- United States Patent 5,159,703 Lowery October 27, 1992
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- Silent Subliminal Presentation System
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- Abstract
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- A silent communications system in which nonaural carriers,
in the very low or very high audio frequency range or in the adjacent ultrasonic
frequency spectrum, are amplitude or frequency modulated with the desired
intelligence and propagated acoustically or vibrationally, for inducement
into the brain, typically through the use of loudspeakers, earphones or
piezoelectric transducers. The modulated carriers may be transmitted directly
in real time or may be conveniently recorded and stored on mechanical,
magnetic or optical media for delayed or repeated transmission to the listener.
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- Inventors: Lowery; Oliver M. (5188 Falconwood Ct., Norcross,
GA 30071) Appl. No.: 458339 Filed: December 28, 1989
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- Current U.S. Class: 455/42; 381/73.1; 455/46; 455/67.11;
455/67.13; 455/67.16; 607/56 Intern'l Class: H04B 007/00; H04R 025/00;
H04R 003/02 Field of Search: 455/46,47,66,109,110,42-43 381/73.1,105,124
358/141-143 600/28 128/420.5 380/38
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- Primary Examiner: Eisenzopf; Reinhard J.
- Assistant Examiner: Faile; Andrew
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- Claims
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- What is claimed:
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- 1. A silent communications system, comprising:
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- (a) amplitude modulated carrier means for generating
signals located in non-aural portions of the audio and in the lower portion
of the ultrasonic frequency spectrum said signals modulated with information
to be perceived by a listener's brain and,
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- (b) acoustic and ultrasonic transducer means for propagating
said signals, for inducement into the brain, of the listener, and,
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- (c) recording means for storing said modulated signals
on mechanical, magnetic and optical media for delayed or repeated transmissions
to the listener.
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- 2. A silent communications system, comprising:
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- (a) frequency modulated carrier means for generating
signals located in non-aural portions of the audio and in the lower portion
of the ultrasonic frequency spectrum, said signals modulated with information
to be perceived by a listener's brain, and;
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- (b) acoustic and ultrasonic transducer means for propagating
said signals, for inducement into the brain of the listener, and;
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- (c) recording means for storing said modulated signals
on mechanical, magnetic and optical media for delayed or repeated transmissions
to the listener.
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- 3. A silent communications system, comprising:
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- (a) a combination of amplitude and frequency modulated
carrier means for generating signals located in non-aural portions of the
audio and in the lower portion of the ultrasonic frequency spectrum, said
signals modulated with information to be perceived by a listener's brain,
and
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- (b) acoustic and ultrasonic transducer means for propagating
said signals, for inducement into the brain of the listener;
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- (c) recording means for storing said modulated signals
on mechanical, magnetic and optical media for delayed or repeated transmissions
to the listener.
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- Description
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- BACKGROUND--FIELD OF THE INVENTION
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- This invention relates in general to electronic audio
signal processing and, in particular, to subliminal presentation techniques.
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- BACKGROUND--DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ART
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- Subliminal learning enjoys wide use today and subliminal
tapes are being manufactured by a number of companies in the United States
alone. Several decades of scientific study indicate that subliminal messages
can influence a human's attitudes and behavior. Subliminal, in these discussions,
can be defined as "below the threshold of audibility to the conscious
mind." To be effective however, the subliminally transmitted information
(called affirmations by those in the profession) must be presented to the
listener's ear in such a fashion that they can be perceived and "decoded"
by the listener's subconscious mind. We are referring to audio information
in this discussion, however, information could be inputted into the subject's
subconscious mind through any of the body's sensors, such as touch, smell,
sight or hearing. As an example, early development work in the subliminal
field utilized motion pictures and slide projections as the medium. Early
research into visual and auditory subliminal stimulation effects is exemplified
by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,060,795 of Corrigan, et al. and 3,278,676 of Becker.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,600 of Lundy and Tyler is representative of later developments
in today's subliminal message techniques.
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- The majority of the audio subliminal tapes available
today are prepared using one basic technique. That is, the verbal affirmations
are mixed with, and recorded at a lower level than, a "foreground"
of music or sounds of ocean surf or a bubbling mountain brook or other
similar "masking" sounds. The affirmations are generally recorded
5 decibels (db) or so below the "foreground" programming and
regenerative automatic gain control is usually applied to permit the affirmations
to change their recorded amplitude in direct proportion to the short term
averaged amplitude of the continually varying "foreground" material.
