Looking for help on a hearing modification

2»

Comments

  • @Permafrost Hearing all the EM spectrum? Could be a bit like this:

    It would be nice to perhaps change the actual tonal quality of the hearing aids in response to certain stimuli, but this is very tricky as they are classed as medical devices and locked down for 'safety'. Still, it's worth considering in the future.

    @drew Thanks for the tip, important to know!
  • Could be, or it might sound like a glorious symphony, here's a video of some data being taken by a hand held rf spectrum analyzer. 

    If you could isolate that data you could probably pick out certain frequencies for it to make tones, or clicks for. One noise for a FM radio tower, another for a cellphone tower. Some other sound for routers, powerlines, etc.

    That would be a pretty ambitious project though.

    The disadvantage of using the analogue/shortwave radio type circuit would definitely be that you'd have a dial you'd need to turn to change the mixing oscillators frequency such that you'd only be able to tune in to a pretty narrow band.


  • don't expect any glorious symphony. you'd mostly hear a range of annoying beeping. the RF spectrum nothing like what you hear with your ears. It's not filled with sounds that are produced by object properties like the modal frequency of objects. instead it's full of carrier waves with data modulated onto it. The modulated carrier would be more like tinitus than a symphony. And even the demodulated signal would be far from pleasing. More all sorts of nasty sounds with noise.

    Identifying and replacing each identified source with a distinct sound as suggested by Permafrost is much needed in my opinion.

    The magnetic spectrum could be a lot more interesting in terms of remapping it to audible sounds. powerlines, trafos, switched power supplies, all sorts of motors can be heard without further frequency shifting which makes circuit and processing very simple.
  • Christina Kubisch did EM "walking tours" of the city by giving people a simple induction loop headset, and showing them how to listen in on power lines, Coke machins, and other electrical equipment. Link: 

    That said, @ThomasEgi is correct, for this project I'll be getting a sound designer to make sure what I hear isn't a bloody awful mess. The sweet spot lies somewhere between objective data and sonic interpretation.
  • I'd love to see a schematic for those head phones. I wouldn't mind building a set of those. Maybe I can riddle it out without seeing one. Very cool stuff.
  • The headphones are neat.  The tones emitted seem to change with the EM field so I don't understand exactly what they're sensing.
  • edited February 2014
    I have been doing something similar with an amplifier. I have a cheap mini-speaker I plug into my coil. Then I plug a double ended headphone cable into the speaker. The unconnected end is then passed over various objects and the interference produces sound. Running the wire along a wall easily allows you to locate electrical lines. I noticed my desk phone makes a completely different tone than other lines do. It is kinda cool to play around with. I'm sure there is a proper device that does the job better. I just noticed it by accident.
  • I have been able to detect similar things by using an old RadioShack phone pickup and cassette deck as an amp.  I could hear EM fields easily.  I never tried holding it over digital electronics because the most pronounced fields were power lines and I haven't done this since I was a kid.  According to a friend and the internet this is also used to detect ghosts.  Whether or not you believe in that @Frank said that a spooky radio would be cool.  I mean, who wouldn't love being woken up from a nap and hearing unidentifiable interference?
  • Aye, what Kubisch has created is a Tesla spooky radio AFAIK, same as those 'ghost detectors'. I think in the future I'll expand my project to include other parts of the EM spectrum - rich veins to be mined. 

    I see Google has bought out Slick Login, which uses ultrasonic tones as passwords. Maybe one day I be able to hear those...
  • @Frank haha! I like that slick login hack. I'm going to be making something that converts ultrasound into audible tones soon. There is an apparatus that does this for people who have had a laryngectomy. That is if I can figure out how it works. I'll let you know if I figure it out.
  • Hey everyone - just a quick update to say that my project has been funded and I have a industry sponsor on board to provide the hardware, so it's all systems go...
  • @Frank: Wow, congrats man!
  • @Frank, that's awesome to hear.  I'm eager to see where this goes.
  • Can't wait to hear how it progresses.
  • all those hearing related puns :D
  • Hear hear!
  • On a completely different side note I have found this interesting tidbit of info that seems fitting to this thread.

    http://www.wired.com/design/2013/09/this-mad-scientist-wants-to-give-you-superpowers/

    The scientist basically is designing a cybernetic ear so people can have superhuman hearing. I am interested to see where that goes.
    Looks like I would have to chop off my ear to get that advancement however it could potentially be worth it.
  • @Proxy Thanks - that's really interesting. I'm pitching a follow-on doc for BBC Radio 4 at the moment with a transhuman spin, this guy would certainly be the right stuff...
  • @Frank I can't wait to catch up on all the work that you have done so far. Looking into a few other projects at the moment and still need to update myself on yours and a few others.
  • OK everyone - it's all done. I can hear Wi-Fi. Nothing like having an idea and carrying it out. 

    You can read about the project here:

    And you can hear what Wi-Fi sounds like here, and see a visualisation:

    Thanks for the support, cherubs!
  • That's fantastic, congrats on your results! Do you have any plans to release an app for people to try this themselves, say with a pair of headphones? I know I walk around campus with headphones on all day, would be interesting to listen to the various networks around me as I do so.
  • Currently it only works on a hacked iPhone, but there will be a tech document released soon for devs.
  • Any updates on this? I'd still love to get a look at the code or some documentation.
  • edited June 2015
    Some things to mention: the audio-over-LE-bluetooth codec is moving into the mainstream, I think the upper end Samsung devices now have it. So there is fertile ground at the moment for hearables. 

    On our device: not much progress - Daniel Jones has been hard at work on other projects, I'm full time in my day job, and the funding stream for Phantom Terrains is closed, ie the project is complete. We had a few invites to adapt the hardware / software for other projects in Australia, Kenya, Milan, but so far none of these have borne fruit. 

    Ideally we'd still like to develop further, but that means finding the right direction, and the funding to support it. I'll talk to Daniel about getting the code and documentation up - it's on our wishlist, but same old story about time.


Sign In or Register to comment.