Scientists in Norway at Squarehead have developed a technology
called AudioScope that apparently enables you to zoom in on
sounds in huge, loud places like sports arenas or lecture halls.
AudioScope is based on the same principle as sonar. A dish with
an array of microphones can locate and record sound anywhere in
a large room. A speaker’s voice in an auditorium is picked up by
all the microphones on the dish. Depending on the position of
each microphone, the sound will reach them at a slightly
different time. We use this to our advantage. To compensate for
this deviation, we add delays to the microphones. Thus we are
able to receive the audio from all of the microphones at the
same time. When all the adjusted signals are combined we get an
amplified signal. This technique is called beam-forming, and
when this technique is applied to hundreds of microphones the
result is a tremendous signal boost. The human brain can do this
with just two microphones – your ears. If someone calls out your
name in the street,