphone array (SPMA). By designing beamformers for each order of spherical harmonic functions based on the array manifold, the method enables HOA encoding and up-scaling. Validation on a real SPMA and its simulated free-field counterpart in noisy and reverberant conditions showed that the method successfully encodes and up-scales HOA up to the fourth order with just four irregularly arranged microphones.
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