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How the cochlea computes (2024)

dissonances.blog

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Re: How the cochlea computes (2024)

#11

Post by saltcured »

bloppe wrote: post #3

Man, I've been spreading disinformation for years.

This is one of those pedant vs cocktail chatterer distinctions. It's an interesting dive and gives a nice, triggering, headline.

But, to the vast majority who don't really know or care about the math, "Fourier Transform" is, at best, a totem for the entire concept space of "frequency domain", "spectral decomposition", etc.

They are not making fine distinctions of tradeoffs among different methods. I'm not sure I'd even call it disinformation to tell this hand-wavy story and pique someone's interest in a topic they otherwise never thought about...

Re: How the cochlea computes (2024)

#12

Post by jama211 »

tryauuum wrote: post #8

man I need to finally learn what a Fourier transform is

Hahaha, I was working on learning these in second year uni… which was also exactly when I switched from an electrical engineering focussed degree to a software one!

Perhaps finally I should learn too…

Re: How the cochlea computes (2024)

#13

Post by garbageman »

tryauuum wrote: post #8

man I need to finally learn what a Fourier transform is

It's an absolutely brilliant bit of maths that breaks a complex waveform into the individual components. Kind of like taking an orchestral song and then working out each individual instrument's contribution. Learning about this left me honestly aghast and in shock that it's not only possible but that someone (Joseph Fourier) figured it out and then shared it with the world.

This video does a great job explaining what it is and how it works to the layman. 3blue1brown - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spUNpyF58BY

Re: How the cochlea computes (2024)

#15

Post by CGMthrowaway »

tryauuum wrote: post #8

man I need to finally learn what a Fourier transform is

It's a Copy>Paste Special>Transpose on a waveform, converting Rows/Columns that are time/amplitude (with wavelength embedded) into Rows/Columns that are frequency/amplitude (for a snapshot in time).

People love to go on about how brilliant it is and they're probably right but that's how I understand it.

Re: How the cochlea computes (2024)

#16

Post by Chabsff »

adzm wrote: post #14
tryauuum wrote: post #8

man I need to finally learn what a Fourier transform is

the very simplest way to describe it: it is what turns a waveform (amplitude x time) to a spectrogram like on a stereo (amplitude x frequency)

And phase. People always forget about the phase as if it was purely imaginary.

Re: How the cochlea computes (2024)

#17

Post by nakulgarg22 »

rolph wrote: post #5
bloppe wrote: post #3

Man, I've been spreading disinformation for years.

the closest i have been, was acoustic phase discrimination by owls. there appears to be no software for this, its all hardware, the signal format flips as it travels through the anatomy.

This might be interesting for you - https://nakulg.com/assets/papers/owlet_mobisys2021_nakul.pdf

Owls use asymmetric skull structure which helps them in spatial perception of sound.

Re: How the cochlea computes (2024)

#18

Post by meowkit »

xeonmc wrote: post #6

Nit: It’s an unfortunate confusion of naming conventions, but Fourier Transform in the strictest sense implies an infinite “sampling” period, while the finite “sample” period counterpart would correspond to Fourier Series even though we colloquially refer to them interchangeably. (I had put “sampling” in quotes as they’re actually “integration period” in this context of continuous time integration, though it would be…

I was a bit peeved by the title, but I think its a fair use of clickbait as the article has a lot of little details about acoustics in humans that I was unfamiliar with (i.e. a link to a primer on the the transduction implementation of cochlear cilia)

But yeah there is a strict vs colloquial collision here.

Re: How the cochlea computes (2024)

#19

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

CGMthrowaway wrote: post #15
tryauuum wrote: post #8

man I need to finally learn what a Fourier transform is

It's a Copy>Paste Special>Transpose on a waveform, converting Rows/Columns that are time/amplitude (with wavelength embedded) into Rows/Columns that are frequency/amplitude (for a snapshot in time). People love to go on about how brilliant it is and they're probably right but that's how I understand it.

Pretty much, but phase is also included. Which matters for some things.
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