Sounds of our seas revealed - and they look a lot like the view through a kaleidoscope
Images are made of graphs coloured in according to frequency
Project has been expanded to include birds and even insects
These psychedelic symbols are not the snoozing graphics on a laptop - they are the sounds of our oceans' giants, and even garden birds.
Mark Fischer, the owner of Aquasonic Acoustics, began takes whale songs and transforming them into beautiful images.
The 51-year-old converted the voices of the 100-ton mammals into 'wavelets' and then coloured them in with imaging software.
He also uses the technique to capture the melodies of humpback whales, dolphins and birds.
Like a flower: An image of White beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) sounds 白吻海豚聲波
Plasma ball-esque: The pattern made by the sound of the False killer whale 偽虎鯨的聲波
Jagged: The sounds of the Chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina) produce this blue-green sharp-looking image 北美麻雀的聲波
Five-petalled: Another song of the white beaked dolphin creates this blue flower graph 另一個白吻海豚的聲波
'I do not cut-and-paste or create any symmetry,' said the computer programmer. 'The sound of the whale or dolphin used is represented as honestly as it can be done.'
His software converts the frequency of each sound frame into the colours of the rainbow.
Reds represent low frequency, greens and blues medium, and violets the highest.
Mr Fischer started capturing the sounds in 2001 after an inspiring trip with a whale researcher.
Subsequent reading on the subject showed it 'hadn't moved on in 50 years' and so he decided to revisit it with more advanced technology.
Burst: This graph shows the familiar chirping sound of crickets 蟋蟀的聲波
Pulsing: Here another graph visualises the common insect's much-loved sound 常見昆蟲的聲波
Low frequency: The deep song of the Northern minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) makes this warm looking image like the flames from a gas cooker 小須鯨的聲波
High-pitched now: Another graph of the songs of the Northern minke whale, this time of higher frequencies 小須鯨高頻率的聲波
Snowflake: This is a third sound from the same species visualised 同樣是小須鯨的聲波
Curves: Another graph of White beaked dolphin song 白吻海豚歌唱聲波
Spirograph? This image of Atlantic spotted dolphin song looks as if it was made with the children's art toy 大西洋斑點海豚聲波
Psychedelic: This graph shows the song of an unidentified bird 某種鳥的聲波
They see me rolling: Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) song looks like this 座頭鯨的聲波
Deep reds: Another visualisation of humpback whale song 另一個座頭鯨的聲波
'Practically the only thing you could find in the published literature was black-and-white sonograms, and typically low resolution at that,' he added.
'As a computer programmer by trade, I knew better could be done.'
The Californian said the images were well received by the public - but only aesthetically.
'Rarely are they interested in how the images are made, what kind of mathematics is behind the image or even what species made the sound,' he added.
Going green: Another graph shows the song of the false killer whale 另一個偽虎鯨的聲波
Minimalist: The Eastern screech owl (Megascops asio) creates this image like the spokes of bicycle wheel 東美角鴞的聲波
Pretty: A image of Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) song converted by wavelet graph 北美紅雀發出的聲波
Mr Fischer said the most striking calls he has recorded have been made by the vermiculated screech-owl and other tropical birds of Costa Rica.
He added: 'I have also worked with the sounds of insects, and, while interesting, they do not show the structure and complexity of birds, whales and dolphins.'
Mr Fischer said he hopes his work will highlight the importance of sound to whales and dolphins and the amount of sound pollution being emitted by commercial ships.作者: atiamd 時間: 2012-10-13 11:10 PM
