Today, the concept of noise is employed to characterize random fluctuations in general. Before the twentieth century, however, noise only meant disturbing sounds. In the 1900s-50s, noise underwent a conceptual transformation from unwanted sounds that needed to be domesticated into a synonym for errors and deviations to be now used as all kinds of signals and information. Transforming Noise examines the historical origin of modern attempts to understand, control, and use noise. Its history sheds light on the interactions between physics, mathematics, mechanical technology, electrical engineering, and information and data sciences in the twentieth century. This book explores the process of engineers and physicists turning noise into an informational concept, starting from the rise of sound reproduction technologies such as the phonograph, telephone, and radio in the 1900s-20s until the theory of Brownian motions for random fluctuations and its application in thermionic tubes of telecommunication systems. These processes produced different theoretical treatments of noise in the 1920s-30s, such as statistical physicists' studies of Brownian fluctuations' temporal evolution, radio engineers' spectral analysis of atmospheric disturbances, and mathematicians' measure-theoretic formulation. Finally, it discusses the period during and after World War II and how researchers have worked on military projects of radar, gunfire control, and secret communications and converted the interwar theoretical studies of noise into tools for statistical detection, estimation, prediction, and information transmission. To physicists, mathematicians, electrical engineers, and computer scientists, this book offers a historical perspective on themes highly relevant in today's science and technology, ranging from Wi-Fi and big data to quantum information and self-organization. This book also appeals to environmental and art historians to modern music scholars as the history of noise constitutes a unique angle to study sound and society. Finally, to researchers in media studies and digital cultures, Transforming Noise demonstrates the deep technoscientific historicity of certain notions - information, channel, noise, equivocation - they have invoked to understand modern media and communication.

Today, the concept of noise is employed to characterize random fluctuations in general. Before the twentieth century, however, noise only meant disturbing sounds. In the 1900s-50s, noise underwent a conceptual transformation from unwanted sounds that needed to be domesticated into a synonym for errors and deviations to be now used as all kinds of signals and information. Transforming Noise examines the historical origin of modern attempts to understand, control, and use noise. Its history sheds light on the interactions between physics, mathematics, mechanical technology, electrical engineering, and information and data sciences in the twentieth century. This book explores the process of engineers and physicists turning noise into an informational concept, starting from the rise of sound reproduction technologies such as the phonograph, telephone, and radio in the 1900s-20s until the theory of Brownian motions for random fluctuations and its application in thermionic tubes of telecommunication systems. These processes produced different theoretical treatments of noise in the 1920s-30s, such as statistical physicists' studies of Brownian fluctuations' temporal evolution, radio engineers' spectral analysis of atmospheric disturbances, and mathematicians' measure-theoretic formulation. Finally, it discusses the period during and after World War II and how researchers have worked on military projects of radar, gunfire control, and secret communications and converted the interwar theoretical studies of noise into tools for statistical detection, estimation, prediction, and information transmission. To physicists, mathematicians, electrical engineers, and computer scientists, this book offers a historical perspective on themes highly relevant in today's science and technology, ranging from Wi-Fi and big data to quantum information and self-organization. This book also appeals to environmental and art historians to modern music scholars as the history of noise constitutes a unique angle to study sound and society. Finally, to researchers in media studies and digital cultures, Transforming Noise demonstrates the deep technoscientific historicity of certain notions - information, channel, noise, equivocation - they have invoked to understand modern media and communication.

For much of the 20th century the modernist city was articulated in terms of narratives of progress and development. Today the neoliberal city confronts us with all the cultural 'noise' of disorder and excess meaning. As this book demonstrates, for more than 40 years London-based writer, film-maker and 'psychogeographer' Iain Sinclair has proved to be one of the most incisive commentators on the contemporary city: tracing the emerging contours of a metropolis where the meeting of global and local is never without incident. Iain Sinclair: Noise, Neoliberalism and the Matter of London explores Sinclair's investigations into the nature of conflicting urban realities through an examination of the ways in which the noise of neoliberal excess intersects with the noise of literary experiment. In this way, the book casts new light on theorisations of the city in the contemporary era.

Music. Not Noise leverages over thirty years of experience, identifying and addressing subtle cues leaders often easily overlook as they guide their organizations through constant and controlled growth. It highlights the importance of synchronized passion, insight, and foresight in creating harmony, contrasting it with the dissonance often found in less cohesive efforts. Like music, business is a blend of art and craft. Whether new or established, for profit or not-for-profit, organizations often struggle to maintain harmony through their people, processes, and systems. Successful leaders are those who simplify complexities and possess the vision and courage to see what others may not to ensure the organization remains in tune. Acknowledging that all organizations eventually face adversity at some level, Music. Not Noise emphasizes the importance of agility and adaptability, drawing on examples of once-prominent organizations that failed to adapt and eventually succumbed to their own noisiness, as well as examples of some that succeeded. In essence, Music. Not Noise delves into the intricacies of leadership and the art of discerning when an organization's performance deviates from music to noise. It advocates for a refined instinct that goes beyond textbooks and conventional wisdom, emphasizing a nuanced understanding of an organization's harmonious functioning and the necessity for leaders to transform noise into music.

Acoustics and Noise Control provides a detailed and comprehensive introduction to the principles and practice of acoustics and noise control. Since the last edition was published in 1996 there have been many changes and additions to standards, laws and regulations, codes of practice relating to noise, and in noise measurement techniques and noise control technology so this new edition has been fully revised and updated throughout. The book assumes no previous knowledge of the subject and requires only a basic knowledge of mathematics and physics. There are worked examples in the text to aid understanding and a range of experiments help students use complicated apparatus. Thoroughly revised to cover the latest changes in standards, codes of practice and legislation, this new edition covers much of the Institute of Acoustics Diploma syllabus and has an increased emphasis on the legal issues relating to noise control.

As speech processing devices like mobile phones, voice controlled devices, and hearing aids have increased in popularity, people expect them to work anywhere and at any time without user intervention. However, the presence of acoustical disturbances limits the use of these applications, degrades their performance, or causes the user difficulties in understanding the conversation or appreciating the device. A common way to reduce the effects of such disturbances is through the use of single-microphone noise reduction algorithms for speech enhancement. The field of single-microphone noise reduction for speech enhancement comprises a history of more than 30 years of research. In this survey, we wish to demonstrate the significant advances that have been made during the last decade in the field of discrete Fourier transform domain-based single-channel noise reduction for speech enhancement.Furthermore, our goal is to provide a concise description of a state-of-the-art speech enhancement system, and demonstrate the relative importance of the various building blocks of such a system. This allows the non-expert DSP practitioner to judge the relevance of each building block and to implement a close-to-optimal enhancement system for the particular application at hand. Table of Contents: Introduction / Single Channel Speech Enhancement: General Principles / DFT-Based Speech Enhancement Methods: Signal Model and Notation / Speech DFT Estimators / Speech Presence Probability Estimation / Noise PSD Estimation / Speech PSD Estimation / Performance Evaluation Methods / Simulation Experiments with Single-Channel Enhancement Systems / Future Directions