Analog-to-digital converter
In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter is a system that converts an analog signal, such as a sound picked up by a microphone or light entering a digital camera, into a digital signal. An ADC may also provide an isolated measurement such as an electronic device that converts an analog input voltage or current to a digital number representing the magnitude of the voltage or current. Typically the digital output is a two's complement binary number that is proportional to the input, but there are other possibilities.
4-channel stereo multiplexed analog-to-digital converter WM8775SEDS made by Wolfson Microelectronics placed on an X-Fi Fatal1ty Pro sound card
AD570 8-bit successive-approximation analog-to-digital converter
INTERSIL ICL7107. 3.5 digit (i.e. conversion from analog to a numeric range of 0 to 1999 vs. 3 digit range of 0 to 999, typically used in meters, counters, etc.) single-chip A/D converter
ICL7107 silicon die
A microphone, colloquially called a mic, or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public events, motion picture production, live and recorded audio engineering, sound recording, two-way radios, megaphones, and radio and television broadcasting. They are also used in computers and other electronic devices, such as mobile phones, for recording sounds, speech recognition, VoIP, and other purposes, such as ultrasonic sensors or knock sensors.
Shure Brothers microphone, model 55S, multi-impedance "Small Unidyne" dynamic from 1951
David Edward Hughes invented a carbon microphone in the 1870s.
Humphrey Bogart, Jack Brown, and Lauren Bacall with RCA Varacoustic MI-6203 ribbon microphones broadcast to troops overseas during World War II.
Inside the Oktava 319 condenser microphone