MEMS Microphne

I guess, the most of the readers may not understand what

this title means.  —– yet most of the people are using it

only without knowing = it is a microphone inside of

Mob-phone or Smart-phone.

= If you ever disassemble or happened to see inside of a broken

phone might have noticed a component which got a hole, right

behind of a hole on the phone’s outer shell. ——————————————- (Photo  Knowle’s MEMS Microphone )

—– In the past 10 years, the microphone has changed their round shape into square and the

principle how it works has completely changed.

[]

When I was in my junior school, I was a member of the Radio Club and we were in charge with the preparation

for a morning assembly or any event which use the PA system, and the control of the PA system as well.

(and often to repair them as long as we, together with the supervising teacher can manage )

Among the old disused equipment, I have seen Carbon Microphone and many

Crystal Microphones.  But the main Microphone on that time was the Dynamic Microphone.  

Then the teacher showed us latest procurement of Ribbon Microphone which can produce

much better sound quality.

[]

The granules of Carbon changes its conductivity under the pressure = hence put them

under a vibrating membrane can work as a microphone which needs no amplification hence

it is a cheapest kind in an audio system. ( Connect a carbon mic directory to a battery and a

magnetic head-phone in series and make a loop = it makes an audio communication system !

—– though, sound quality is not good at all, yet there wasn’t

anything else but Carbon-Mic even in a recording industry then.

—– The carbon granules absorb moisture, and a singer blows her breath to the mic, a recorded sound

deteriorates with its use !   So that, the top singer wanted to have a morning session, not in the afternoon 😀

(It’s from “History of Recording” kind of a book I read long time ago )

Carbon-Mic has been used in the Telephone system well into 60^th and I bought some of them in a second-hand

market (to see the inside and experiment with them 😀 )

[]

If you are a musician or dealing with sound systems must be familiar with Dynamic Microphone.

They are technically the same as an ordinary Speaker. = a coil was attached to a vibrating membrane or

speaker corn. —– the coil is placed between the magnet, so that, if it moves, with Electro-magnetic effect

= the changing electric signal will be created = this is a microphone.

But when electric signal was applied to the coil, it will be either attracted or repelled from the magnet hence

moves the corn according to the signal = this is a speaker.

—– So that, in my secondary school, once I connected the cables which goes to a speaker of a room of which

the teachers meeting was held, to a Microphone input and able to over-heard all the conversation.

( I didn’t disclose what I’ve heard and this is the first time me to revile the story 😀 )

(There is the matters in Impedance matching etc, but it worked and most of the case it works 😀 )

[]

In the old days, there was a Condenser Microphone in a Mob-phone. —– in any small devices, the Mic was

almost all ways a Condenser-Mic (commonly called Electoret Mic)  = Condenser Microphone was made of

a metal coated thin plastic film and the insulated metal base.   Two conductive plates facing each other having

an electric charge between them hence it was called Condenser. —– This electric charge changes if the

membrane vibrates with a sound, and this changing charge was amplified and used as a sound signal.

They are simple and small hence cheap therefore they were used everywhere despite of the sound quality is

not necessary good.

But since 2002 it was replaced by the MEMS Microphone made by Knowls (Google please)

( I saw a news, that their sale of Microphone reached to the 300 millions, since 2002. = Oh, Gosh ! )

= microscopic whisker suspended above base conductor, vibrates with sound wave, and this vibration was

converted into the electronic signal.  The cavity inside of Microphone should be designed to resonates with

the sound hence it works as a microphone.  If its whisker was made sensitive to magnetism, MEMS act as

a Compass, or when it detects the gravity it tells whether the device is upright or horizontal, like iPad does.

[]

Once the basic technology was established, MEMS devices infiltrated everywhere in the past 10 years or so.

Microscopic moving part was made by electro-etching (chemically dissolve and removes the material and

make a metal parts in a wanted shape ) or even carved by a Laser beam.

And the minute movement of this part (whisker) hence its change of the capacitive charge was detected and

converted into an electronic signal.

