The "Direction" of Scientific EVP Research - The DAIM Box

One day, back in the summer of 2008 I received an email asking me to analyze an EVP sample captured by a west coast paranormal group that I had been working with several months earlier. The file appeared to contain the voice of a man, and according to some members of the group, was the actual voice of a deceased resident alleged to haunt the premises. Other members of the team, however, felt the voice was simply the mumbling chatter of one of their very own teammates and so the file was sent to me to examine with spectrogram software to try and get a voice print from the file and settle their dilemma.As I opened the sample and began to set up my tests, I noticed that the group also included a video of the EVP session, which contained the same mysterious chatter. “What a break!” I thought, since now I might be able to visually see who was talking at the time. Putting the audio aside, I opened the video file and…. nothing. It appeared that nearly all the members sat with their backs to the camera and their mouths out of view. It was then it occurred to me that in spite of all the information I may be able to pull from the files they sent me, and although I may be able to match the voice to one of their team mates, I still was un-able to officially determine where the mysterious voice came from simply from analyzing the file alone. So with that frustration I put my electronics engineering experience to work and developed a way to determine the direction of an audio source from a single recording session. Using 12 separate electret-condenser microphones, with an array of 6 custom built audio sensors and a calibrated USB driven graphing software system, I developed the “DAIM Box” © - The Digital Audio Intensity Monitor (Patent Pending). After many months of trial and error and countless hours of meticulous calibration (much of which is still subject to variations in a location environment) I was able to map out the audio intensity from all directions at a subject location and store the time and date stamped data at 220 samples per second.

When compared against the precisely time and date stamped audio from my EVP session, I could make a comparison from each of the audio sensors and determine which side of the box received the highest level of sound. Obviously, the side with the highest reading was the side facing the sounds source. Using this result, I can now find the direction of the audio source providing the boxes numbered sides are properly aligned and noted during setup. This particular method of design and the flexibility of the data-logging software allows me to connect up to four of these devices simultaneously for a total of 32 channels of information. By placing the four devices in a box formation, I was able to create a grid effect which allowed for a much higher accuracy when determining the location of a sound. The readings from multiple units also allowed me to verify the data of each of the boxes individually. The result is a much more reliable dataset.

To ensure the data was correct; each box is also a six sided; six channel pre-amped microphone system which can be attached to any portable digital audio recorder. Each microphone in the box is positioned directly below an accompanying sensor, to ensure that the audio captured is from the same location as the sensor sample. This enabled me to be fairly confident that the audio microphone and sensor microphone received the same level of sound. The IR/ and visual LED indicator lights on the unit are also sound sensitive to give visual cues to any audio activity.

As you can imagine this unique device presents a tremendous opportunity to better understand the unusual idiosyncrasies and behavioral patterns of electronic voice phenomena. However, because of its incredible sensitivity to sound, the DAIM Box is not an ideal tool for all audio research applications, since even the slightest background noise can overpower the often faint nature of EVP’s. Having passed a variety of field tests and assisted in the evaluation of several EVP recordings, a refined production model of this unit may one day be a reality, but until then, it will continue to assist me in my ongoing research and maybe one day help to identify the potential origins of this unusual and mysterious phenomenon.

Michael J. Baker
Paranormal Scientist