
Scientists can use their ears instead of their eyes to process data more rapidly - curtis
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/more-than-meets-the-eye-nasa-scientists-listen-to-data/#.VAqqwee7mX0
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linker3000
I work alongside a group of engineers responsible for HDD testing, failure
analysis and firmware development. One of their tools of the trade is an old
radio shack telephone amplifier with a magnetic suction cup pickup. Using this
unit, the engineers listen to the noise coming from the HDD electronics and
motors and can identify firmware versions, drive states (like heads parking)
and posible timing issues - I often hear discussions like 'this drive must
have the r3 firmware mod as the cache preload kicked in slightly later' and
'sounds like this unit has a manufacturer x motor'

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anigbrowl
I want to work on this sort of thing! I've spent the last ~20 years listening
to synthesizer and field recordings in a professional capacity. It'd be great
if they opened this similar to projects like GalaxyZoo or the like - I'd love
to leverage my audio skills for scientific ends.

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rflrob
By the way, this is more or less what Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster's
character) was doing in Contact. People often assume that it was an error,
because "radio telescopes don't produce sound", but anything produces sound if
you process it right.

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draugadrotten
I grew up with the bleeping chirps of software loading from 300bps modems and
"turbo" C64 tape recorders. I could easily recognize different games from the
sound they made when loading, and it is trivial to recognize the various modem
handshakes.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvr9AMWEU-c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvr9AMWEU-c)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmPpl6UMuH0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmPpl6UMuH0)

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sharpneli
Back when I was a student we played around with the concept of listening to
ultrasonic echoes in a similar way. Basically human ear can get far more
information from a reflection than what one can get from it by eyes.

Eventually you could do Non Destructive Evaluation better by just listening to
the data and not just looking at it "Sir, this weld sounds wrong".

But alas, IT pays more so that thing was buried on that lab :)

