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High-Tech Microphone Picks Voices From a Crowd

Posted by Soulskill on from the watch-your-mouth dept.

JerryQ writes with news of an impressive audio detection system from a company called Squarehead that was demonstrated during a professional basketball game. According to Wired, "325 microphones sit in a carbon-fiber disk above the stadium, and a wide-angle camera looks down on the scene from the center of this disk. All the operator has to do is pinpoint a spot on the court or field using the screen, and the Audioscope works out how far that spot is from each of the mics, corrects for delay and then synchronizes the audio from all 315 of them. The result is a microphone that can pick out the pop of a bubblegum bubble in the middle of a basketball game..."

13 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. come on people... by cencithomas · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...is it 315 or 325? Sheesh.

    --
    ...'tis easier to blame than to improve.
    1. Re:come on people... by GungaDan · · Score: 5, Funny

      10 microphones were harmed during the posting of this story.

      --
      Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
    2. Re:come on people... by cencithomas · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...and it you *actually* read the fscking article you'd see they also said 315. Good work chief.

      --
      ...'tis easier to blame than to improve.
    3. Re:come on people... by the_banjomatic · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...and if you read the specs from the manufacturers website, they also list 285, 300 and 345 in various places

    4. Re:come on people... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The quick breakdown of responses on Slashdot:

      The last remaining nerds on Slashdot who actually like technology: "Sweet! That's an impressive display of audio recording techniques!"

      The paranoia crowd: "ZOOOOOOOMG that means THEY(tm) can listen in on you! Then they're already stealing your identity to impersonate you! MY PRIVACY IS AT RISK OHNOEZ START REBELLION NOW PLZ KTHX"

      The audiophiles: "Pfft. Everyone knows you need at least 560 microphones and analog pickups, else you'll clearly lose so much quality as to be unlistenable by any but the most primitive and underdeveloped of eardrums. Plebs."

      cencithomas: "WHERE DID THE TEN MICROPHONES GO?!?"

    5. Re:come on people... by KlaymenDK · · Score: 5, Funny

      You've all got it wrong. These are state-of-the-art modern quantum microphones. They work rather excellently -- as long as you don't try to count 'em. That's why the figures in the specs are all over the place -- if they'd just state *one* figure, the darn thing wouldn't be able to hear anything at all! How do you expect to sell something like that?

      --
      "Good news, everyone!"
    6. Re:come on people... by RenHoek · · Score: 2, Funny

      Monster Cable spambot: "You know you need gold plated cables for it to work, right? I've gotta link here somewhere with some good ones.."

  2. Re: by scruffy-tech · · Score: 3, Funny

    I read the article. It went from 325 to 315 to 300. They may have gotten it down to a single mic had they kept writing.

  3. Re:Would work on stored sound too by hoggoth · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe I should've read it then.

    But I, like most Slashdotters, am so quick that I can just glance at a poorly written summary and instantly understand all that needs to be known about the topic. It's really a wonderful time-saver being so damn smart I don't even need to know the facts.

    --
    - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  4. Nothing to see here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    The 70's called... they want their beamforming back

  5. Re:Would work on stored sound too by dgatwood · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just like Congress!

    And, to be back on topic, referees.

    --

    Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  6. Re:Data harvesting? by Dthief · · Score: 2, Funny

    no, but it can focus entirely on one vuvuzela

    --
    www.RacquetUp.org - Helping Detroit Youth
  7. Re:You missed a few... by ScrewMaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    Meme-mongers: Imagine a Beowulf cluster of that array! Meta-commentators: (Present company excluded, well not really) Timothy! MAFIAACS: Oh great, they just copyrighted my gum-popping sounds. Insightful curmudgeons: Given sufficient sensitivity, this could be done with a tetrahedral array--50 years. Now, get off my lawn!

    Yeah, but does it run Linux?

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.