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points by bscphil 2 days ago | 0 comments
> Have you tried using a program like Audacity - or - Get claude to write a script for you that takes in MP3's of modern music and slows them down 300-400 %. The music will be very slow, but it will shift instruments from higher up (pianos, horns, people's signing) down into the 20-70 hz range, and you will maybe hear patterns that are new

You don't need to slow them down, you can just pitch shift everything into the 0-70 hz range. If there were a way to figure out how his brain is demodulating the signal, you might even get something pretty reasonable out - the essay describes sounds like cars as hissy rather than heavy.

The real difficulty is keeping genuinely inaudible frequencies (<40 hz? but who knows how his implant works) from swamping the rest, I would think.

[–] mk_stjames 2 days ago
I didn't mention just pitch shifting alone without speed change as depending on how that is done it can introduce artifacts. So just slowing things down like an oldschool tape player is the most 'pure'.

Any computer sound card will high-pass anything over about 16-18 hz and thus new lower stuff won't swamp, and it seems like his implant amplifier does indeed deal with low frequencies because he mentions using an 18hz tone to keep the device key'ed on.

Another thing then to mention would be 'binning' audio that has been pitch shifted own using notch filters / comb filters. Because it is possible that however the implant is wired could use some band gaps to help his brain 'decode' things more clearly and less muddy.

Again, all this is simple shit and I find it really surprising that there isn't someone to help run these tests on hardware with this person, and their blog post here has this very strange rabbit hole feel to it and I can't tell if it is because there is a lot lost in translation, or if there is a lot more to this that is coming across in translation... or if this person in being led down some near-AI-psycosis and is struggling because they simply don't have someone to sit with that can help.

It all comes off to me as very, very strange.

[–] dugidugout 2 days ago
I think there's a misreading at the root of this. The "70 Hz" in the post is the modulation rate from the TMTF, not an audio frequency. The TMTF measures how fast loudness can flutter before the flutter is undetectable. It isn't a pitch or discrimination test. From the post, OP does discriminate, somewhat, above 70 Hz and says they can't judge pitch direction at all, so there is no 20–70 Hz "working band" to retreat into.

I agree with the broader instinct that OP deserves a clinician to help with the hardware side (having their map and device parameters alone would go a long way), but it seems OP is taking any step they can towards this effort.

I regret that I don't have anything to actually add towards helping OP. Their posture towards understanding is refreshing and the Lean bit reads to me more as a cute testament to that than anything eerie or strange.

[–] mk_stjames 2 days ago
I re-read it and looking more at the tests and... I think you're right but also maybe OP is confused about how the audio spectrum works in general then, because they themselves talk about this 70hz shelf in the same breath as human vocal ranges etc -- that isn't amplitude modulation frequency. But maybe there is just something here that is lost in translation or I'm just not getting the real purpose of these test measurements.

If I'm a bit more imaginative on this 2nd read of their 'experience' of these tests it seems that maybe yes, they hear 'something' at higher frequencies but it just just broadband noise- broadband noise mind you, is, all frequencies... so I was confused at how someone could say they 'don't hear anything above 70hz' and yet can somehow hear 'noise' at '2000 hz'. But it is dawning on me that the implant / associated driver hardware may simply be 'saturating' when the spectral content of audio is too large at all those frequencies, and OP can actually 'hear' something, but it just blurs into white noise when the spectral power is too high - kinda like there is a massive amount of reverb being applied to everything over 70hz.

But again they talk about their struggles with understanding voices and whatnot but if they are hearing parts of music at all then they could be hearing people' voices shifted into bands and toned down to amplitudes that helps them. Like, clinicians with experience here should be helping with this and it is kinda insane that this person is attempting to discern anything themselves.

The exposition is strange and again that could just be the translation and writing style but some of those little bits and just the way I've seen some people literally start spiraling when they start to pair-autodiadict with AI - coupled with the fact this is a medical condition and a life-altering disability - along with a few other small oddities in this post - make me kinda worried there is a lot more to this than posted and OP may need other kinds of help with their situation.

[–] dugidugout 2 days ago
> ... maybe OP is confused about how the audio spectrum works in general then, because they themselves talk about this 70hz shelf in the same breath as human vocal ranges etc -- that isn't amplitude modulation frequency.