—– Can you imagine, in a so-called Motion Sensor such as in a Wii controller, microscopic whisker moves

with the movements and its movement was converted into an electronic signal to control the game.

Microns long whisker which was made of,  may be few thousands of atoms lined up, would be bent with its

flexibility, hence the electronic charge may change accordingly, and this change would be amplified,

—– but amplified to how many million times without noise. —– as they are commonly used everywhere

now, it mast be just reliable or even better than old technology though, still it is incredible to me.

[]

So, having an old rusted brain, I rather indulge an old memory, when I saw a small light bulb

connected straight to a Telephone’s Carbon-Microphone and battery, changed its brightness

when I pressed the center of the Microphone.  = It was a delightful amazing moment for a child !

How sweet and peaceful, in our old days were 😀 😀

___/\___

[]

PHILOSOPHER (Cat’s story – 2)

This is an old story though,  when I got a water flood from a burst pipe of the flat above,

I had to shelter myself to a friend architect’s house in the south London.

Strangely, the garden of this house was a gathering place of the cats around.

Every day more than 10 cats came and go or staying there all day.  The wife of my friend

complained as the cats stomped the flower shoots etc etc, not mention their droppings.

She tried all sorts of tactics to chase-off the cats, but nothing deter them keep coming.

[]

I gave a solution to prevent the cats damage young shoot of the flowers by putting many

sticks standing on the seed bed. (as the sticks sticking out every 4 inches or so, cat can’t walk,

let alone to jump down there from the fencing wall) —– yet still the cats were keep coming

by climbing the tree.

While watching them, I invented the nick name for each of them.

Such as [Wu-he] after a character in a Japanese comics as this cat got a fanny slimly face.

(If you pronounce this, on front of a mirror, you will see your face looks smiling with a bit of

embarrassment = the character in the comics was this kind  🙂 )

[]

The another cat named [Philosopher] was after his habit and he seemed to be a loner,

not playing with others so much, but stay in the garden looking up the bird on the tree.

When he saw a bird, he was making strange noise, like cracking his teeth “ Ka ka ka ka”.

Then one day, I saw this cat actually caught a sparrow and eating it with cracking noise

“Crack, crick, munch, munch” —– M m m ?

There was a sort of say in Japan “Never feed a chicken with bone in it, since broken bone is very

sharp to damage cat’s stomach, causing the cat’s death” — though, if he could eat whole sparrow,

the bone may not be dangerous for him to eat.   So, I tested it by giving him chicken wing.

He eat whole of it while cracking the bones and appreciated very much.  Since then, I kept giving

him a chicken wing every day.  He was waiting me on the garden door every day. (The wife of

my friend hated this and she kicked [Philosopher] out when he walked into the kitchen.)

[]

Then I found a ground floor flat with big garden in the north London and moved to there taking

this [Philosopher] with me though, it was a first experience to him. He seemed to be panicked.

While having second journey to bring other boxes, he escaped through a ventilation hole in the

bathroom. —– what a blunder = I made a lost cat.

Few days later, when I met the friend again, he mentioned that [Philosopher] is

still coming to the door waiting my chicken wing. —– What ? ? ?

[]

My friend didn’t know, I took him to north London, but if the cat is still coming to his house, it’s

mean, the cat managed to go back to the south London within 3 days, while finding

the direction and having 8 miles (13 km) journey !    What an incredible story though,

in the same time, it showed that the cat couldn’t comprehend, I was the one moved out, and took

him to the new flat (while giving him a big trouble) = therefore, no more chicken wing there.

There is another say in Japan that cat never cross a water or river. From the north

to south London, of cause, there is the Themes river. Still it wasn’t a problem for him.

One of the most enduring story of this kind was, a cat in Japan who was

accidentally left behind, did follow the owner who has moved from a

north-western city of Itoigawa to Yokohama, and found the owner, after 2 years

of journey while traveling 600 miles (1000 km).

Nobody know how he could find the direction but simply the cat did.

[]

There are many myth around the cat though, many of them are not true.

It was said that the cat belong to the house not to the owner.   But this is not true.

