A few months ago a venture capital company I consult for asked me to visit the offices of Baker–Calling, a Santa Monica–based start-up trying to build a better microphone for use in smartphones and tablets. Baker–Calling’s founder, Robert Littrell, has been working on this problem for eight years—first while earning an engineering PhD at the University of Michigan, and now as the CEO of his five-person company. He believes that his microphones, which detect sound using piezoelectric sensing, can offer both better quality and lower cost than traditional microphones that contain a vibrating diaphragm. In September he was issued a U.S. patent for his invention.
