A two-dimensional optical fibre microphone array with matrix-style data readout
Kentaro Nakamura, Shuntaro Toda, Makoto Yamanouchi · Measurement Science and Technology · 2001
A fibre optic two-dimensional array sensor for sound field visualization is presented. The proposed system consists of an optical fibre network and sensor element installed at every node of the network. The sound field is measured as an intensity modulation of the optical coupling between pairs of fibres in the network. In this paper, demonstration of the temporal and spatial sampling of the distributed sound field by matrix-style access to the sensor elements with the switching of the light sources is described. A 64-element array was used for stationary field measurement with `slow-mode' switching, while a 16-element array was made for transient field measurement with `fast-mode' switching. The present system eliminates the need for electrical multiplexers to switch the signals, and reduces the number of cables required to connect the array with the post-processing unit.