One of the cat I used to live with, remembered me even after 10 years kept by

others.  (When the cat saw me, he jumped up to my shoulder,  and rubbing

his nose to my cheek.  This is the greeting the animal does each other.

Because my cats thinking me as their same kin, they treat me like another cat).

Something certain is, they got unknown, hence mythical sensory power.

[]

When I talked about this [Philosopher] story to a secretary of a Bank who was one of

my client, she mentioned, one of their staff is asking if anyone can adopt a kitten.

—– So, it was a beginning of my life, living with the cats.

[]

The old part of our Brain, like Limbic System is common with another animal.

In fact we only got add-on of large brain on top.  In other words, the process, the control of

the sensory grands and the basic perception in the Limbic system having the same language.

( Similar to the computer, what ever the operational system and the higher language, still

down to the bottom, they are programmed and operating in the hexadecimal binary cord.)

= by using this channel, we human could communicate with the other animal.

To do this, we human needs to silence the noise coming from the Cerebrum and its thinking.

[]

The stories of the Zen Buddhist communicating with other animal may have

the basis in this phenomenon = silencing the noise of thinking in the Brain

mean, it is to be in a state of  Mushin.

Not in thinking but having a deepest perception of  friendliness in the primeval

Limbic feeling = This feeling is the common language with any living form.

The most peculiar things about this, the cats can sens this remotely.

Often suddenly a cat came out of dark, and asking me to scratch, or tangling

with my foot. —– How they knew me a cat’s person before-hand ?

(But it seems there is a drawback, the dogs often hates me.  😀

—-– So, I’ve been asking many people if I smell fishy ? )

[]

Aaaaaa~~~~~ !

It’s just a simple experiment.   Try, say Aaaaaaa~~~~~ !

Starting low voice. Aaaaaaa~~~~~~ !

And somewhere in the middle. Aaaaaaa~~~~~~ !

Then in highest pitch. Aaaaaaa~~~~~~ !

Non

It’s a same Aaaa  though, in its low tone it’s sound like you are shouting fed-up or expressing disgust.

In the middle, it is somewhat responding to others or communicating that you agree or you got it.

But when it sound in very high tone, it became your cry, not necessary to others, but

to yourself.

When it sound very low-frequency you must be noticed, your bottom of lung, stomach resonates.

And in high tone, it resonates to your base of the skull where your Limbic system of the

brain is situated, and the Hypo-campus, Old cortex immediately above.

Non

Whether, because when we cry we cry in hi-pitch tone (tension in the body squeeze even the throat and

the voice box, then the voice become hi-tone —-> then we were conditioned to the situation,

or more inherent program in the primitive brain system ? (genetically programmed) —-> we cry hi-tone,

—– we may not know which came first.

Still, when those primitive part of the brain resonates, we feel the chill in our spine too. —-> we feel Awe.

(I’ve wrote about this, in a post [Spiritual Sound] too)

non

When we saw a danger, we feel Fear. Feel the same but not know why or which is the cause, we feel Awe.

Hence the sound which resonates the old part of brain / limbic system, Hypo-campus

where the emotion were created, —– yet don’t know where or why it’s coming, we feel Awe.

And this induced Awe is the basis of our spirituality.

With highly trained ( highly conditioned with many on-the-spot experiences / raw experience exposes

one’s perception, hence directly connected to the emotion.

Study deals with intelligence but Conditioning involves the emotion / emotion mean, it’s induces

physiological chemical effect / hormone, brain transmitter etc ) highly studied brain can associate

intellectual information to the experience which carry emotion —-> hence pure intellectual notion can

also be associated with Awe / Spirituality.

non

It’s a bad tendency, when people talk about spirituality, they pretend to be higher than others and noble

though, everybody having the spirituality —– the resonance to receive unknown message.

To interpret it to a known category or what so ever kind is related to what the person already know.

Non

So, this is the most unlikely sample of the spiritual sound 😀

I’ve listened a live performance of this, once at the Saint Martin in the Field church and at many

churches in Germany, still this one is  [impressive enough for me to shed a tear] .

