[Biophysics] Re: the computational neurophysics of perception

[Ron Baker, Pluralitas!]

"maestro at ultrapiano.com" <StpNrrs at aol.com> wrote in message 
news:1130625124.508354.259710 at g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

<snip>

>
> The often-repeated belief (sometimes called the travelling wave theory)
> that the ear itself hears sound mechanically (rather than the brain
> doing the hearing and deciding on what a sound 'is'), with each cilium
> tuned by nature to respond to a specific sinewave frequency, and
> vibrating sympathetically to 'sound waves' of that frequency because of
> resonance effects in the cochlear fluid, and the basilar membrane
> detecting the strength of the vibration (rather like the base of a
> cat's whisker) to give the amplitude of a frequency, is basically quite
> ridiculous and should be abandoned.

LOL.

<snip>

> but it is pointless to mention that as anything to do with what the
> brain does with the pressure variation information that it receives -
> spectral content is similarly irrelevant.

Hillarious.

<snip>

>
> The ear/brain is actually tuned 'by nature' to hear and understand
> human speech,

Whoa.  Too much detail.

<snip>

>
> If someone had only ever heard their parents talking, and had never
> heard sinewaves before, if you played a sinewave (440Hz from a
> tuning-fork A, for example) they would at first say that the tuning
> fork sounded like their mother or father,

Funny but I don't remember ever misidentifying a tuning
as a person.

> until they had learned that
> the new sound was a different thing.  The ability to identify sinewaves
> is a learnt ability, and is not evolved by nature.

Ah yes.  I fondly remember my third grade sinewave
identifying teacher.

<snip>

> selecting a convenient splice point.  The clicks aren't white noise,
> they are caused by the loudspeaker cone attempting to move or change
> direction too quickly for its design specifications - some
> digitally-generated clicks are actually miniature 'sonic booms' caused
> by the loudspeaker diaphragm moving faster than the speed of sound!

Wow!   That's a hell of a speaker!


Looking at your "ultrapiano" page, it is a load of nonsense.
No such thing has been built or ever will be built.
You don't have the knowledge of physics, acoustics, or
signals to know that it can't work as you describe it.

--
rb