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Laser-Accurate microphone captures 'pure sound'
There are good microphones, and there are bad microphones, but pretty much all of them are limited by the nature of the technology — specifically, the diaphragm that moves in response to air. The structure of that diaphragm will affect the sound that's recorded, even if that influence is minute. There's simply no way around it.
Or is there? Inventor David Schwartz says his Laser-Accurate micorphone is capable of recording "pure sound." Instead of conventional transducers, Schwartz's mike uses lasers to scan an air chamber filled with microscopic particles (read: smoke). When the particles move in response to sound, the laser detects the motion without disturbing the air (at least not in any acoustic way), so the vibration — and thus the recording — should be as close to acoustically perfect as possible. In theory.
The laser mike looks like a promising new technology, but it's clearly in the infant stages. If you check out the second vid through the Continue link below, you can see Schwartz has to shout to get the smoke microphone to get a decent recording. If he can somehow get a working product, though, it would certainly quickly become the go-to mike for the recording industry.
Via YouTube
By Neotyguy at 5:16 PM ON 09/21/09
Let me be the first here to say that this must be the future of recording sound. Imagine that all new headset speakers had a small laser tube instead of a mic... No more people that sound like 11 year olds!
In more expensive technology, such as recording studios, I bet that these will be used much better. Though I fear they may need more sound proof walls.
By jrdnyquist at 5:32 PM ON 09/21/09
Guy may want to consider using a real mic for his video demo. I understand the laser mic samples are experimental but a decent quality voice recording for the regular audio would help a good deal.
By DelosWorld at 5:39 PM ON 09/21/09
I tried doing something like this for my Master's thesis in the mid 80's, but I was trying to detect the change in dielectric constant (due to compression and rarefaction) as a sound wave propagated through my gizmo. Needless to say it didn't work very well, and it looked like it only worked at low frequencies around 100 Hz or so. As my room mate said at the time, "Your invention would be great for recording a nuclear bomb explosion."
I don't think this gizmo is an entirely new invention though. I seem to recall seeing the concept tried at least one other time. But a non-contacting microphone that directly senses the movement or compression of molecules (or their approximate equivalents) should provide the most accurate method of recording sound waves. It would also help to minimize non-linearities introduced by a normal microphone and that's especially true for large amplitude sound signals.
By harry at 2:36 PM ON 09/23/09
today their are plenty of great condenser microphone I wonder how much better can it get
By skipmcf at 12:47 PM ON 09/24/09
How ironic. Its about recording sound, but you can't hear anything! My volume is up, I can hear other vids just fine, but this one sounds like he's miles away. Doesn't do much for sparking my interest in this tech.
By type-o- at 7:15 PM ON 09/24/09
lasers to scan an air chamber filled with microscopic particles ...hmmmm... sounds like smoke and mirrors to me.
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type-o-:
lasers to scan an air chamber filled with microscopic particles ...hmmmm... sounds like smoke and mirrors to me. ...More »