MEASUREMENT OF THE EFFECT ON VIOLINS OF AGEING AND PLAYING
This is a report on the first three years of a long-term experiment designed to measure how two very similar violins change with time. After being constructed ‘in parallel,’ one is stored under controlled conditions in a museum and is played infrequently, while the other is played regularly by a professional musician. Vibro-acoustic measurements were performed on the instruments and parts thereof during and after construction. Playing and listening tests by a panel of experienced violinists were conducted at completion, after three years with no adjustment, and then after minor adjustments were made to the played violin only. Panels of players and listeners rated the two violins at all stages, and all results are consistent with the null hypothesis: at present there is no significant preference for either instrument over a range of categories.
Elimination of distortions in the recorded sound of the violin using cascade-integrator-comb filters based on Gabor transform and pitch-shifting algorithm
The topic of sound recognition of violin playing is still at the top of research. This paper shows how to achieve higher quality of recorded sound using signal processing and algorithms, which is closer to human's subjective perception such as — safekeeping of using violin playing techniques and behavior of the player. The filter, which provided the best result as well as perception and data analysis spectrum is a cascade filter based on Gabor transform, with experimentally designated coefficients for each technique.
17 &mgr;m pixel 640 x 480 microbolometer FPA development at BAE Systems
BAE Systems has developed an advanced 640 x 480 focal plane array (FPA) with a 17 &mgr;m pixel pitch. Sensitivity of ≤ 50 mK was demonstrated and the FPAs were used in imaging demonstrations. Successful scaling of BAE Systems' patented single contact per pixel, single-level microbolometer process to 17 &mgr;m pitch provides a path toward next generation microbolometer imaging systems.