Patent ID: 7433266

Claim:
A method for locating an acoustic source from an acoustic event of the acoustic source, comprising the steps of: a. deploying a sensor network having a plurality of spatially separated sensor nodes, each spatially separated sensor node having a unique node ID and located in a predetermined position encountering acoustic waves generated by an acoustic event passing proximate to the plurality of spatially separated sensor nodes; b. synchronizing the plurality of spatially separated sensor nodes of the sensor network to a common time base; c. obtaining information of the acoustic waves from each of the plurality of spatially separated sensor nodes when the acoustic event is detected, the information of the acoustic waves including the time of arrival of the acoustic waves at the corresponding sensor node; d. broadcasting the obtained information of the acoustic waves from each of the plurality of spatially separated sensor nodes through the sensor network to a base station; e. receiving the broadcasted information of the acoustic waves from the sensor network by the base station; and f. processing the received information of the acoustic waves so as to locate the acoustic source of the acoustic event in the base station, wherein the synchronizing step is performed with a flooding time synchronization protocol.