In other words, the volume of the affirmations will follow or track the
volume changes of the "foreground" programming, but at a lower
volume level. Circuit provisions are also usually included to "gate"
the affirmations off when the music amplitude is low or zero. This insures
that the affirmations cannot be heard during quiet program periods. Thus,
today's subliminal affirmations can be characterized as being "masked"
by music or other sounds, of constantly changing amplitude and of being
reduced or cut off entirely during periods of low or quiet "foreground"
programming.
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- One of the principal, and most widely objected to, deficiencies
in available subliminal tape presentation techniques is that the presence
of the "foreground" material is intrusive to both the listener
and to anyone else in the immediate area. No matter what "foreground"
material is chosen, the fact remains that this material can be heard by
anyone within its range and presents a definite distraction to other activities
such as conversation, thought, desire to listen to other programming such
as radio or television, need to concentrate, etc. Additionally, and because
the tapes are used repeatedly by the same listener, any "foreground"
music or material eventually becomes monotonously tiring to that listener.
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- It is the purpose of the following described invention
to eliminate or greatly reduce all of the above deficiencies. Although
its application to the magnetic tape medium is described in the following
discussion, the technique is equally applicable to most other desired transmission
mediums, such as Compact Disc, videocassettes, digital tape recorders,
Public Address (PA) systems, background music installations, computer software
programs, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), "live",
real time applications and other mediums now in existence or to be developed
in the future.
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- Implemented on tape cassettes, for example, the subliminal
presentation described here is inaudible i.e., high audio or ultrasonic
frequencies, the affirmations are presented at a constant, high amplitude
level, and they occupy their own "clear channel", non-masked
frequency allocations. If desired, the previously described "foreground"
music or other material can be added to the tape through use of an audio
mixer. The "silent" recordings are inaudible to the user or by
others present and are therefore very effective for use during periods
of sleep or when in the presence of others. Additionally, the basic requirements
of subliminal stimulation are met. That is, the affirmations are efficiently
transmitted to the ear and, while undetected by the conscious mind, are
perceived by and efficiently decoded by the subconscious mind.
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- OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
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- Accordingly, several objects and advantages of my invention
are:
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- (a) to provide a technique for producing a subliminal
presentation which is inaudible to the listeners(s), yet is perceived and
demodulated (decoded) by the ear for use by the subconscious mind.
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- (b) to provide a technique for transmitting inaudible
subliminal information to the listener(s) at a constant, high level of
signal strength and on a clear band of frequencies.
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- (c) to provide a technique for producing inaudible subliminal
presentations to which music or other "foreground" programming
may be added, if desired.
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- Still further objects and advantages will become apparent
from a consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.
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- BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
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- In the drawings, the first digit of each component number
also refers to the figure number where that component can be located.
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- FIG. 1 represents the block diagram of a suitable system
which will generate a frequency modulated (FM) signal at 14,500 Hz.
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- FIG. 2 represents an approximation of the frequency response
curve of the human ear and the signal decoding process.
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- FIG. 3 represents the block diagram of a suitable system
which will generate a single sideband, suppressed carrier, amplitude modulated
(AM) signal at 14,500 Hz.
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- DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
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- Please refer now to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, which are drawings
of a preferred implementation of the invention.
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- The principle of operation of the silent subliminal presentation
system is as follows:
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- An audio signal in the upper frequency region of the
audio spectrum (for example, 14,500 Hz) is modulated with the desired information.
The type of modulation may be any type suitable for subliminal applications;
frequency modulation (FM), phase modulation (PM), upper single sideband
with suppressed carrier, amplitude modulation (AM), tone modulation, etc.
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- For broadest application, the high audio frequency selected
as the carrier frequency must meet two basic criteria:
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- (1) be high enough in the audio spectrum that its presence
to the human ear is essentially unnoticed or undetectable (without the
listener being informed that the signal is actually present) and,
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- (2) be low enough in the audio spectrum that it (and
its modulation content) can produce a useful output power from home entertainment
type cassette or reel-to-reel magnetic recorders.
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- This would also include, of course, small portable and
automobile tape decks.