In a CI, voice pitch actually _does_ arrive as amplitude modulation at the F0 rate. The processor keeps only each channel's envelope, and the harmonics of a voice that share a channel beat against each other at F0. So a 70 Hz flutter ceiling and vocal ranges do belong in the same breath.

> ... so I was confused at how someone could say they 'don't hear anything above 70hz' and yet can somehow hear 'noise' at '2000 hz'. But it is dawning on me that the implant / associated driver hardware may simply be 'saturating' ...

The TMTF carrier was noise by design, so above 70 Hz the flutter vanished and the noise that was already there is all that's left. No saturation is needed to explain it. The “wind” in SRD is what a spectral ripple sounds like through limited spectral resolution. This is a resolution problem, not a level problem.

> The exposition is strange and again that could just be the translation and writing style...

This paragraph was why I initially made a comment. They were radically honest with their methodology and obviously living inside the problem. OP is actually reading this thread, for what it's worth.

[–] jdanford 2 days ago
Sorry, but what is the point of using an LLM to generate replies like this?
[–] dugidugout 1 day ago
What is the point of using your account to generate replies like this? Even your use of "Sorry" is obviously vapid. Try addressing my comment or don't participate.
[–] mi-rae 2 days ago
Thank you for pointing out that the 70 Hz is a modulation rate, not an audio frequency. That's exactly right. I wish I could find someone in Korea to help me with the hardware side, but no matter how hard I've tried to persuade people, I've mostly been ignored. As for the Lean part, I wasn't sure whether it was really necessary. I've never been part of academia, so I'm still very clumsy and amateurish at this. Even so, I'll keep doing my best to find someone who can help with the hardware side. Thank you for your kind words.
[–] Bedon292 2 days ago
That is definitely the weirdest part to me. It is supposed to be a trial for this new implant right? So why isn't the company actually working with them on it? Like how is just telling someone do more therapy acceptable here? Studying their brain's reactions to the stimulus the implant is actually generating seems like something that should have already been done.

I would think you could take the audio processor out of the loop and run diagnostics on the implant itself using an EEG to determine how the brain is responding. They test the hearing of newborns with the tech, you don't need to "trust" a person or even need them to be able to communicate. Its right there in the data.

Based on my read of everything it feels like there is some issue with the implant sending electrical signals, but the nerve not actually picking them up and sending them on. Perhaps related to the original reason for the hearing loss. And the company should want to dig info it more. I know I would if it were my tech.

[–] mi-rae 2 days ago
I pleaded with the cochlear implant company to do research, telling them I desperately wanted to know exactly how I hear, but unfortunately, the only answer I got was that it would be difficult. It makes me feel so sad and helpless.
[–] mi-rae 2 days ago
I was tired yesterday, and I have very little experience writing, so I fully respect the criticism that the post feels messy and strange. I think some parts were accidentally lost in the translation process. As you said, I don't have a single person around me who can help with this, so I've been relying on AI. But I'm consciously keeping myself grounded so that I don't fall into anything like AI psychosis. I'm sorry that the post wasn't better written.
[–] mk_stjames 2 days ago
I think the presentation of the whole situation was just a bit jarring to me because it is a wild combination of topic (the hearing implant) coupled with the fact you had to translate (can always be difficult with such a technical topic) while using AI to summarize and edit your entire investigation, published as a Claude artifact - we're really seeing a new kind of blogging here, and that for sure caught me off guard.

I see your situation more clearly after re-reading and also seeing your new responses here in these threads.

I think if you write more on this topic, especially more about your history of hearing and what you can in fact perceive, and publish more on the internet, you will find people who are very interested in this kind of topic - it is something that will 'nerd snipe' many tech minded people - and I am sure you could absolutely make friends in Korea who are interested to help. Having someone with an audiology background, or even a student in neurology who knows their way around audio signals processing / has a DSP / EE background etc. sit in with you for some experiments as you use the line input for you device - someone who also hears what the input is, and can talk with you about it - would be invaluable and could also be a fun social connection- maybe university students, etc. If I spoke Korean and lived in your city I would definitely find it fascinating to try and help out.

[–] mi-rae 2 days ago
Thank you, this is something I'm learning for the first time in my life. I think I should definitely try it on my day off.