5 ms·

> So you literally have to scream at each other right in front of the hard drive for it to record discernible speech. Right. Because certainly no one can figur

> So you literally have to scream at each other right in front of the hard drive for it to record discernible speech. Right. Because certainly no one can figure out how to improve this. How about using multiple hard disks simultaneously and use signal processing magic to clean it up, just like microphone arrays do? Maybe you could even start to get some limited spatial information about the surroundings, based on sound arrival time difference between multiple disks? Similar to the way reflections of sound waves in the Earth crust and below can be used to compute Earth internal structure. Or how bats navigate. I'm not saying these ideas work — most likely not. What I'm saying, that someone with this knowledge and some brilliant discovery might be able to take this technique way further.

amelius 8y ago
> Maybe you could even start to get some limited spatial information about the surroundings, Good point. I guess you could accurately triangulate the position of the hard drive using seismic reference data, in the case of an earthquake. Or you could make loud noises at different places in a city, and locate the hard drive that way.
- vardump 8y ago
  I didn't mean that, but that's also an interesting idea.
- burfog 8y ago
  You make 2 or 3 passes with a supersonic aircraft to get the location, and then one more pass to drop a bomb. In a more civilian context, you have a nice fireworks show and then send the SWAT team.
tedunangst 8y ago
Maybe a spy satellite passes overhead and records the data center walls vibrating.
- orbital-decay 8y ago
  Jokes aside, hearing a sound directly from a low orbit is a thing [0]. Only problem is, the sound has to be extremely loud. [0] https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/grl.50205 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/grl...
  - basementcat 8y ago
    According to the paper, the frequency has to be very low ~0.1 Hz.
  - dingaling 8y ago
    And conversely the ISS makes sonic booms in its LEO, they're just very weak. Sonic murmurs.

amelius 8y ago

> Maybe you could even start to get some limited spatial information about the surroundings, Good point. I guess you could accurately triangulate the position of the hard drive using seismic reference data, in the case of an earthquake. Or you could make loud noises at different places in a city, and locate the hard drive that way.

vardump 8y ago
I didn't mean that, but that's also an interesting idea.
burfog 8y ago
You make 2 or 3 passes with a supersonic aircraft to get the location, and then one more pass to drop a bomb. In a more civilian context, you have a nice fireworks show and then send the SWAT team.

tedunangst 8y ago

Maybe a spy satellite passes overhead and records the data center walls vibrating.

orbital-decay 8y ago
Jokes aside, hearing a sound directly from a low orbit is a thing [0]. Only problem is, the sound has to be extremely loud. [0] https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/grl.50205 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/grl...
- basementcat 8y ago
  According to the paper, the frequency has to be very low ~0.1 Hz.
- dingaling 8y ago
  And conversely the ISS makes sonic booms in its LEO, they're just very weak. Sonic murmurs.