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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: MP-Ryan on May 16, 2018, 10:03:04 am

Title: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: MP-Ryan on May 16, 2018, 10:03:04 am
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/dont-rest-on-your-laurels/560483/

So this is fun - an equivalent of that goddamn dress (https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-the-science-behind-that-goddamn-dress) for our auditory senses.

The pitch-shift results are especially interesting.
Title: It's Yanny, and anyone who says otherwise is an Imperialist oppressor
Post by: Enioch on May 16, 2018, 10:11:14 am
Drats. I have been ousted as a Communist infiltrator, then.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: karajorma on May 16, 2018, 10:30:12 am
I'm hearing yally so you're both wrong. :p
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Luis Dias on May 16, 2018, 11:44:34 am
wtf is this, some kind of one pixel attack on human neural networks? I only hear laurel, and nowhere near yanny.

wait, I have a suspicion. might it be that I'm listening with headphones, and if you listen with loud speakers, you'll hear yanny instead due to sound effect differences?
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Enioch on May 16, 2018, 12:20:16 pm
Did you read the article?

EDIT: I am not familiar with the theory, but from what I understand, the sound file pretty much plays with the frequencies of the two Yanny / Laurel soundbites, so that you 'hear' different things depending on how your brain has been wired and your hearing sensitivity. So, if you shift the pitch of the soundbite, you can enhance one or the other soundbite.

If you scroll down, you'll find the pitch-shifted files. I heard Yanny in the original file, but when I played the pitch-shifted files I could easily follow the shift from Yanny to Laurel.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: MP-Ryan on May 16, 2018, 12:44:58 pm
If you scroll down, you'll find the pitch-shifted files. I heard Yanny in the original file, but when I played the pitch-shifted files I could easily follow the shift from Yanny to Laurel.

And in my case, I can follow the pitch-shift in the other direction - from Laurel to Yanny.  It's interesting that the voice saying "Yanny" sounds much higher pitched than Laurel.  Some have pointed out that stripping the bass to varying degrees is all that's necessary to accomplish the pitch shift.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Grizzly on May 16, 2018, 03:43:38 pm
If you scroll down, you'll find the pitch-shifted files. I heard Yanny in the original file, but when I played the pitch-shifted files I could easily follow the shift from Yanny to Laurel.

And in my case, I can follow the pitch-shift in the other direction - from Laurel to Yanny.  It's interesting that the voice saying "Yanny" sounds much higher pitched than Laurel.  Some have pointed out that stripping the bass to varying degrees is all that's necessary to accomplish the pitch shift.

I hear these things the same way you do

Does this mean I am a neoliberal now?
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Lorric on May 16, 2018, 04:26:11 pm
Google Skynet is at it again. I didn't even click your links, and it's thrown this at me:


From that video, it sounds very clearly to be laurel. I don't know how you could hear it as yanny.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Black Wolf on May 16, 2018, 06:02:41 pm
Age and associated hearing loss is one factor:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-16/laurel-or-yanny-what-you-hear-could-depend-on-hearing-loss/9768478

I hear Yanny, so clearly I remain young and virile! :P
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Lorric on May 16, 2018, 06:56:33 pm
Well I know from a test that was done at school a long time ago where a machine was brought in putting out noise loudly at high frequency gradually going down that I was one of the later ones to hear it, watching in mystified fascination as the ones who could hear it suffered until finally my turn came. So if I'm simply not hearing something that's there and others can hear it...
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Charismatic on May 16, 2018, 07:47:56 pm
I heard Yanny. The pitch shift is sneaky, as they skip past the point (near tne very end) where it actually shifts to laurrel, they should play it at that point so you can prove they arent changing the audio clip. I think its a hoax. Otherwise why would they speed past that specific turning point at 0:38 of the 2nd video on the twitter post.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Scourge of Ages on May 16, 2018, 08:51:16 pm
OK, whew. I thought I was going absolutely insane with people saying they could actually hear "laurel" because that's obviously wrong. Here's a video that breaks it up (so you don't have to trawl reddit or twitter threads)


EDIT: I know how it's supposed to sound and what to listen for, and I still absolutely can't hear "laurel" on the original video.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: MP-Ryan on May 16, 2018, 10:05:38 pm
Age and associated hearing loss is one factor:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-16/laurel-or-yanny-what-you-hear-could-depend-on-hearing-loss/9768478

I hear Yanny, so clearly I remain young and virile! :P

I can shoot the loss theory in the foot; I have to get my hearing tested for work every few years and at last test it was near perfect.

