The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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1:50pm on Thursday, 20th July, 2023:
Anecdote
When I was a student, I had an idea for stereo microphones.
I didn't have a stereo cassette player back then, and the headphones I had were rigged up by a friend of a friend so I could hear out of both earpieces. This didn't bother me too much, as my directional hearing is hopeless at the best of times. I did, however, know that such things as stereo microphones existed.
I also knew that all the recordings I made tended to be spoiled by background noises. With two microphones, though — or, even better, three — it should be possible to triangulate where sounds are coming from and so cut out any from beyond a certain distance or direction. In other words, a computer could do what most people's brains could do to discern where a sound originates, then eliminate anything not coming from there.
I didn't do anything at the time, of course, largely because computers were the size of kitchen cabinets and I didn't have any money anyway. Like most of my ideas, I let it go. I was reminded of it this morning when I was walking past a murder of crows cawing their heads off to the sound of cars on the A12 in the distance.
I'm pretty sure this technology must be in regular use today (either that or sound doesn't work this way).
I wonder how many years before I thought of it the inventor did.
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Copyright © 2023 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).