Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: apparent increase in loudness From: Ross Alexander Hendler <rah232(at)NYU.EDU> Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 16:43:24 -0800Ah yes, but the trick is that it could be any number combination of pure tones some of which could be infra/ ultrasonic. Ross A. Hendler ----- Original Message ----- From: Brian Gygi <bgygi(at)EBIRE.ORG> Date: Friday, January 30, 2004 12:50 pm Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: apparent increase in loudness > I sent a posting to auditory list last year about this: > > "In the New York Times magazine of March 23, 2003, there was a > piece on > Woody Norris who works with highly directed sounds. Apparently, the > military has interest in these as weapons. It seems that the sound > of a > baby crying played backwards mixed with some pure tones is actually > debilitating. The author of the piece tries and it out and finds > it to be > the case." > > I have been doing some studies with time-reversed environmental > sounds, one > of which is a baby crying, and none of my subjects has come > screaming out > of the booth yet (in fact, it deson't that much different from the > soundplayed forward). I have tried mixing the baby- crying- > backwards-sound with > various pure tones (only on myself) and it sounded like a baby > crying mixed > with a pure tone, not Bach, but hardly debilitating. > > Brian Gygi > > At 11:23 AM 1/30/2004 -0800, Ross Alexander Hendler wrote: > > >Some studies have shown that the sound of a baby crying can > >actually be quite debilitating. I remember reading about these > >studies performed by the American Technology Corporation > >which incorporated the sound of a baby crying played > >backwards and mixed with some pure tones. > > > >I tried to find out more about what tones were used but got > >the reply that "Unfortunately, the recording in question is the > >the property of U.S. government and it is not a good idea for > >ATC to disclose their full contents." > > > >Ross A. Hendler >