System and method for including soundscapes in online mapping utilities

A system for providing soundscapes for online mapping applications, the system comprising:

• an acoustic transducer array having a plurality of N elements operative to detect and acquire sound for azimuth and vertical bearings at a given location, and to provide sound signals indicative of the sound received from azimuth bearings at the given location;
• a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium, including computer-readable instructions;
• and
• a processor connected to the memory and operative to produce N auditory beam time series audio signals, one for each of a plurality of N azimuthal directions, wherein the processor, in response to reading the computer-readable instructions, is operative to:
• (i) transform the time-domain sound signals into frequency-domain spectra;
• (ii) beamform the spectra into N beams;
• and
• (iii) transform the N beams into the time domain as N beam time series, in order to produce the N auditory beam time series audio signals, one for each of the N azimuthal directions;
• wherein the processor is operative to provide the N auditory beam time series audio signals as a soundscape in an online mapping application.