An analog simulation for the ear responds to complex stimuli with time‐space analog neural patterns having components to several hundred hertz. Photographs of such patterns deriving from the same sound received at spatially separated ears are compared to form a basis for a theory of binaural localization which does not require identical pattern shapes. A different process occurs when the analog ear is equipped with nonlinear mechanisms, ultrasonic echoes then being demodulated to yield complex cochlear patterns whose interpretation provides target quality data and ranging. These two analog mechanisms yield a plausible theory for the functioning of echo‐ranging animals and for binaural localization in man.