Difference between revisions of "Phonodeik"

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Kehe
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Dayton Clarence Miller was a professor of Physics at Case School of Applied Science who had a strong interest in the components of the tonal quality sound. He had an extensive flute collection that included instruments made out of several different media. The scientist’s desire to know with medium created the highest quality sound led him to develop the Phonodeik—‘seeing sound.’ All other devices that attempted to capture sound waves suffered from noise issues. Until the invention of electronic oscillators, the Phonodeik one of the chief means of converting sound waves into visual images and thus of analyzing all manner of sounds from musical instruments to human speech. The Phonodeik codifies sound into a technical image that can be understood through mathematics. Instead of a gestalt experience of sound that is decoded by the brain through the ear, sound is filtered through the Phonodeik and transferred into light and image.
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==Changing from Sound to Image==
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The motivations behind embodying sound via the image imply that the resolution of touch difference (Fechner’s law) is sharper in terms of the image as compared to sound. Therefore the conversion of sound waves into an image is an attempt to extend the sense of sight to extrapolate it into the world of sounds to gain in-depth understanding. D.C. Miller based his analysis of sound on Ohm’s Law of Tonal quality and Fourier’s Theorem. Known as harmonic analysis, a simple tone can be split into a series of sine curves when sound is displayed graphically. Composite tones—sounds that involve multiple tones—are representations of the harmonic elements within each unit. Therefore they are not perfect sine curves but rather jagged curves.
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Miller believed that mathematics could be applied to assess tonal elements and quality. As evidenced by Flusser’s essays, Non-Thing 1 and 2, argue that an infromatized society will inhabit a bit-like, atomic-like universe.  Therefore the information captured by the phonodiek can be segmented in time. While the technology is analogue because it produces a continuous image over time, similar to a film, the output for a Phonodeik can be split up into discrete units: sine curves. The main paradigm of that time period was that media is serial and should be read and consumed in that order.  But with the digitization of information, seriality played less of a role. The Phonodeik captured a cacophony of sounds that happened simultaneously. Miller desired to parse out the different tones.
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Sound Waves
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Miller was interested in studying the different parts of a sound wave: amplitude (loudness), frequency (tone), and shape (timber) which is by far the most subjective of the measurements. A glass diaphragm vibrates with the noise that helps to crease image. One of the major design flaws comes with the Horn. As all physical objects vibrate and therefore make sound, the users of this device would have to make sure that the horn they chose would have a deeper fundamental tone that what they were studying.  The only portion of the device that was ‘black boxed’ was the area that holds the material substrate, photo paper, due to its sensitivity to light.
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Optics
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The interplay between catoptrics and dioptrics is extensive and elucidating in this device. The Phonodeik translates sound waves from a dioptric medium that is the air, and transfers them to a catoptrics medium. Not does the photo paper not allow for light to pass through it, but that when light hits it, records the sound waves.  But the waves that are recorded themselves are dioptric because it functions as a lens that allows humans to conceptualize sound.
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If you see Figure 1:  there is a sketch of how the Phonodeik functions. There is a large horn that captures the sound and at the smaller end that is funneled sound, there is a thin glass diaphragm that vibrates. Silk string connects the diaphragm to a pulley that is help tight when there is no vibration with help of a spring. There is a source of light that is focused and shined into a mirror will vibrate whenever the silk string moves. The light, focused first through a lens, bounces off of the mirror and on to the photographic paper. The source of light is rarely identified and gives the idea of an omnipotent power shining light down.  This light source is focused through a dioptric lens and then lends itself to bounce off the also dioptric mirror. Finally the light does hit the aforementioned catropic material substrate.
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The mirror’s vibrations and movement in light connects the world of sound and sight the only black box has to do with the photographic paper being protected from light sources other than the reflected light from the mirror.

Revision as of 04:28, 29 March 2010

Dayton Clarence Miller was a professor of Physics at Case School of Applied Science who had a strong interest in the components of the tonal quality sound. He had an extensive flute collection that included instruments made out of several different media. The scientist’s desire to know with medium created the highest quality sound led him to develop the Phonodeik—‘seeing sound.’ All other devices that attempted to capture sound waves suffered from noise issues. Until the invention of electronic oscillators, the Phonodeik one of the chief means of converting sound waves into visual images and thus of analyzing all manner of sounds from musical instruments to human speech. The Phonodeik codifies sound into a technical image that can be understood through mathematics. Instead of a gestalt experience of sound that is decoded by the brain through the ear, sound is filtered through the Phonodeik and transferred into light and image.

Changing from Sound to Image

The motivations behind embodying sound via the image imply that the resolution of touch difference (Fechner’s law) is sharper in terms of the image as compared to sound. Therefore the conversion of sound waves into an image is an attempt to extend the sense of sight to extrapolate it into the world of sounds to gain in-depth understanding. D.C. Miller based his analysis of sound on Ohm’s Law of Tonal quality and Fourier’s Theorem. Known as harmonic analysis, a simple tone can be split into a series of sine curves when sound is displayed graphically. Composite tones—sounds that involve multiple tones—are representations of the harmonic elements within each unit. Therefore they are not perfect sine curves but rather jagged curves.

Miller believed that mathematics could be applied to assess tonal elements and quality. As evidenced by Flusser’s essays, Non-Thing 1 and 2, argue that an infromatized society will inhabit a bit-like, atomic-like universe. Therefore the information captured by the phonodiek can be segmented in time. While the technology is analogue because it produces a continuous image over time, similar to a film, the output for a Phonodeik can be split up into discrete units: sine curves. The main paradigm of that time period was that media is serial and should be read and consumed in that order. But with the digitization of information, seriality played less of a role. The Phonodeik captured a cacophony of sounds that happened simultaneously. Miller desired to parse out the different tones.


Sound Waves

Miller was interested in studying the different parts of a sound wave: amplitude (loudness), frequency (tone), and shape (timber) which is by far the most subjective of the measurements. A glass diaphragm vibrates with the noise that helps to crease image. One of the major design flaws comes with the Horn. As all physical objects vibrate and therefore make sound, the users of this device would have to make sure that the horn they chose would have a deeper fundamental tone that what they were studying. The only portion of the device that was ‘black boxed’ was the area that holds the material substrate, photo paper, due to its sensitivity to light.

Optics

The interplay between catoptrics and dioptrics is extensive and elucidating in this device. The Phonodeik translates sound waves from a dioptric medium that is the air, and transfers them to a catoptrics medium. Not does the photo paper not allow for light to pass through it, but that when light hits it, records the sound waves. But the waves that are recorded themselves are dioptric because it functions as a lens that allows humans to conceptualize sound. If you see Figure 1: there is a sketch of how the Phonodeik functions. There is a large horn that captures the sound and at the smaller end that is funneled sound, there is a thin glass diaphragm that vibrates. Silk string connects the diaphragm to a pulley that is help tight when there is no vibration with help of a spring. There is a source of light that is focused and shined into a mirror will vibrate whenever the silk string moves. The light, focused first through a lens, bounces off of the mirror and on to the photographic paper. The source of light is rarely identified and gives the idea of an omnipotent power shining light down. This light source is focused through a dioptric lens and then lends itself to bounce off the also dioptric mirror. Finally the light does hit the aforementioned catropic material substrate. The mirror’s vibrations and movement in light connects the world of sound and sight the only black box has to do with the photographic paper being protected from light sources other than the reflected light from the mirror.