Unlike acoustic sound, synthesized sound having exactly the same frequency in each tone, often even

the same wave form, hence it creates unnatural resonance, even worse, resonating with

the speaker-system in a lap-top —– some time it’s irritating to the ears. ( Don’t ask too much)

A German guy commented to this “as a German, we never attempt to do, though I like this”

it’s showed how great the original music of the Bach.

( Its abstractic sound structure can withstand any instrument or the style of play.)

( In comparison, a sound like in the Beethoven’s Pastoral, birds songs has to be played by a Piccolo

—— Romantic School Music are sound effect in a Cartoon comics, hence  likely sound is the matter.)

—– while walking on the street, once I was stricken by a distant sound of this music.

Despite  there was a lot of street noise or rather distorted faint sound ——  quality or settings were not

the matter at all —— what there beyond the sound, was enough for me to feel a chill on my back.

The firm faith,  Awe to unknown is what Spirituality mean.

___/\___

—

Sound of BACH

One of the reader left a comment, ” the post should have more media ” —– Yes, I’m well aware of it.

And the post shouldn’t be longer than 140 words otherwise no one would read  😀

In fact I got many plan to put a photo or video image into the post, such as ” I should put my Ancient Yoga

dancing video image into  Most Bizarre Story in Zen :-D”  or a photo of frosted leaves

into  Cold Blow — ( I’ve seen the frost in the night ) but  when I went to the same place next day,

frost wasn’t there. 😀 — It’s a bad tendency of ex-photographer, don’t want to settle with casual photo or

somebody else’s photo found in the Net.  😉

Anyhow,  while searching a music sample to talk about with my friend,  I stumbled a Youtube

image which I should have put into my BACH post —— ;

This is a part of J.S.Bach’s  Art of Fugue which I’ve talked about, but not from the beginning yet still

it may give some idea.  This musician / programmer, SMALIN having 200 or more music videos there.

And I found his graphical representation of the music is very effective as we can see the structure

of it in one glance.  Especially, the graphical patterns are much easier to distinguish than hear in sound.

To make the image,  may be the Midi cord is directly triggering the position and the length of each note,

therefore it is rather simple but very clear.  Same tonal information is in the music score, graphically

though, I found this is the simplest and more effective demonstration.

t—–

Then what I found the next to above clip was —— jaw dropping funny music video.

As a matter of fact this (yet another ) Japanese phenomena [ Miku Hatsune ] was totally new to me

until only few weeks ago.  This music animation program was created by YAMAHA as an open-source.

Anybody input the phonetic note, it will be played in synthesized voice, and the character Miku Hatsune

will sing as the user programmed, so that, anybody can produce a music anime of female singer, free.

There said to be half million Miku Hatsune video clip in the Net. ( search them, if you are interested in )

——- In 60~70th, there were two memorable musicians played BACH in new sounds.

One was the Swingle Singers. They played Bach’s polyphonic music purely by a jazz scat like voices.

And another was a French pianist Jacque Lucie and he played or improvised  Bach in Jazz.

Both sound are still in the bottom of my music memories, alongside the more traditional classic musician,

Jazz musician and they formed the music culture of my life.

Between Jazz and Baroque music, there is a common character of the improvisation —– spontaneous

on the spot creation.

Very interesting fact is, when musician is improvising the phrase, frontal lobe of the brain

became inactive. Frontal robe is the place, where rational thinking or process of causation is taking place.

This is the exact parallel to the Buddhism teaching  Mushin.— To be creative, don’t think.

Open mind mean, don’t impose a preconceived idea or judgement —– or Thinking.

You may wonder, ” Without knowing the passage, how musician can improvise ?  With the intelligence

shut down, how musician can control music making ?” —— may be you are not a musician.  That’s why

you ask this question.  If you still need to think about This Music, you can not improvise it on the spot.

When you became This Music or This Music became You, and you can play it without reading score,

without thinking —– then you can improvise it in total freedom.  Zen Buddhism call it Ichijo / Oneness.

