[cornman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oublie /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've heard or a disorder that means the person actually can see sound. I don't know if this is improves their enjoyment of music or not I just use visualisations On the other hand reenginerring or creating a brain direct method of audio perception really defeats the purpose unless it necessary for medical reasons.

Synesthesia isn't really a disorder. Most people who have it would never get rid of it if they could. I experience colors and shapes with sound, I don't actually see them but I automatically imagine them in my mind. I can't imagine listening to music without it, it would be so boring.

 

[The-One]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoLTaG3 /img/forum/go_quote.gif What sounds after 20,000khz would even be interesting to us??

presumably they would become interesting if you could hear above 20khz!

 

[m0ofassa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cornman /img/forum/go_quote.gif Synesthesia isn't really a disorder. Most people who have it would never get rid of it if they could. I experience colors and shapes with sound, I don't actually see them but I automatically imagine them in my mind. I can't imagine listening to music without it, it would be so boring.

I experience shapes as well! (one of my favourites is the infinity symbol in the last battle music from CT)

 

[Joelby]

I don't know if I'd want to hear above 20 kHz. Dogs can hear those frequencies and I think it pisses them off to no end. Hence all the barking.

How about just perfecting our hearing within our range. Fixing noise notches and hearing loss, etc. I know I have a notch around 3 kHz that will only get worse with age.

 

[haloxt]

For decades people have been complaining about the government or some covert agency beaming voices in their heads so maybe the technology is not so far off. There are things in the consumer market quite similar to voice-to-skull transmission technology but not quite, check out Audio Spotlight - Put sound where you want it. . If we assumed such technology as voice-to-skull (directly stimulating the brain) is even feasible, I'd say it take at least a decade from its introduction into the consumer market as a form of music entertainment before it is widely accepted, because the inevitable conclusion of such entertainment is just sticking electrodes on the pleasure centers of the brain which will not go well with some people.

The purpose of the senses is to facilitate our survival and so forth, Aldous Huxley gave a speech at Berkeley about what happens when the senses are bypassed and the brain pleasure center triggered with stimuli directly. Frank Herbert's Dune gives a similarly dystopic view of music in the future when he described people paying a subscription fee for addictive "music" and music used for subliminal mind control.

If I had to guess, including guessing when voice-to-skull technology comes around and enters the consumer market, I'd say we'll say byebye to music as we know it by 2030.

 

[scompton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by b0dhi /img/forum/go_quote.gif The same ones that are interesting under 20khz. In answer to the OP, I know there are implants deaf people can get which feed sound directly into the nerves going into their brain, but I think the quality is not so good yet. It's apparently improving, but nowhere near natural hearing last I checked, which was a couple of years ago.

They're called cochlear implants and they're very controversial in the Deaf community. I've know a few people who have them and most are late deaf and one person who was mainstreamed so didn't grow up around other deaf people.

They're not designed for listening to music, but for recognizing speech. You also must be profoundly deaf to have one. My wife who can hear 400Hz and below, wouldn't qualify. The signals coming from the implant and those coming from the ear would cause confusion.

A quick google search turned up a study of melody recognition with implants and the conclusion is it doesn't work. Not that it couldn't be done, but it's not there yet.

I think it will be a long time, if ever, before there are implants for people who can hear

 

[haloxt]

This is probably sci-fi, but if you're really interested in the topic you could look at Neurophone.com- The GPF-1011DSP.

Quote:

It has been said that great inventions take 50 years before they are understood. In 1991, Martin Lenhardt of the University of Virginia discovered that human beings have the ability to detect ultrasonic sound when it is transmitted through the skin, bones and liquids of the body. His groundbreaking discovery was published in the prestigious journal Science, Vol. 253, 5, 1991, 82. Lenhardt had duplicated Patrick's original 1958 Neurophone® using sophisticated ultrasonic transducers and discovered that a tiny organ in the inner ear that is normally associated with balance is also a hearing organ for ultrasonic sound.

btw I know this is waaay out there

but I think its in the spirit of the thread topic. I don't recommend people actually using this or other sound therapy stuff like what the monroe institute sells, it's untested for the most part.