Thread: How to make a bunch of small microphones in a small space?

It's a question I've been working on.

I want to put a whole bunch of small microphones together on a flat surface to see if I can create a sonar image by bouncing a single sound off of an object, and recording when each mic hears it.

I think I've got a fast enough processor on my reader to take down that data, but how to go about the little microphones is kind of scary..... They don't need to be very sensitive in terms of sound quality, since I only want them to listen for the one sound and report back when they hear it, but they do have to be able to accurately detect that sound.

Any input would be appreciated, but I know it's kind of a crazy request, so I don't have any wild eyed hopes.

Usually that's done with an array of ordinary microphones, which I think is more expensive than daunting. A better way, for small/dense arrays, might be like how a modern keyboard is constructed: Instead of using a discrete button for each key, the whole board is built up of molded, punched, or etched sheets.

you could use a ring of equidistant mics with one in the centre 4 mics minimum for a narrowband system or two lines of mics forming a cross for a wide band system.

THe size of the ring/cross will depend upon the frequency range of interest
sound travels at around 1100ft/sec.

You need to draw up a specification first including frequency range of interest, size power available etc

One science that did use this technology was called GSR (gun sound ranging) where the sound arrived at different mics at different times then the computer calculated the position, aimed a bigger gun back and fired.

The computer etc was in radio contact with a number of guns it would sometimes fire two or more simultaneously so that an enemy with a similar system would be confused but now I have divulged all this I ought to kill myself..