Binaural blue stereo mic with human ears

The boys at Engadget seem skeeved out by the Otokinoki Binaural Mic... a blue anthropomorphic microphone with a rubbery simulacrum of an elderly man's massive, troll-likes ears mounted to the side, aimed at allowing you to record sound after the same fashion in which humans hear it. I can understand the creep factor, but I love it anyway: I think it would fashion admirably as a Mr. Potatohead for the top of your camcorder. On the other hand, the mic costs $3,900, which is absurd... for that sort of money, I'd rather buy a camcorder with a giant, squishy eyeball at the end.

Binaural Recording Mic from Otokinoko [Kilian Nakamura via Engadget]

[#1 posted by strider_mt2k , June 16, 2008 8:11 AM]

You got yer ears on, good buddy?

[#2 posted by bardfinn , June 16, 2008 8:43 AM]

For $3,900, the ears need to be at least as far apart as a human's.

[#3 posted by Anonymous , June 16, 2008 9:12 AM]

So now, after you listen to the recording, the sound has been through the human ear twice instead of just once.....maybe that makes this device useless.

[#4 posted by Anonymous , June 16, 2008 11:11 AM]

Who is responsible for a product shot of a $4000 microphone on top of a $400 camera?

[#5 posted by MrScience , June 16, 2008 11:16 AM]

On the contrary #3, this has a tendancy to make it much more realistic. See Head Related Transfer Function: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-related_transfer_function

Also, Dummy Head Recording (which this is similar to, though as #2 mentions, too narrow): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummy_head_recording

[#6 posted by Marshall , June 16, 2008 11:17 AM]

I love how it looks just like a whack-a-mole bat.

[#7 posted by nihilarian , June 17, 2008 3:29 AM]

the problem with binaural recordings, is that they really have to be listened to on headphones, or they sound either no different, or in some cases worse because of timing problems.

the fake pinna are only going to work really well - proper sound location - if they're your own (almost as individual as a fingerprint if i remember correctly). a bit gimmicky.
i've heard some terrific in-ear binaural reacordings made by a friend tho.

and unfortunately, $4000 aint that unusual for a pro mic. if this is one of them is another question...

[#8 posted by Argon , June 17, 2008 3:46 AM]

Screw realistic transfer functions. I want a Vulcan version.

[#9 posted by nihilarian , June 17, 2008 8:24 AM]

how about THESE then:

http://tinyurl.com/67jdrx

[#10 posted by Argon , June 17, 2008 9:45 AM]

Amateur... www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/...1921%20a.jpg (pic from here)

[#11 posted by Vidiot , June 17, 2008 12:29 PM]

My TFB-2s do pretty well, and they're not nearly as expensive (or goofy-looking.) Plus they look like normal earbuds...much stealthier.