NYT made a tool so you can do the pitch shift yourself.  I only need to move the slider less than halfway right to the first pip to hear Yanny, but for those that can't hear Laurel this should do it.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/16/upshot/audio-clip-yanny-laurel-debate.html  If I put the slider 7/8 of the way to the first pip, I can get it to alternate Yanny and Laurel on each play, which is hilarious.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Mongoose on May 17, 2018, 12:03:04 am
For the record, I despise **** like this and that ****ing dress thing.  But the only time I've even remotely heard "Yanni" was in a clip of a recording on a news broadcast, i.e. through about third-generation speakers.  And while I may feel like an old fart I have pretty good hearing overall, at least decent enough to still pick up those godforsaken high-frequency things my students break out every once in a while.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: mjn.mixael on May 17, 2018, 12:57:55 am
Meh. I heard both the first time. It's a cheap audio trick and I'm unimpressed by the whole thing.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Luis Dias on May 17, 2018, 03:51:48 am
It's not a trick! It's true magic!

Jokes aside, it really works really well. I asked my partner what she listened and she said "i hear Yanny, very clearly" and I couldn't but listen "Laurel" from the same source. It's a really good trick.

I can shoot the loss theory in the foot; I have to get my hearing tested for work every few years and at last test it was near perfect.

What's the alternative theory then? That those who listen Yanny are the ones who can't listen properly?  :D
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: MP-Ryan on May 17, 2018, 02:16:34 pm
Read the original article Luis!

Basically, it appears to be a combination of the speakers (output), your hearing frequency range, and the perception you individually attach to particular sounds.  This just happens (like the goddamn dress) to be right on the perception edge where some people perceive one thing and others perceive another - and it's handy that we can actually manipulate it by removing/altering certain frequencies to see how it affects perception.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Luis Dias on May 18, 2018, 03:33:16 am
Yep.

Another cool trick ensues.

Think of the word "Brainstorm". Then play the clip.
Think of the word "Green Needle". Then play the clip.


Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Grizzly on May 18, 2018, 04:49:38 am
Brain needle and greenstorm also work xD

I wonder how this would sound if you, say, had no capacity of filtering sounds like that.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: AdmiralRalwood on May 18, 2018, 06:02:07 pm
Even with the pitch slider all the way over, I still only hear "Laurel"; what does that say about my hearing?
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Charismatic on May 18, 2018, 08:07:25 pm
Nice video. I see now. They have both overlapping. Just the frequency at the time determines which one is heard. Shift the frequency hear one or the other. Those sneaky sneaky punks.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: jr2 on May 19, 2018, 11:06:06 pm
It's Laurel, you commie freaks!!  :lol:

See the last bit of the video (2:16, can anyone confirm?)

Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Venicius on May 26, 2018, 03:43:18 pm
What if you happen to hear "Ylaenny"? I hear a combination of both words every time. Maybe it's the violin teacher in me...or I'm just half communist and weird.
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: jr2 on May 26, 2018, 04:18:12 pm
What if you happen to hear "Ylaenny"? I hear a combination of both words every time. Maybe it's the violin teacher in me...or I'm just half communist and weird.

It's "Laurel", then some high-freq thrown in to make in appear "Yanny" if you can hear those frequencies.  You apparently hear well enough to separate the two frequencies and not hear only one or the other.  So... Libertarian?  :lol:
Title: Re: It's Laurel, and anyone who says otherwise is a Communist infiltrator
Post by: Grizzly on May 26, 2018, 06:19:18 pm
Full on centrist, obv :P