Miniature Microphone Pinpoints Sound
Super listening device hears, identifies, and locates any sound by measuring 3D movement of air particles
A Dutch firm has developed a tiny device that listens for screams, gunshots, mortars and even warplanes. It doesn't listen in the conventional sense, but instead measures the 3D movement of individual air particles in order to determine the x, y and z coordinates of whatever made the noise in question.
To do this, Netherlands-based Microflown Technologies uses a technology it calls acoustic vector sensing (AVS). The sensor is smaller than a match head. At its heart are two platinum strips, each 200-nanometers thick (about 600 atoms across) by 10 micrometers wide. They're stretched parallel across a gap and heated to 200 degrees Celsius when operating.
Air particles flowing past the strips cool them unevenly. The pattern of cooling and heating is then analyzed by signal-processing software.
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