#signal-processing
16 episodes
#3285: How Glowing Wands Guide 200-Ton Aircraft
From airport tarmacs to aircraft carriers and oil rigs — the surprising story of marshalling sticks.
#3100: How Cars Predict Black Ice Before Your Foot Hits the Brake
From ABS to AI: how cars evolved from surviving crashes to predicting them before drivers notice danger.
#3097: Measuring Car Horns: Phone Apps vs. Court Evidence
Can a phone spectrogram app prove which car honked? Usually not — here's what you actually need.
#3081: Laser Tape Measures: What Actually Matters
Time-of-flight vs phase-shift, combined inclinometers, and what your budget actually buys you in accuracy.
#2964: The Physics of Tiny Speakers: How 46mm Fools Your Ears
How a 46mm driver uses psychoacoustic tricks to fake bass — and why it’s accidentally perfect for podcasts.
#2886: How Acoustic Cameras Catch Honking Drivers
Can an acoustic camera pinpoint one honk in a traffic jam? The tech is real, and fines are being issued.
#2845: Why Reading Patents Is Always Free
Google Patents, Espacenet, and the secret weapon of classification codes for tracking ANC innovation.
#2836: Can ANC Handle Real City Noise Now?
ANC has gotten smarter, not just stronger. Can it handle construction noise? And what about cancelling noise in a whole room?
#2625: White Noise vs Pink vs Brown: What Actually Works
What makes mechanical sound machines like the Dohm different from digital ones — and which noise color actually helps you sleep?
#2563: How Audio Fingerprinting Actually Works
Spectrogram peaks, constellation maps, and hash matching — the elegant mechanics behind identifying any song in seconds.
#1876: Signal Bars Are a Lie: How to Read Your Real Connection
Those signal bars are a lie. Learn the real numbers—RSRP, RSRQ, SINR—that tell you if your connection is actually good.
#794: Hiding Conversations in Modem Screech
Why are AI agents talking in modem screeches? Explore the high-speed world of acoustic data and the future of "silent" secret messaging.
#731: The EQ Lasagna Problem: A Signal Processing Hierarchy
Stop layering filters on top of filters. Learn the technically correct way to sync your home audio without creating a muddy "EQ lasagna."
#682: Why Your Phone Mic Beats Your Studio Headset
Why does a phone mic outperform a pro headset for AI transcription? Herman and Corn dive into the physics of MEMS and the truth about audio quality.
#647: The Golden Rule of Audio Engineering
Why does digital data need to become analog? Explore the physics of sound and the critical role of the DAC in modern audio engineering.
#58: Clean Audio, Messy Reality: Noise Removal for Voice-to-Text
Fussy baby, clean audio? We dive into noise removal for voice-to-text. Discover why cleaner audio can transcribe worse.