The Yin Yang Theory in Sound and Music: a First Exploration

Home , Taijitu, Tao, Yin and yang

6. REFERENCES [14] T. L. Hubbard, “Synesthesia-like mappings of light- ness, pitch, and melodic interval,” The American [1] N. Adams, Analytical Methods of Electroacoustic Journal of Psychology, vol. 109, no. 2, pp. 219–238, THE YIN YANG THEORY IN SOUND AND MUSIC: A FIRST Music. Routledge, 2006, ch. Visualization of Mu- 1996. EXPLORATION sical Signals, pp. 13–28. [15] A. Hyvarinen,¨ “Survey on independent component [2] S. Barrass, “Auditory information design,” Ph.D. Leonardo Gabrielli analysis,” Neural Computing Surveys, vol. 2, pp. Daniele Gabrielli dissertation, The Australian National University, 94–128, 1999. Dept. Information Engineering, Canberra, Australia, 1997. Universita` di Macerata, [16] W. Kohler,¨ Gestalt psychology. Oxford, England: Universita` Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy [3] J. L. Bentley, “Multidimensional binary search trees Liveright, 1929. Macerata, Italy used for associative searching,” Communications of [email protected] the ACM, vol. 18, no. 9, pp. 509–517, 1975. [17] L. E. Marks, “On cross-modal similarity: The perceptual structure of pitch, loudness, and brightness,” [4] G. Coleman, “Mused: Navigating the personal Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Per- ABSTRACT Although the seemingly dualist approach at the basis sample library,” in Proceedings of the Interna- ception and Performance, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 586– of this theory may seem excessively reductionist, thus ap- tional Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2007). 602, August 1989. Today the Chinese theory of the Yin and Yang principles is parently making the object of highly specialized techni- Copenhagen, Denmark: Ann Arbor, MI: Scholarly well known in western countries, often in its philosophical cal knowledge a trivial matter, it is not. On the contrary, Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library, [18] ——, “On perceptual metaphors,” Metaphor and aspects. However, in the far east it has been used for mil- by incorporating many aspects of the object under anal- 2007. Symbolic Activity, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 39–66, 1996. lenia to explain and solve pragmatic problems. Notwith- ysis, it achieves a holistic gaze, enabling to better deal standing its fuzzy and holistic nature, the Yin Yang theory with complex phenomena such as those related to human [5] S. Dupont, C. Frisson, X. Siebert, and D. Tardieu, [19] D. Maurer, T. Pathman, and C. J. Mondloch, “The has already been successfully applied to the analysis of perception, emotion and health. Objections to holistic ap- “Browsing sound and music libraries by similarity,” shape of boubas: sound–shape correspondences in physical and biological systems. In this paper, the the- proaches are often made by scientists, especially in fields in Proceedings of the 128th Convention of the Audio toddlers and adults,” Developmental Science, vol. 9, ory is extended to the field of acoustic signals and their like medicine and medical care where the health of people Engineering Society, London, UK, May 2010. no. 3, pp. 316–322, 2006. time-frequency representation, allowing for a simple yet is at stake. It must be stated, however, that modern medi- [6] K. K. Evans and A. Treisman, “Natural cross-modal [20] E. Pampalk, A. Rauber, and D. Merkl, “Content- functional way to analyze, discuss and formalize various cal science because of the drastically sectorial knowledge mappings between visual and auditory features,” based organization and visualization of music aspects of sound, accessible to experts and non-experts. (which helped fighting e.g. communicable diseases in the Journal of Vision, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 6.1–12, January archives,” in MULTIMEDIA ’02: Proceedings of the The framework can also have application on synthesis al- past century), is now failing to provide effective therapies 2010. tenth ACM international conference on Multimedia. gorithms, generative music and music therapy. Two high- and prevention to noncommunicable diseases such as car- diovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases [7] M. Ferreira de Oliveira and H. Levkowitz, “From vi- New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2002, pp. 570–579. level features for automatic analysis are proposed based and diabetes [2], which are found in both high-income and sual data exploration to visual data mining: A sur- on MPEG-7 low-level descriptors and future scenarios to [21] N. Sagiv and J. Ward, “Crossmodal interactions: low-income countries and can be prevented with a change vey,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Com- assess sound properties and their effect on human subjects lessons from synesthesia,” in Visual Perception in lifestyle and dietary habits [31]. In fact, there have been puter Graphics, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 378–394, 2003. are discussed. Fundamentals of Awareness: Multi-Sensory Inte- documented cases of successful applications of holistic [8] K. Giannakis, “Sound mosaics,” Ph.D. dissertation, gration and High-Order Perception, ser. Progress in approaches to medicine. An excellent example is the mac- Middlesex University, London, UK, October 2001. Brain Research, S. Martinez-Conde, S. L. Macknik, 1. INTRODUCTION robiotic diet [24, 20, 17], a well-defined dietary regimen L. M. Martinez, J.