RESOLUTION OF SOUND LOCATION by Yuki Shinohara from japan

Owl is a kind of animal that has an excellent auditory sense among mammals. They are able to grasp the position of sound source by the position difference between its left and right ears, and pick up a feeble sound by adjusting the the depressions of its face panel shaped like a parabola.
Mimic those features owl has, explore the new possibilities of the future of hearing expansion device be the main purpose of this work.
What kind of future could be imagined if people are able to identify the sound source as same level as owl? One is a searching for survivors in disaster. Sound signals such as voice and breath are important sign for the search. If the device is able to grasp the exact position of a sound source, it will be an important help to discover the survivors. Also it is able to obtain a profound effect in traffic accident prevention. Highly level of the sound source localization for electric vehicles and bicycles should be able to significantly decrease the accident risk.
Our work is a unit composed with a pair of microphone and speaker, and that be placed in large quantities in all directions. The concept is “The resolution of sound location.” The unit is able to increase a volume of the sound from a particular direction. It is possible to sense specific sound by attaching an extra sound filter unit. Adjust a sound volume in specific direction, sort out a kind of sound you would like to hear, we will grope the human ears in the future through the experience obtained from each unit control.