UCSD_SRC Presentation
- 1. SOUND PLANETARIUM Presentation by: Yuka Murakami, Jake Cushnir, & Melisa Tallis Mentored by: Adam Burgasser & Tara KnightAugust 11th, 2016
- 2. INTRO Sound Planetarium: Audio laboratory Star qualities -- Sound characteristics Themes: Ambisonics Human auditory discrimination ability Cultural derivatives of “Space” Cross-disciplinary practices/applications
- 3. GOALS ● Multiple Outcomes ○ Pedagogical Component - Educational ○ Scientific Component - New Findings? ○ Artistic Component - New Works? ● Final product that is accessible, scalable, cross-cultural, and safe ● Provide a resource for the blind to experience astrophysics
- 4. INITIAL QUESTIONS ● To what degree can the human ear identify and localize sounds? ● Can we hear the Earth rotate? At what speed? ● How does the focus on the auditory sense enhance/subtract from our own understandings of the night sky?
- 5. THE FIVE QUALITIES OF SOUND FREQUENC Y AMPLITUDE DURATIO N LOCATION TIMBRE -Measured in Hz -Pitch -Measured in dB -Volume -Rhythm and modulation -Direction and distance -Tonal quality
- 6. THE BRIGHT STAR CATALOG Contains 9,096 stars visible from Earth with the naked eye Star Data Spectral Class Spectral Type Color Brightness Distance Super Giants Giants White Dwarfs The Sun ColorBrightness
- 7. SONIFICATION TECHNIQUES BRIGHTNESS COLOR SPECTRAL TYPE SPECTRAL CLASS VOLUME FREQUENCY MODULATION FREQUENCY TIMBRE
- 8. RELATIVE MOTION OF STARS
- 9. SPATIALIZING THE SOUNDS Right Ascension & Declination mapped as Azimuth & Elevation MAX MSP: visual programming language software ICST Ambisonics: externals for MAX MSP, designed for surround sound processing Speaker Placement 10 Spatialized Sound Points
- 10. PORTION OF PATCH FROM MAX Takes star data and converts into sound Takes location data and sends to ambimonitor
- 12. RESEARCH FINDINGS Modulation helps localize sounds with precision Short, sharp sounds are easier to locate in space Discerning height is more difficult than direction Brighter/louder stars drown out dimmer/quieter stars Avoid culturally specific sounds This is a Proof of Concept phase
- 13. NEXT STEPS Test at spatialization labs Test with headphones Experiment with: Human voices Location of observer Speed of Earth’s rotation Explore the effects of light pollution
- 14. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank: Tara Knight Adam Burgasser Frontiers of Innovation Scholars Program UCSD Theatre Dept. La Jolla Playhouse Calit2 SPAT Lab
- 15. REFERENCES Schacher J., Neukom M., Schweizer C. (2010) ICST Tools for MAXMSP. Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology. Hoffleit D., Warren Jr W.H., (1991) The Bright Star Catalogue, 5th Revised E. (Preliminary Version) Astronomical Data Center, NSSDC/ADC. Puckette, M. MAX Cycling ‘74 Software. (1997). San Francisco. Michael Richmond. Celestial Coordinates. Retrieved from http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys373/lectures/radec/radec.html#radec
Editor's Notes
- #2: Hello everyone, today we will present to you our Sound Planetarium. My name is Melisa Tallis and I’m a physics major here at UCSD…. Our project mentors are Adam Burgasser, who is a physics professor here at UCSD, and Tara Knight, who was a theater professor here at UCSD. Now she is teaching at University of Colorado.
- #4: Safe = Not injure the body
- #5: For ex can we hear and distinguish constellations like we see them?
- #6: Frequency = rate at which waves propagate dB = Logarithmic scale Duration of repeated sounds
- #9: Even though stars appear to be rising and setting, they are actually fixed in space. We can locate them with their Right ascension and declination are fixed to the sky. Right ascencion is the celestial longitude Declination is the celestial latitide Azimuth and altitude are centered on the observer. We only hear stars which are above the horizon
- #10: MAXMSP: Visual Programming Language (like PD and Isadora) ICST Ambisonics is a package available in MAX which we used to spatialize sound, on this slide we see an example from our patch -- on the left we see the speaker placements and on the right we see the individual “star” points. The full sphere is the top view while the bottom half sphere is the side view of the “dome” we are trying to spatialize sounds in.
- #12: It cycles through one day in 20 seconds We only hear the stars that we are able to see On Loop The sounds are calculated the same way as the sonification technique
- #13: and has lead to some specific findings to keep in mind moving forward... Sharp sounds like clapping, Discerning height as in a z-axis