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Henry Feinberg Demonstrates Using Light to Transmit Sound Waves (1978) [video]
- agumonkey 9y agoOne thing that surprises me is how old science/engineering videos were friend and down to earth. 40s army or bell labs, and this one too, is layman approachable and enjoyable. It's chrome free, ceremony free, yet shows rare subjects (who remembers the photophone ?)
- gipp 9y agoMore of a documentary than a straight educational film like this, but check out James Burke's Connections for more of that feel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91XWKv5UuCM&list=PLShSu-Q4iw9lRWwpUbCnEk6PorqG8LQTm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91XWKv5UuCM&list=PLShSu-Q4iw...
- agumonkey 9y agoWatched it, it was quite nice, but way less "technical" and magical than this.
- wil421 9y agoThey also break things down into much simpler pieces. Newer videos tend to jump right in the the technical mumbo jumbo. They usually state something super technical with a phrase like don’t worry about that right now. My favorite is the differential explanation from the 40s/50s.[1] It was 1937![1]https://youtu.be/yYAw79386WI https://youtu.be/yYAw79386WI
- agumonkey 9y agoThe approach was also more constructivist. Old mechanical vids (say differential gears) starts with a lever, torque (quite intuitive), then a crossbar, then more crossbar until well.. you have gears. It connects very human actions (lever) to geometry (gears, rotation).
- mmjaa 9y agoI've not yet understood why projects like the Twibright Ronja haven't become a thing: http://ronja.twibright.com http://ronja.twibright.com With a few cheap parts, we can construct localised telecommunication networks that scale... is it just that radio is simply more efficient and less fuss, than .. lasers?
- snerbles 9y agoExperiments in free-space optics go even further back. In 1963, a group of amateur radio operators established a laser comms link at 190km: http://www.modulatedlight.org/eos/operation_red_line_gallery.html http://www.modulatedlight.org/eos/operation_red_line_gallery...
- mmjaa 9y agoThis was a classic read, thanks for that! "In truth, they scored a scientific record just for the fun of it!" http://www.modulatedlight.org/eos/1963_1c.gif http://www.modulatedlight.org/eos/1963_1c.gif
- elihu 9y agoI think free-space optics tends not to work very well over long-ish distances in bad weather, so it's used mostly for short-distance links (like between two buildings).
- Spoom 9y agoReminds me of the scene in Mr. Holland's Opus where the title character rigs up a system of lights to operate with the band he's directing, so that his deaf son can "see" the music. It makes me wonder if there is a way that we can convince the part of the brain that interprets sound to operate on signals from other senses, such that they can actually be heard by someone without working ears, like a controlled synesthesia. Way beyond my knowledge and I'm sure many smarter people have considered this in the past, so I'm sure there are reasons.
- saint_fiasco 9y agoThere is a device that connects a camera to some electrodes that are put in the mouth. This supposedly lets blind people see with their tongues. There is not a lot of bandwidth in the human mouth, so it's fairly low-definition, but it shows your idea is not far-fetched. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/device-lets-blind-see-with-tongues/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/device-lets-blind...