-M. Alonso, and P. U. Tse, Eds. based on the Yin Yang principle and on the Five Elements [9] ——, “A comparative evaluation of auditory- Elsevier, 2006, vol. 155, pp. 259 – 271. For millennia, the Yin Yang theory has been one of the pil- theory, which is proving capable of reducing risks and visual mappings for sound visualisation,” Organised lars of ancient Asian thoughts, used practically to describe greatly improve health conditions in individuals affected Sound, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 297–307, 2006. [22] D. Schwarz and N. Schnell, “Sound search by all aspects of life and properties of objects and living be- by several chronic diseases [25, 13, 11]. content-based navigation in large databases,” in [10] L. Ginsberg, “A case of synaesthesia,” The American ings. The theory is the pillar of several eastern philoso- The Yin Yang theory has also been applied in com- Proceedings of the 6th Sound and Music Computing Journal of Psychology, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 582–589, phies and beliefs, such as Taoism and Zen. The Bagua putational sciences and logic, where it inspired the for- Conference (SMC 2009), Porto, Portugal, July 2009, October 1923. (eight trigrams) and Five Element theory, on which Feng malization of a bipolar fuzzy set [35], machine learning pp. 253–258. Shui and I King are based, stem from Yin and Yang. techniques [34, 33, 16] and of a pattern classification sys- [11] T. Grill, “Constructing high-level perceptual audio Western thinkers have been highly fascinated by such [23] G. Strobl, G. Eckel, and D. Rocchesso, “Sound tex- tem for mental disorders [36]. We can probably say that descriptors for textural sounds,” in Proceedings of eastern concepts. A remarkable example in contemporary ture modeling: A survey,” in Proceedings of the the ancient Yin Yang theory can be applied to most, if not the 9th Sound and Music Computing Conference music is John Cage’s extensive use of the I King divina- 2006 Sound and Music Computing (SMC) Interna- all, fields of human knowledge and practice, with good (SMC 2012), Copenhagen, Denmark, July 2012, tion book for composition by chance [12]. It must be tional Conference, Marseille, France, 2006, pp. 61– chances of achieving benefits by gathering a broader un- forthcoming. noted, however, that the Yin Yang theory must not be re- 65. derstanding. garded “as a religious belief or a principle of lifestyle“ [12] T. Grill, A. Flexer, and S. Cunningham, “Identifica- It is our belief, thus, that the Yin Yang theory can [18] but a rather more practical knowledge. Not surpris- tion of perceptual qualities in textural sounds using [24] L. van der Maaten and G. Hinton, “Visualizing data be applied to music and sound by direct extension of the ingly some western scientists have found connections be- the repertory grid method,” in Proceedings of the using t-SNE,” Journal of Machine Learning Re- physical properties of Yin and Yang, as has been done in tween the Chinese theory and the results of contemporary 6th Audio Mostly Conference, ser. AM ’11. New search, vol. 9, pp. 2579–2605, 2008. other fields of physics and biology. Henceforth, if this physics. An extensive review of the funding principle to theory is properly applied and it is correlated to emotional York, NY, USA: ACM, 2011, pp. 67–74. [25] C. Ware, Information Visualization: Perception for ancient eastern theories and the evidences of their validity states and human activities (the ancient theory does cate- design. San Francisco, CA, USA: Morgan Kauf- [13] S. Heise, M. Hlatky, and J. Loviscach, “SoundTorch: in modern physics is contained in F. Capra’s work “The gorize these in terms of Yin and Yang), it can prove prof- mann Publishers Inc., 2000. Quick Browsing in Large Audio Collections,” in Tao of Physics” [3]. Holistic thinking is also highly re- itable for different scenarios, e.g.: Proceedings of the 125th Convention of the Audio garded in contemporary theory of dynamical systems or Engineering Society, San Francisco, CA, USA, Oc- chaos theory, which exploits new theories drawn from bi- for composers or performers to drive high-level au- • tober 2008. ology and mathematics [4]. tomatic composition or synthesis techniques in a

