Fossil Audio Research Group announces emerging technology
The Fossil Audio Research Group (FARG) today announces the ongoing development of astounding new technology for recovering audio recordings from various natural processes not previously associated with audio recording capability.
While participating in ongoing research into the evolution of human speech, team members shared the traditional belief that ancient speech did not conveniently fossilize like bones, nor leave tangible evidence like artifacts buried in cave floors. "Researchers studying the origins of language felt disadvantaged compared to archeologists who could go out into the field and dig up stuff to study," said Peter Ruhe, founder of the recently-formed Fossil Audio Research Group. "But we were wrong. Sounds, including human speech, can fossilize into certain special kinds of media under certain conditions, for later recovery by determined audio-archeologists."
Ruhe describes the general phenomenon as follows... some natural material processes such as phase changes, e.g. a warm liquid cooling and solidifying, are subtly influenced at the nanoscopic scale by ambient conditions such as air pressure, which itself is affected by ambient sound at audio frequencies. Under certain conditions, ambient sounds can thus be recorded into nanoscopic physical characteristics of some natural media present at the time. Intense analysis of such media, if it has survived to the present day, can tease out ancient natural sound recordings. "It's not easy, but it looks feasible," says Ruhe, "and there are interesting commercial prospects for this nascent technology that we feel will help stimulate its further development so that we scientists will be able to use it for our research."
"Imagine our stone age ancestors, sitting around a fading campfire. A warmed-up log near the campfire cools down, causing natural wood pitch to harden while the guys are talking. Their voices get recorded into nanoscopic density and compositional variations of the pitch, over a period of perhaps many minutes. Fifty thousand years later, archeologists come along, excavate the ancient campsite, find a half-burned log with bits of pitch in it, and focus the new fossil audio recovery technology on it. With hard work and a measure of luck, we have a chance to listen to voices from the distant past."
This fossil audio recovery concept, labelled generically as "phase change paleo-acoustics", complements the previously-explored audio recovery concept based on accidental phonographic recordings (for example in troweled plaster or wheel-thrown pottery or paintbrush strokes on stretched canvas). The phase change concept vastly expands the number and diversity of samples available to be explored for ancient audio recordings.
The new technology has prospects for modern-day forensic work. Imagine a murder that leaves a slowly cooling and drying puddle of blood. Some noises made by the murderer(s) might be recorded in the drying blood and be later analyzed by crime scene investigators familiar with the new FARG technology. Like DNA analysis, bioinformatics, and modern digital astronomy, the paleo-acoustic field has huge potential for development of automated tools. A future user of the matured technology might be able to aim a non-destructive multispectral laser microprobe scanner at various spots on an ancient cave painting or oil canvas, and after some data acquisition and processing eventually hear reconstructed audio commentary by the original artist.
The Fossil Audio Research Group is presently engaged in project planning to optimize the development process for this new technology. "At this time", says Ruhe, "we are making ourselves more visible to additional investors and leading-edge customers who will have an intense interest in our nascent technology. We aren't fooling ourselves thinking we'll be successful in the short term; we know we are embarking on a long trip. But with this early publicity we can more readily connect with the parties that have the most important projects on which to focus our available resources."
The Fossil Audio Research Group is an informal, widely dispersed, and loosely organized group of researchers with a common interest in retrieving audio from the pre-technological past. New members are welcome.
More information:
fossil-audio-research-group.wi … _Research_Group_Wiki
Provided by Fossil Audio Research Group
