Abstract
Our hearing system works roughly like a calculator for Fourier series, decomposing a sound waves in basic frequencies and then activating respective nerve channels. This relatively easy architecture of our sound perceiving system accounts for the fact that we can filter different sources and thus also that we can focus on a single sound of interest. Consequently, our brain is trained to assess an incoming stem of frequencies (1/n) to a single source, as if the input source is produced by a periodic sound wave. This understanding of our sound system is successfully applied in the development of what is one of the first and well known artificial cognition system: a cochlear implant, bypassing the system physical detection of sound. Two or more sound pitches that have relative fractional frequencies, are considered pleasing or “harmonic”. Although music is a cultural product, evoking individual emotions, perception of harmonics is largely a collective and individual phenomena. This also witnesses the peculiar and intriguing architecture of our sound system. So the question arises whether fractional frequencies is systematically necessary for perception of harmony; are two sound pitches played at substantially irrational (i.e. non fractional frequencies) perceived as non-harmonic? The golden ratio is the most irrational number in the sense that it has the most slowly converging continued fraction expansion. In this work, we present a hypothesis to generate non-harmonics. Insights can be used to enhance inputs in artificial hearing, by displaying different sound pitches at clearly distinguishable frequencies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Gorman, M.E., Carlson, W.B.: Interpreting invention as a cognitive process: the case of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and the telephone. Sci. Technol. Hum. Values 15(2), 131–164 (1990)
Carlson, W.B., Gorman, M.E.: A cognitive framework to understand technological creativity: Bell, Edison, and the telephone. Inventive minds: Creativity in technology, pp. 48–79 (1992)
Edison, T.A.: Improvement in speaking-telephone. 1878, Google Patents (1878)
French, N.R.: The Spiral of the Human Cochlea. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 20(4), 591 (1948)
Warren, R.M.: Auditory Perception. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 19 June 2008
Livio, M.: The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World’s Most Astonishing Number. Broadway Books, New York (2008)
Verwulgen, S., Cornelis, G.: Universele esthetiek! De gulden snede? Over zin en onzin omtrent een merkwaardig getal. University Press Antwerp (2018)
Verwulgen, S., Van Goethem, S., Cornelis, G., Verlinden, J., Coppens, T.: Appreciation of proportion in architecture: a comparison between facades primed in virtual reality and on paper. In: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, pp. 305–314, (2019)
Douady, S., Couder, Y.: Phyllotaxis as a physical self-organized growth process. Phys. Rev. Lett. 68(13), 2098 (1992)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Verwulgen, S., Peeters, T., Van Goethem, S., Scataglini, S. (2020). On the Perception of Disharmony. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W., Vergnano, A., Leali, F., Taiar, R. (eds) Intelligent Human Systems Integration 2020. IHSI 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1131. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39512-4_31
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39512-4_31
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-39511-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-39512-4
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)