_596 _597 more holistic way, thus delegating all the problems arts [5] and Feng Shui (which has gained in popularity 3. EXTENSION OF THE YIN YANG THEORY TO related to low-level control and the large dimension also in western countries [7]), to name a few. In histori- SOUND of the parameters space to the machine; cal times, the theory has spread outside the boundaries of China, such as in Japan, Korea and Vietnam. In this paper we demonstrate how the rules on the inter- for artists of different backgrounds to communicate • The Yin Yang theory is based on the concept that all play between Yin and Yang can be applied also to sound. in mixed media performances and installations with- sensible phenomena are manifestations of two opposite Sound is a continuous time-domain signal, physically rep- out the need for a highly specific common language forces, namely Yin and Yang. The earliest definition of resenting the pressure variation from its local atmospheric to be shared; Yin and Yang is found in the I King, and is ”firm” and value P0 ”soft” [32]. Other attributes have been (respectively) dark for any kind of performance where there is a human- s(t)=p(t) P (1) • 0 computer feedback and a high-level control variable and light, cold and heat, full and empty, expansion and − Figure 1: Spectrogram of two opposite signals: a sine needs to be controlled and balanced; contraction, transformation and conservation. These ex- with p(t) being the instantaneous pressure level. Inci- wave and a dirac pulse and the transition between the two. amples help understand the properties of these two ”el- dentally, in the fluctuation generating any audible phe- for individuals with no formal music training to as- ements”, but the nature of Yin and Yang is much more • nomenon, the pressure p(t) expands and contracts, thus sess and describe sound and music; complex. What differentiates Yin and Yang from other varying between two opposite polarities. The more the Together from the time localization of a sound, also dualistic philosophies is its fuzziness and the set of laws energetic this variation is, the more the loud a sound is for psychotherapist to understand the Yin or Yang periodicity, pitch and spectral properties must be carefully • that rule the interplay between the elements. There is a perceived. Highly energetic sounds are regarded as Yang state of mind (and hence his general mental condi- analyzed. Periodic sounds can be characterized by their huge amount of literature describing the Yin Yang theory, (Yang is generally associated with Energy), as opposed to tion) of a person from his speech, observing general (instantaneous) pitch, or inversely, their wavelength: a both ancient [28], [30] and modern [15]; in this paper, weak sounds (silence is regarded as Yin). properties such as prosody, pitch, and so on. Gener- however, we will focus on four basic points, that will be high-pitched tone has shorter wavelength, or a more com- ally speaking, Yin is linked to relaxation and Yang As explained before, Yin is here regarded as the prin- pact periodicity, hence is more Yang than a low-frequency used later on to demonstrate how Yin and Yang can be ciple of expansion and Yang as the principle of contrac- to strain; applied to sound and music: tone. The nature of high frequency tones is Yang with re- tion. Therefore, it can be assumed that a signal s(t) that is spect to lower frequency tones. This finds support also for patients under music therapy to share with their compact in time can be seen as a Yang sound, while one • (1) Yin and Yang are opposite principles, but stemming in the quantum theory for waves and light: e.g. high fre- therapist, and for the latter to deduct the effect of from the same source; in this paper we will define that is extended in time is more Yin. In the field of sig- quency photons bring a high energetic content. music and sound on their patients avoiding troubles Yin as the principle of expansion and Yang as the nal processing and analysis, the time localization[6]ofa Aperiodic signals can be analyzed in terms of their in a more rigorous description; principle of contraction (as in [17]). signal and the choice of a compact yet optimal[27] basis spectrum: compactness vs. expansion, localization of their function used for the analysis is a classical topic2. Fol- to possibly lead to a better understanding of the ef- centre of mass towards low or high frequencies. The more • (2) Yin and Yang continuously change one into another. lowing what has been stated, it can be said that a perfect fect of acoustic pollution and environment acoustics their spectra are wide the more they are Yang. The more This does not happen in a random, chaotic way: Yin sound cannot exist in reality, as it would extend indef- to psychological and physiological effects in human their centre of mass is localized towards low frequencies, when Yang reaches its apex, it begins receding to initely in time, spanning the whole universe history. The subjects. Yin, and vice versa (from Wang Chung, in [15]). the more their nature is Yin. same stands for a perfect Yang sound, which would be a Sounds are also characterized by the repetition of micro- As the research is ongoing, the aim of this article is to lay (3) Yin and Yang are opposite poles; there is an infinite perfect Dirac impulse, which is impossible to have due scale events, such as bouncing or rumbling [26]. When the foundations for the extension of the Yin Yang theory number of ”stages” between