Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #08473
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: "Timothy Flytcher" flytch@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 07:30:04 PST
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Lets Hypothesise...
>I don't think having two ears helps me estimate distance to a noise
>source. I estimate distance based on the volume of the noise and my
>expectation of how loud that noise should be at a given distance. I can
>do this fairly well even with one ear covered (or congested with an ear
>infection).
>
>Having two ears does help, however, in figuring out the DIRECTION of a
>noise source.
>
but yes it dose... if you know the db's (sound level) of the source... like
finding your pager or phone... two ears gives you direction... the rest is
reasoned... this can be duplicated in a bot... especially if they are
talking/listening to one another(fixed sound level)...
______________________________________________________
8474 Mon, 20 Dec 1999 11:15:02 -0500 [alt-beam] Re: Lets Hypothesise... beam@sgiblab.sgi.com "Peter A. Low" I think this is consistent with my comment.
One ear gives you a scalar, two give you a vector.
At 07:30 AM 12/20/99 -0800, you wrote:
>>I don't think having two ears helps me estimate distance to a noise
>>source. I estimate distance based on the volume of the noise and my
>>expectation of how loud that noise should be at a given distance. I can
>>do this fairly well even with one ear covered (or congested with an ear
>>infection).
>>
>>Having two ears does help, however, in figuring out the DIRECTION of a
>>noise source.
>
>but yes it dose... if you know the db's (sound level) of the source...
>like finding your pager or phone... two ears gives you direction... the
>rest is reasoned... this can be duplicated in a bot... especially if they
>are talking/listening to one another(fixed sound level)...
>
>______________________________________________________
>
8475 Mon, 20 Dec 1999 08:39:19 -0800 (PST) [alt-beam] Re: Lets Hypothesise... beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Darrell Johnson Well, I'm not trying to say that we measure distances
in units in our heads.. units are an abstraction. But
in order to grab the cup, your brain tells your hand
to move the distance between where your hand *was* to
where the cup *is*.
You say you remember *where* the cup is. If you look
at it and look away, you have a pretty exact spatial
map in your head of exactly where that cup is in
space. Now, if while you were looking away, someone
told you "I'm going to move the cup 2 feet to the
left," you would probably not be able to reach out and
grab it on the first try, since your internal map has
now been destroyed, because your brain doesn't measure
things in feet. (I'm here by myself, so I can't test
this theory of mine, but is sounds good to me)
How's that, a little clearer?
--- Richard Caudle wrote:
> Is that really calculating distances or just
> remembering where the cup is?
> I can give you very specific information as to where
> several things are in
> my house, car, and office. I can't tell you how far
> away my oscilloscope
> that sits on my desk at work is, but I can tell you
> what it looks like where
> it's sitting.
=====
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8476 Monday, December 20, 1999 9:06 AM Re: Lets Hypothesise... beam@sgiblab.sgi.com Peter A. Low
>I don't think having two ears helps me estimate distance to a noise
>source. I estimate distance based on the volume of the noise and my
>expectation of how loud that noise should be at a given distance. I can
>do this fairly well even with one ear covered (or congested with an ear
>infection).
>
>Having two ears does help, however, in figuring out the DIRECTION of a
>noise source.
>
>
>At 11:37 PM 12/19/99 -0500, you wrote:
>>In a message dated 12/19/99 11:30:26 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>>richard@cqc.com writes:
>>
>><< When you hear a noise, you can't make
>> an accurate assessment of it's distance from you. You're lucky if you
can
>> even tell the direction it's really coming from. We make no distance
>> measurements when we hear things. I don't really think that we make any
>> visual measurements unless we're specifically trying to do so.
>>
>> The way we navigate through our world is what I call the "Second star to
the
>> right, and straight on 'till morning" system. We pay little attention
to
>> distances and such things. We see something interesting, we go that way
>> until we see it better. There's no real measurement involved. That's
why
>> we need maps and such things.
>> >>
>>
>>If any of this was true, then we would all have one eye and one ear. The
>>truth is that distance is quite an important factor in navigating our
world.
>>We have two eyes and two ears so we can triangulate distances.
>>
>>
>>Gary
>
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