Page "Microphone array" Paragraph 5

Typically, an array is made up of omnidirectional microphones distributed about the perimeter of a space, linked to a computer that records and interprets the results into a coherent form.

Arrays may also be formed using numbers of very closely spaced microphones.

Given a fixed physical relationship in space between the different individual microphone transducer array elements, simultaneous DSP ( digital signal processor ) processing of the signals from each of the individual microphone array elements can create one or more " virtual " microphones.

Different algorithms permit the creation of virtual microphones with extremely complex virtual polar patterns and even the possibility to steer the individual lobes of the virtual microphones patterns so as to home-in-on, or to reject, particular sources of sound.