the two opposites. Tra- to the natural low-pass nature of physical systems, whose the periodicity of these events is low enough not to af- to the fields of sound analysis and synthesis, music clas- ditionally, there has never been a numerical scale of convolution brings to a “smeared” version of any perfect fect the pitch or harmonic content of a sound, it can be sification and composition, and hence to any possible ap- values to define how much Yin or Yang a given en- pulse. Although mathematical abstractions such as the in- used anyway to categorize the sound with a more Yang plication in the field of musicology, music therapy, com- tity is. This concept may be well clear to an artist definitely extended in time or frequency are conceivable nature when they happen faster and closer. This can be position, arts and performance. This article focuses on the or a musician: there is no need to exactly quantify, and useful to gather a first discrimination of Yin and Yang, used fruitfully when discussing the properties of experi- basic physical properties of sound, acoustical signals and they are of no use in reality just as the Fourier transform 4 e.g. how much passionate a piece is. Furthermore, 3 mental or EDM glitch music and the likes, which usually time-frequency analysis and how they can be analyzed in quantification in terms of Yin and Yang is usually as a mathematical operator As will be discussed in more show very fast repetition of very compact sound fragments terms of Yin and Yang. Extension to music and compo- performed in relative terms as it becomes senseless detailed below, the perfect Yin or perfect Yang are non- or sonic events. cochlear entities and cannot be experienced. sition and creation of software tools that can employ the in absolute terms; it must always relate to a similar A fast variation or attack time is a sign of Yang. An concepts of Yin and Yang in sound and music analysis is entity. To further clarify this first step in extending the Yin example of this can be a thunderstruck or a snare sound, still ongoing. Yang theory to acoustics, the spectrogram in Figure 1 de- which usually leads a listener to a more active state. On (4) It is impossible in the real world to experience a The paper outline follows: Section 2 introduces briefly picts two different (orthogonal) signals such as a long sine the other hand monotony and repetition lead to a more phenomena that is completely Yin or completely the Yin Yang theory as it has been defined and applied, wave (extremely compact in frequency) and a Dirac pulse Yin signal. As an empirical example a continuous tone, Yang (just as, for example, the absolute zero is a while Section 3 extends this to acoustic signals, and sound. (extremely compact in time) and a possible transition be- such as a drone, or a sustained “Om” mantra can lead to a theoretical temperature and cannot be achieved). The Section 4 discusses the characterization of sounds from a tween the two. relaxed (Yin) state of mind. two opposites need one another. Yang cannot be signal analysis approach and from the assessment of phys- Finally, as the Yang of the ancient theory represents known or explained without the Yin and vice versa, 2It must be noted that the first work in this field is probably by Dennis iological parameters on human subjects. Section 5 finally Energy and Activity, signals with a higher energy are of just like the concept of cold cannot be understood Gabor, well known to the computer music community for the inspira- concludes the paper and remarks the issues open for future tional effect of Gabor atoms described in his Nature article [10]. These a more Yang nature than lower energy signals. As an ex- without knowing warmth. Lao Tzu [28] expresses work. are said to have inspired early formulation of granular synthesis, but they ample, the same piano sonata, played at a steadier tempo, this as ”The ten thousand things1 carry yin and em- are almost unknown to other fields such as communication theory or dig- with fortissimo results in a more Yang performance than a brace yang. They achieve harmony by combining ital signal processing because of the infinitely extended support of their 2. THE YIN YANG THEORY slower tempo, feeble piano performance. these forces.” A visual explanation of this concept Gaussian basis functions that makes their use unpractical. In practical signal processing compact basis functions (or more simply, windows) Yin and Yang (and the transition from one to another) is the Taijitu, often incorrectly referred to as ”Tao”. For millennia, the Yin Yang theory has been one of the are needed, as the ones used in the Wavelet Transform [6]. are attributes that can be applied to different properties of In this symbol, the Yin (black) contains a spot of 3Gabor himself criticized the direct use of the Fourier operator on foundations of Chinese philosophy. In China, it led to the a sound (or in general any phenomenon). However it often creation of philosophies such as the I King and the Five Yang (white) and vice versa. real-life signals “Though mathematically this theorem is beyond re- proach, even experts could not at times conceal an uneasy feeling when happens that different properties are related one another Element theory. Yin and Yang have found practical ap- 1Lao Tzu employs a metaphorical language. Here ”ten thousand it came to the physical interpretation of results obtained by the Fourier plication in traditional Chinese medicine ([23]), martial things” means everything. method.”[9]. 4Electronic Dance Music

