Beyond Sight and Radar: Acoustic Eye’s Sound-Based Shield

Unseen threats can have serious consequences. In homes, schools or hospitals, small drones can slip past cameras or radar and invade privacy or safety. On factory floors and construction sites, hidden impacts or mechanical faults in vehicles may go unheard until it’s too late, leading to accidents or costly downtime.

Traditional systems often leave blind spots: cameras need a clear line of sight, and radar systems struggle to spot small, low-flying objects. Acoustic sensors have been used before, but simple microphones can’t pick out faint signals in noisy environments and usually only reach a few hundred feet before background noise overwhelms the signal.

Acoustic Eye is LINSOL’s answer to these challenges. At its core, Acoustic Eye is a precision sound-detection device designed to “listen” for hazards that are hard to see or track. Whether it’s the whirr of drone propellers above a neighborhood or the subtle groan of an industrial vehicle under stress, Acoustic Eye picks up sounds in both ultrasonic and audible ranges and identifies potential dangers up to about 500 yards away.

The Acoustic Eye mounts to any window in seconds using a smart magnetic system that needs no tools or drilling. You simply align the device against the glass, where powerful yet safe magnets hold it firmly in place without leaving marks or causing any permanent changes to your home. Once attached, it’s ready to listen for threats immediately—no hassle, no damage, and no special installation skills required

When it spots something unusual, the system immediately sends real-time alerts to an indoor display or a connected mobile app, and can even activate jamming measures to counter unauthorized drones.

What makes Acoustic Eye truly innovative is how it uses multiple advanced technologies in concert. First, its multi-channel sensor array captures sound from many directions, allowing it to pinpoint tiny drones as small as hummingbirds as well as larger aircraft, even in environments filled with traffic or machinery noise.

Next, an AI-driven selective beamforming algorithm separates the specific acoustic signature of a drone or vehicle from all background clutter, thereby distinguishing authorized equipment from potential threats in real-time. Finally, a patented meta-structure sound amplification system boosts faint signals up to eight times stronger than traditional microphones, so that even stealth drones with low-noise designs can be detected before they ever enter critical zones.

Traditionally, most counter-drone and hazard-detection methods relied on radar, radio-frequency monitoring or visual cameras. Radar systems, especially conventional Doppler radar, have difficulty differentiating small drones from birds or other clutter, leading to false alarms and missed detections. RF analyzers look for a drone’s control signals, but sophisticated or autonomous drones can fly without emitting detectable radio transmissions.

Cameras need clear sight lines and adequate lighting, and they often struggle in fog, rain or at night. Even sensor-fusion approaches that combine radar, RF and video can’t fully close the gap, particularly when speed of response is critical. Acoustic Eye fills this gap by turning to sound—an omnipresent, reliable indicator that doesn’t rely on visual or RF signatures and works 24/7 in all weather, according to its creators.

Photo courtesy of Aving News Network

Behind Acoustic Eye is LINSOL, a South Korean startup headquartered in Daejeon’s science and technology hub. LINSOL began in 2021 as the first in-house venture of Hanwha Aerospace, Korea’s top defense firm, and spun off as an independent company in 2023.

Under the motto “Hearing the Invisible, Protecting the Invaluable,” LINSOL has adapted military-grade sonar and acoustic-detection technologies for civilian use, rapidly branching into industrial safety, search and rescue, mobility, and airspace security.

LINSOL is also exploring ways to integrate Acoustic Eye seamlessly into the security systems already in place worldwide. By designing standard interfaces and software modules, they aim to link Acoustic Eye directly to alarm infrastructure.

This would enable managers to view sound-based alerts alongside video feeds and badge logs, creating a more comprehensive picture of what’s happening on site. The goal is to provide a straightforward upgrade path, allowing organizations to integrate sound detection into their security toolkit with minimal disruption.

By combining defense-level precision with user-friendly design, Acoustic Eye turns sound into actionable intelligence. It manages risks before they escalate, whether by alerting a facility manager or a community of unauthorized drones overhead. As threats grow more sophisticated, solutions like Acoustic Eye represent a new frontier in proactive protection, where “listening carefully” makes all the difference.

Filed in Military >Robots. Read more about CES, Drones, Korea and Security.