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Acoustics Everywhere: The Sound of One Hand Clicking and Right Intent
Dec 6th, 2015 - Category: SoundThe title of this post is a bad paraphrase of the famous Zen koan, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” To grossly simplify, a koan is a Zen Buddhist question with no logical answer. It is designed to disrupt thought patterns by forcing the mind to explore beyond the constraints of logic. Several posts that seem like technical koans have caught my attention recently starting with the medium post “The Inside Story of Apple’s New iMacs.” In the second paragraph, the author makes the comment, “The mouse didn’t sound right,” which is a reference to the sound of the new Mighty Mouse 2 that Apple just released. The rest of the article is a deep dive into the fanatical attention Apple puts into a product that they are simultaneously trying to make obsolete. A mouse has no place in a computing world dominated by touch screen devices ranging from iPhones to the massive iPad Pro. It certainly seemed like a technological koan to me.
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Acoustics Everywhere: Nine 3D Audio Terms You Should Know
Oct 29th, 2015 - Category: Sound
OSSIC (previously Sonic VR) recently published a post on their blog “Nine 3D Audio Terms You Should Know” that was a fun glimpse into the audio side of the rapidly emerging field of Virtual Reality systems. Their blog is quite good so if you have a moment, sign up for updates at the bottom of their homepage. They did a great job combining basic concepts (audio versus acoustics) with more complex ones such as the Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF). Enjoy. -
Acoustics Everywhere: How a Horn Amplifies Sound
Oct 12th, 2015 - Category: SoundA couple of months ago I published a post “Acoustics Everywhere (sort of): Video of Vinyl Playing” that featured a video of a turntable needle moving in a record groove shot with an electron microscope. This video (created by Ben Krasnow from Applied Science) was not only instructive, but a realistic glimpse into how test and measurement is really done. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to support his future videos at the Patreon website.
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Acoustics Everywhere: Three Weekend Articles
Jul 18th, 2015 - Category: Sound
Here are three fascinating acoustics articles for your weekend reading. -
Acoustics Everywhere (sort of): Video of Vinyl Playing
Jun 27th, 2015 - Category: Sound
I found this video in a post from professional blogger Jason Kottke, “Slow-motion video of a vinyl record playing,” but it turned out to be much more than a video of a turntable needle. In nine minutes, Applied Science demonstrates the basics of how an electron microscope works and then uses one to record an image of the needle on the record (which they later turn into a video) and on the surface of a Compact Disc / DVD. The limitations of the electron microscope are also explained and workarounds are implemented. This video is not only instructive, but a realistic glimpse into how test and measurement is really done. These videos are free, but I enjoy them so much that I decided to support future videos at the Patreon website. -
Acoustics in Advertising: Porsche Black Edition
May 25th, 2015 - Category: SoundAcoustics is a great way to visualize power that cannot be seen because with proper sound reproduction equipment, it can evoke a visceral reaction. This works well in movie or home theaters, but today’s internet is all about mobile devices with terrible sound reproduction. So what can an advertiser do? Porsche decided that one way is to provide a visualization of the sounds that represent the power in their new “Black Edition.” They hired Simo Santavirta, a digital artist, to create this visualization and it wasn’t easy. He says about his work, “This work of art focuses on the fascinating and typical Porsche engine sound. The powerful sound vitalizes its surroundings by being propagated by a pressure wave to create an impressive experience.”
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Free Training from DEWESoft PRO Training
Apr 23rd, 2015 - Category: Sound
I have a lot of respect for DEWESoft, they create world class hardware and software for advanced data acquisition and analysis at reasonable prices. Now they have created a powerful resource called DEWESoft Pro Training that is available at no charge. You don’t even need to be a customer to use it. The training covers using their equipment, measuring signals, and analyzing data. It is very comprehensive, includes quizzes on the materials, has excellent examples from real world applications, and includes a course completion certificate. -
Acoustics Everywhere - Tinnitus - There's an App for That!
Mar 27th, 2015 - Category: SoundAlso known as “ringing in the ears,” it is estimated that tinnitus affects 10% - 15% of the population. Wikipedia has a long article about the phenomena and mentions that as of 2013, there is no medication to treat tinnitus. However, now there is an app that claims to treat it by modifying a user’s own music The app is called Tinnitracks and Engadget wrote an interesting short article on it.
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The Photoshop of Sound
Mar 8th, 2015 - Category: SoundHopefully everybody knows what Photoshop is by this point, but just in case, it is Adobe’s professional level image editing software. It has even become an adjective. If you see a picture of a cat with shark teeth, somebody might say: ”It looks like that picture has been photoshopped!”
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Extracting Audio From Visual Information
Jan 25th, 2015 - Category: Sound
Here is a great article from MIT News where researchers have developed an algorithm that “recovers speech from the vibrations of a potato-chip bag filmed through soundproof glass.” The concept itself is interesting and potentially useful, but the researchers went a step further, creating a simple, effective video to demonstrate the concepts as well as an explanation of the advanced visual signal processing involved. The article is worth reading for the excellent technical description of sub-pixel motion detection as well as their novel uses of consumer video cameras in their work.