Abstract: A system and device phase-aligns and sums signals from a very large array of sensors, such as microphones or ultrasonic transducers, without prior knowledge of time delays of signals reaching each sensor, so as to accommodate effects of reverberant fields or acoustic or ultrasonic media containing multiple reflectors or scatterers and/or having heterogeneous, unknown acoustic properties.

Abstract: A beamforming sensor node has an array of pressure wave sensors and beamforming circuitry. Each pressure wave sensor is configured within a unique processing channel including a time delay circuit for producing a signal, with a phase offset, representative of received pressure waves at said pressure wave sensor. The beamforming circuitry includes the time delay circuits for all processing channels and (a) sets the phase offset of each processing channel and (b) parallel processes all signals from the array of pressure wave sensors through respective time delay circuits to form a first coherent beam-formed signal from the node. A secondary beamforming node combines coherent beam-formed signals from the plurality of sensor nodes to produce a combined acoustic signal representative of received pressure waves at all sensor nodes.