Device patent description:
The present invention relates generally to acoustic devices and methods. More particularly and precisely, it relates to the creation of the illusion of melodies (or note progressions) in a Akoetrope-like rotational device with 12 speakers playing, for example, a polyphony of 12-notes and thereby creating a spectral effect that produces the perception of melodic 12-note progressions (which are physically and mechanically extracted from the chords) without requiring any sequencing. As illustrated in the figure below, the Akoetrope is a device in which the perception of melodic progressions are achieved by successively revealing a snapshot of a sequential series of individual notes, in relation to an observer. 
A traditional Akoetrope is enclosed in a vertically positioned cylindrical element. The outer wall of this cylinder is perforated by a hole that is connected to a horn and rotates very slowly . On the inside, an inner cylindrical caroussel of 12 speakers amplifies individual sounds, which could, by way of example and not limitation, be a cluster of 12-notes played as a sustained chord with a keyboard or any similar device. When the caroussel of speakers is rotating at high speed around the axis passing through its geometric center and parallel to the listening horn, alternating fragments of sound and silences will be perceived when speakers are passing before the horn and, for the area in between the speakers, when no speaker passes before the horn. Fragments of sounds and silences are alternately perceived when segments of speakers and segments in between the speakers passes before the horn. Observed through the listening horn, each sound/note from the chord that is amplified through the carrousel of speakers is briefly perceived. When the Akoetrope is rotated at an appropriate speed, individual notes are revealed and silenced in rapid succession before an observer such that the perception of a melody is realized. So constructed and rotated, the Akoetrope creates a chopping effect wherein the observer perceives note progressions from sustained chords. The apparent melodies created by Akoetropes according to the prior art is explained by scientists as being caused by a phenomenon referred to as echoic memory. It is believed that, when individual sounds, each slightly different, are amplified in a sequential order and played in a certain rotational speed, our ears and mind does not perceive them as individual tones but rather as a melody or a combination of hybrid tones. The sounds are considered to have been mixed one sound into another, thus giving the impression of a melody progression. While the historical theory related to echoic memory is now considered by cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, and media scholars to be inadequate, we are still able to perceive the resulting effect of those apparatuses as sound in movement. In that sense, little has changed. The historical landmark established by the scientists, while trying to develop not only plausible explanations but also practical devices that could provoke the right stimulus on our perception, is still acceptable. |
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