[otakucode]

>vibrations in windows to get the sound inside a building

That is a totally unrelated problem. Recovering sound from a series of still photos compared to recovering sound from vibrations is a completely different issue altogether. Actually executing and doing it is even more different, as you run into all the implementation issues and physical bugaboos. When someone doesn't just have some vague notion, but actually implements a wholly new technique to do something previously impossible, whether it was imagined by others or not, is a patent really that absurd?