So, with open mind, see and listen this  BACH sang by  Miku Hatsune —– It’s not too bad 😀  Ha ha ha.

Did you enjoyed ?  Or is it gone too far you think ?

Some irritating noise and instability of the sound there, still, considering it was created by an ordinary

person, using freely available open source, —— it is pretty impressive.  I like it. Thanks to the creator.

___/\___

—-

Spiritual Sounds

While ago I talked about the sounds which gave us a spiritual feeling.

In there, I wrote ” Something slowly moving continuous rather hi-pitch tone make us feel spiritual.”

And long time ago, when I talked about J.S.Bach and Baroque music —– not melodic but continuously

changing polyphonic sound makes our brain to stop thinking / abandon the thinking process =

attempt to figure out what this sounds mean ——- is good for the Zenist to empty the mind.  😀

——–

Unlike a visual signal, sound signal is a basic stimulus, goes directly into the subconscious.

If you encountered a scene in a huge Buddhist Temple, hundreds of monks chanting a Mantra in unison,

( I’ve listened it at Eihei-ji and Daitoku-ji.  You may find a recordings of Tendai-shormyo of  Enryaku-ji )

you might have felt its low voice is more of a demonic and gave awesome impact to your perception.

The Gregorian Chant in a monastery gives similar feelings but the sound is less demonic.

Then somebody suggested, how about the Gospel Song ? ——- Those musics are surely Religious but

not necessary sound spiritual as its use of normal voices range and the meanings of words’ limit the mind

to be open. One of rare exception might be the back-ground hi-pitch humming of a Gospel group Take6.

(In  purely sound term, not the connotation of the songs).

————————

When we hear roar or beating drone like low sound, it resemble the sound of earth before an eruption

of volcano or a big predator / lion, tiger etc,  we feel a fear ( instinctively ). ( Huge fearsome body

never chirp, as the resonance of big body cavity is pretty low / earth’s magma chamber is huge  😀 )

So that the lower sound is the sign of larger and more powerful body,  hence used to appeal to the female

who is seeking stronger gene —— from flog to golilla.  (and some human as well  😀  )

Since the lower roaring sound gives the feeling of awe and  hi-pitch slow-moving tone gives

spiritual feeling, the religious organ music utilising those effect very effectively in its three-part

polyphonic composition.

So,  why hi-pitch tone (when its sound slowly moves but not too melodic way) gave us spiritual feelings ?

Try this by yourself now. —– Make high-tone on your mouth, pieeeee —– then, booooo —– you must be

noticed, high-tone resonate in your head / nose cavity,  but low sound resonate in your lung cavity.

Lower base sound shake your body,  but hi-tone hit your head / brain though, if the sound is not

comprehensible —– not a whistle of train or alarm sound, nor soprano song —— something unknown

but as it keep hitting the brain,  we just open the perception and we were nailed down just to listen.

As we couldn’t figure it out, our confidence in our ego melt away, and the mind evaporate into air.

With completely open mind and the naked perception, we started to feel, something is there.

You are standing on the edge of spiritual world.

—

Just open the perception / mind, and become totally passive without attempting to give

any own thought / thinking,  is nothing but the state of Mushin in the Buddhism.

Of cause, Hi-pitched tone itself has no spirituality, it was just happened to be a typical sample

to make us feel the uncertainty which forced to open our mind / key to see the function of our mind.

And this key is showing us, No-thinking/No-mind/Mushin is the pathway toward the spirituality.

Buddha, in his ultimate wisdom, decipher this phenomenon and gave the explanation. 

What beyond there is, the Dharma. —— As everybody can be hit by this spiritual sound,

its indicates the fact, everybody has its perception, and the Dharma is not beyond the sky, but

in front of us.  In fact we ourself is a part of it, that’s why everybody got this perception.

Unlike the Gregorian Chant of Gospel Song which needs to know beforehand and learn what it is,

the perception toward the spirituality is inherent to all the human,  Buddhism is teaching how to open

the perception/mind, and see the Dharma through its practice. ( without listening a hi-pitch tone  😀  )

—— still, one of the Zen sect Fuke-shu use the sound of Shakuhach / Bamboo pipe  to reach  Mushin.

