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Categories: Physics: Acoustics and Ultrasound
Published Automatic speaker recognition technology outperforms human listeners in the courtroom (via sciencedaily.com)
The forensic-voice-comparison system, based on state-of-the-art automatic-speaker-recognition technology, outperformed all the listeners.
Published Using sound to model the world (via sciencedaily.com)
Researchers have developed a machine-learning technique that captures and models the underlying acoustics of a scene from a limited number of sound recordings. The system can accurately simulate what any sound, like a song, would sound like if a person were to walk around to different locations in a scene.
Published Capturing and analyzing subtle combination tones produced by violins (via sciencedaily.com)
When two musical notes are played simultaneously, the human ear can perceive weak additional tones called combination tones. While less perceivable, objective combination tones are also generated by some musical instruments. Researchers have now used violins to explore these rarely studied objective combination tones. They found that the combination tones produced by higher-quality violins were much stronger and clearly audible and powerful air resonance and violin sound quality are linked. The higher-quality violins produced a stronger air resonance due to several factors, including structural material and crafting techniques.
Published How low-cost earbuds can make newborn hearing screening accessible (via sciencedaily.com)
Researchers have created a newborn hearing screening system that uses cheap earbuds and a smartphone instead of an expensive commercial device.
Published Skin-attachable auditory sensor that functions even in noisy environments (via sciencedaily.com)
A research team has developed a skin-attachable auditory sensor, which recognizes human voices in noisy environments and when users wear facemasks. The new sensor will be useful in microphones that facilitate communication in disaster situations and for healthcare devices that diagnose respiratory diseases.
Published Would traffic noise from future flying cars cause stress? (via sciencedaily.com)
Study shows that not only are loud vehicles flying overhead a cause of noise pollution-related stress, the effect of that stress remains on the body even after noise levels have decreased.
Published The Secret of Swing: Downbeat delays (via sciencedaily.com)
Jazz must swing -- jazz musicians agree on that. However, even 100 years after the beginnings of jazz, it is still unclear what exactly constitutes the swing feel. With a sophisticated experiment and data analyses on more than 450 well-known jazz solos, physicists together with psychologists have unraveled a secret of swing. They were able to demonstrate that certain systematic deviations in timing are a key component of swing. These microtiming deviations are so small that they are not perceived as such even by professional jazz musicians, who nonetheless are using them unconsciously.
Published Wind music causes less transmission than singing, study finds (via sciencedaily.com)
The risk of transmission from an infected person on a wind instrument is generally much lower than for people who sing or speak, provided that one spends the same amount of time in their vicinity, according to a new study.
Published The super-fast MRI scan that could revolutionize heart failure diagnosis (via sciencedaily.com)
Researchers have developed cutting-edge technology to diagnose patients with heart failure in record time. The state-of-the-art technology uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to create detailed 4D flow images of the heart. But unlike a standard MRI scan, which can take up to 20 minutes or more, the new 4D heart MRI scan takes just eight minutes.
Published Low-cost disease diagnosis by mapping heart sounds (via sciencedaily.com)
Researchers develop a method to identify aortic valve dysfunction using complex network analysis that is accurate, simple to use, and low-cost. They used heart sound data to create a complex network of connected points, which was split into sections, and each part was represented with a node. If the sound in two portions was similar, a line was drawn between them. In a healthy heart, the graph showed two distinct clusters of points, with many nodes unconnected. A heart with aortic stenosis contained many more correlations and edges.
Published Saturn V was loud but didn't melt concrete (via sciencedaily.com)
Abundant internet claims about the acoustic power of the Saturn V suggest that it melted concrete and lit grass on fire over a mile away, but such ideas are undeniably false. Researchers used a physics-based model to estimate the rocket's acoustic levels and obtained a value of 203 decibels, which matched the limited data from the 1960s. So, while the Saturn V was extremely loud, that kind of power is nowhere near enough to melt concrete or start grass fires.
Published Do wind instruments disperse COVID aerosol droplets? (via sciencedaily.com)
Orchestral ensembles have faced many challenges when starting to perform again during the COVID pandemic, and contamination is a chief concern: specifically, whether wind instruments are vectors of contamination through aerosol dispersion. Researchers worked with musicians to deepen our understanding of how much aerosol is produced and dispersed by wind instruments. They used visualization to characterize the flow, tracked fog particles in the air, and measured aerosol concentration from wind instruments with a particle counter. Then they combined these to develop an equation to describe aerosol dispersion.
Published Using sound and bubbles to make bandages stickier and longer lasting (via sciencedaily.com)
Researchers have discovered that they can control the stickiness of adhesive bandages using ultrasound waves and bubbles. This breakthrough could lead to new advances in medical adhesives, especially in cases where adhesives are difficult to apply such as on wet skin.
Published Ultrasound could save racehorses from bucked shins (via sciencedaily.com)
When racehorses enter training at about 2 years old, they can develop tiny stress fractures and new bone formations in their legs. This condition, called bucked shin, occurs in about 70% of the animals. Researchers have now developed a method to screen for bucked shin using ultrasound. Axial transmission, in which an ultrasound emitter and receiver are placed on the skin to induce and measure wave velocities, is frequently used to study osteoporosis in humans. The method could detect bucked shin more easily and preserve the health and growth of young horses.
Published Leadership online: Charisma matters most in video communication (via sciencedaily.com)
Managers need to make a consistent impression in order to motivate and inspire people, and that applies even more to video communication than to other digital channels. Researchers investigated the influence that charismatic leadership tactics used in text, audio and video communication channels have on employee performance. They focused on mobile work and the gig economy, in which jobs are flexibly assigned to freelancers via online platforms.
Published Engineers develop stickers that can see inside the body (via sciencedaily.com)
Engineers designed an adhesive patch that produces ultrasound images of the body. The stamp-sized device sticks to skin and can provide continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for 48 hours.
Published Improving image sensors for machine vision (via sciencedaily.com)
Researchers highlight the latest nanostructured components integrated on image sensor chips that are most likely to make the biggest impact in multimodal imaging and detailed a promising approach to detect multiple-band spectra by fabricating an on-chip spectrometer. The developments could enable autonomous vehicles to see around corners instead of just a straight line, biomedical imaging to detect abnormalities at different tissue depths, and telescopes to see through interstellar dust.
Published Flexible method for shaping laser beams extends depth-of-focus for OCT imaging (via sciencedaily.com)
Researchers have developed a new method for flexibly creating various needle-shaped laser beams. These long, narrow beams can be used to improve optical coherence tomography (OCT), a noninvasive and versatile imaging tool that is used for scientific research and various types of clinical diagnoses.
Published Music-making and the flow of aerosols (via sciencedaily.com)
If simply breathing can spread the SARS-CoV-2 virus to others nearby, what about blowing into a tuba? Researchers used fluid mechanics to study the movement of aerosols generated by professional musicians.
Published Eco-friendly sound absorbers from seaweed (via sciencedaily.com)
From airplanes to apartments, most spaces are now designed with sound-absorbing materials that help dampen the droning, echoing and murmuring sounds of everyday life. But most of the acoustic materials that can cancel out human voices, traffic and music are made from plastic foams that aren't easily recycled or degraded. Now, researchers have created a biodegradable seaweed-derived film that effectively absorbs sounds in this range.