Otolith's prototype Percepticle is based on Moteiv's Tmote Sky, which provides a computational platform, with power management and ZigBee radio interface, that includes several A/D inputs and D/A outputs -- just waiting for sensors and actuators to be connected to them.
The Percepticle adds a microphone input and a speaker output to the Tmote Sky, allowing swarms of Percepticles to communicate with each other via radio and audio at the same time. Speed of sound delays in the audio signals, compared to the much faster radio signals, allow the Percepticle motes to locate each other in space. The resulting cloud of Percepticles will be able to pick up audio sources (talkers) and track them independently of other sound sources ... i.e. they will, if and when we develop the algorithms to do so!
For the benefit of other researchers working with these motes, and for the benefit of other researchers in Blind Source Separation techniques, here are some journaled notes on the development of Percepticle motes.
This page maintained by Wil Howitt