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- Alternatively, the output of the system can be fed directly
into an audio amplifier and its speaker/earphone system, Public Address
system, etc.
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- FIG. 1 provides the block diagram of an example of a
system capable of generating the desired silent frequency modulated carrier.
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- The modulation information is inputted into the microphone
11. Other suitable input devices may be substituted for microphone 11,
such as a tape recorder or a radio. The microphone 11 is connected to the
preamplifier 12 and should have provisions for adjusting its gain in order
that the optimum modulation index can be set in the frequency modulator
13. The frequency modulator 13 modulates the frequency of oscillator 14
which has been adjusted for an output of 14,500 Hz as described above.
The output of oscillator 14 is fed through a suitable bandpass filter 15
into the tape recorder or directly into a suitable amplifier/speaker system.
It is the purpose of the bandpass filter to remove or attenuate audible
products of the modulation process in order to maintain as audibly silent
an output as practical.
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- On the receiving end, FIG. 2 represents an approximate
and idealized frequency response curve of the human ear. The frequency
modulated carrier (centered at 14,500 Hz), as generated above and played
through a tape recorder or amplifier/speaker system, is shown on FIG. 2
as speaker output 26, impinging upon the upper slope of the ear's response
curve at point 25. The frequency modulated excursions of the speaker output
26 swing between points 23 and 24 on the ear's upper response curve. Because
the response curve between points 23 and 25 is relatively linear, this
action results in a relatively linear demodulation of the original modulation
intelligence, which is passed on subliminally to the inner ear. The amplitude
of the demodulated output is not high enough to be detected by the conscious
mind but is sufficient in amplitude to be detected by the subconscious
mind. In the field of communications engineering design, the above demodulation
process in known as slope detection and was used in early FM receiver design.
In those receivers, the response curve was formed by the action of a tuned
(inductive/capacitance) circuit. In our case, the response curve is formed
by the natural response curve of the human ear. The same slope detection
technique can be performed at the low frequency end of the human ear response
curve. This region is indicated on FIG. 2 as between points 21 and 22.
This region, however, has a much smaller available bandwidth and is therefore
more restricted as to the amount of information that can be transmitted
in an inaudible manner.
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- In practice, the listener adjusts the volume control
of the tape recorder or amplifier to a level just below that at which the
listener hears an audible sound or noise from the speaker of the tape recorder.
If the recording process is properly done, a spectrum analyzer or a calibrated
sound level meter will reveal a strong signal emanating from the tape recorder
speaker. A calibrated sound level meter, at a distance of 1 meter (with
C weighting and referenced to the standard of 0.0002 micro bar) will typically
indicate a silent power output of from 60 to 70 decibels. This is equivalent
to the audio power of a loud conversation, yet, in the described system,
is inaudible or unnoticed by the listener.
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- FIG. 3 illustrates a system which generates a suitable
amplitude modulated (AM) signal, instead of the frequency modulated (FM)
system described above. The output is a modulated, single sideband (SSB),
suppressed carrier (AM) signal at 14,500 Hz.
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- The block diagram represents a common scheme for generating
an SSB signal and will be briefly described.
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- The desired subliminal information is spoken into microphone
31. This signal is amplified by speech amplifier 32 and injected into one
port of balanced modulator 33. A continuous wave signal of 455 KHz is generated
by carrier oscillator 34 and is injected into the second port of balanced
modulator 33. The output of balanced modulator 33 is a double sideband,
suppressed carrier signal at 455 KHz. This signal is fed through filter
35, causing one of the two sidebands to be removed. This signal is fed
into one port of mixer 36. A continuous wave signal at a frequency of 469.5
KHz from hetrodyne oscillator 37 is fed into the other port of mixer 36,
resulting in an output of the original subliminal audio information but
translated 14,500 Hz higher in frequency. The bandpass filter 38 attenuates
signals and noise outside of the frequencies of interest. The amplitude
modulated audio output signal is shown as output 39.
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- Thus, as stated earlier, my invention provides a new
system for subliminal presentations which is:
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- (a) silent,
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- (b) outputs a constant, high level modulated signal and,
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- (c) occupies a band of clear channel frequencies.
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- The foregoing description of the preferred embodiment
of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and
description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention
to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible
in light of the above discussions. It is intended that the scope of the
invention be limited not only by this detailed description, but rather
by the claims appended hereto.
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