—— ( though, to master this instrument is as hard as to get enlightenment ). ( Still, sound is good  😀 )

In fact, to some people, it is not necessary a hi-pitch tone, but it can be a sound of the running water,

wave sound of the sea, wind through the tree  though, those sound sources are surrounded by too many

visual signals too.  We may not able to just listen the sound of wave —— mind might be destructed

by a passing nice Bikini Bottom.    ( Ha ha ha  😀  —– In fact, Bottom is a part of the Dharma, so, nothing

wrong with it though, if the mind was stuck with it, it break off the  Mushin and stray away.

You can deal with it in Mushin,  but on a bed,  not on the beach.   Ha ha ha   😀 )

—— Still, once got know how, it can be done in any way.

Just open the mind and perceive the Dharma.  ( People describes this as Meditation )

___/\___

—-

ICHIJO / Fuji (oneness)

The truth what Buddha taught was, there is no barrier or separation between

the self and other existences.

Because the both are the part of one Dharma.

And everybody born, has the Dharma within.

————-

The teachings of the Brahmanism defines the one’s soul / Atman and

the universal supreme soul / Brahman as a separate entity. And says

the goal of the life is to make one’s Atman to reach or fuse with Brahman.

In contrast, Buddha said, there is no such separation of two from the

beginning though, one has to find this only one Dharma within, which

is invisible.

Anyone who believes the separate entity of self is having misunderstanding

caused by the delusion of ego.

—— From this simple, clear teachings, big debate started after the

Buddha’s death, whether the self is not really exist or what is the self,what are

the definition of the existences. Because, most of followers grown up with

the popular belief of the Atman, it was rather hard to change.

————

This is the reason why in the Zen books, they are filled with the explanation of

such as ” Ichijo “(oneness) or ” Fuji ” (non two) from the top to bottom.

Or such as the stories of how sward master achieved the ultimate skill by

fusing himself to the sward,

———It took more than 10 years for me to realize that the Key behind of those

stories is the matter of subconsciousness.

So that, the practice adopted by each Buddhist schools are, to carry the

teachings deep into the one’s subconsciousness.

———( Following 10 years or so, I tested all sorts of practices and

tried to find the effect to the body and the brain, as I thought if I could

open the door of subconscious, I may able to see the Holy secret of

the Anuttara Samyk-Sanbodi )

(I’ll talk about those try later)

Selfless Love

Among the human psyche, love and charity are the most strange phenomenon.

Love (and the base of the charity which is also love ) is only the phenomenon

which occurs without a cause (which mean out of Karma ).

All the notorious troubles associated with love are in fact caused by the attachment,

its mean the possessive ego.

Love itself is the causeless phenomenon.

—– Only possible explanation to this phenomenon is, it must be a fundamental

character of the Dharma, of which we are the part of it.

One of the peculiarity of the love is its selflessness.

While observing a selfless love of the mothers, and the charitable people,

Buddha must have conceived the original concept which is, selflessness is

a part of the Dharma though, the selfish ego always throw a spanner

( I’m not implying there was the spanner and screw in Buddha’s time)

to this act of love.

Since the Dharma is fundamentally selfless, its mean the ego is a human

invention driven by one’s obsessive delusion.

Therefore, the man to believe and clings the existence of self is fundamentally wrong.

The belief of the perpetual soul, Atman is nothing but a greed to keep the attachment

even after the death.

—————-

What Buddha wanted, was to save the people suffering in misery and in poverty.

They need to have the food to eat, help to alleviate their misery, not just

inedible holy enlightenment.

—————-

Following Buddha’s teaching, such as King Asoka spread the Buddhism and

organised the charity to save the needy and sufferers.

——- Though the professional scholar of the Buddhist Temple, who

couldn’t understand the teaching of the Buddha went into a cul-de-sac of

the ” definition of what is the self ” —-and lost.