_598 _599 more holistic way, thus delegating all the problems arts [5] and Feng Shui (which has gained in popularity 3. EXTENSION OF THE YIN YANG THEORY TO related to low-level control and the large dimension also in western countries [7]), to name a few. In histori- SOUND of the parameters space to the machine; cal times, the theory has spread outside the boundaries of China, such as in Japan, Korea and Vietnam. In this paper we demonstrate how the rules on the inter- for artists of different backgrounds to communicate • The Yin Yang theory is based on the concept that all play between Yin and Yang can be applied also to sound. in mixed media performances and installations with- sensible phenomena are manifestations of two opposite Sound is a continuous time-domain signal, physically rep- out the need for a highly specific common language forces, namely Yin and Yang. The earliest definition of resenting the pressure variation from its local atmospheric to be shared; Yin and Yang is found in the I King, and is ”firm” and value P0 ”soft” [32]. Other attributes have been (respectively) dark for any kind of performance where there is a human- s(t)=p(t) P (1) • 0 computer feedback and a high-level control variable and light, cold and heat, full and empty, expansion and − Figure 1: Spectrogram of two opposite signals: a sine needs to be controlled and balanced; contraction, transformation and conservation. These ex- with p(t) being the instantaneous pressure level. Inci- wave and a dirac pulse and the transition between the two. amples help understand the properties of these two ”el- dentally, in the fluctuation generating any audible phe- for individuals with no formal music training to as- ements”, but the nature of Yin and Yang is much more • nomenon, the pressure p(t) expands and contracts, thus sess and describe sound and music; complex. What differentiates Yin and Yang from other varying between two opposite polarities. The more the Together from the time localization of a sound, also dualistic philosophies is its fuzziness and the set of laws energetic this variation is, the more the loud a sound is for psychotherapist to understand the Yin or Yang periodicity, pitch and spectral properties must be carefully • that rule the interplay between the elements. There is a perceived. Highly energetic sounds are regarded as Yang state of mind (and hence his general mental condi- analyzed. Periodic sounds can be characterized by their huge amount of literature describing the Yin Yang theory, (Yang is generally associated with Energy), as opposed to tion) of a person from his speech, observing general (instantaneous) pitch, or inversely, their wavelength: a both ancient [28], [30] and modern [15]; in this paper, weak sounds (silence is regarded as Yin). properties such as prosody, pitch, and so on. Gener- however, we will focus on four basic points, that will be high-pitched tone has shorter wavelength, or a more com- ally speaking, Yin is linked to relaxation and Yang As explained before, Yin is here regarded as the prin- pact periodicity, hence is more Yang than a low-frequency used later on to demonstrate how Yin and Yang can be ciple of expansion and Yang as the principle of contrac- to strain; applied to sound and music: tone. The nature of high frequency tones is Yang with re- tion. Therefore, it can be assumed that a signal s(t) that is spect to lower frequency tones. This finds support also for patients under music therapy to share with their compact in time can be seen as a Yang sound, while one • (1) Yin and Yang are opposite principles, but stemming in the quantum theory for waves and light: e.g. high fre- therapist, and for the latter to deduct the effect of from the same source; in this paper we will define that is extended in time is more Yin. In the field of sig- quency photons bring a high energetic content. music and sound on their patients avoiding troubles Yin as the principle of expansion and Yang as the nal processing and analysis, the time localization[6]ofa Aperiodic signals can be analyzed in terms of their in a more rigorous description; principle of contraction (as in [17]). signal and the choice of a compact yet optimal[27] basis spectrum: compactness vs. expansion, localization of their function used for the analysis is a classical topic2. Fol- to possibly lead to a better understanding of the ef- centre of mass towards low or high frequencies. The more • (2) Yin and Yang continuously change one into another. lowing what has been stated, it can be said that a perfect fect of acoustic pollution and environment acoustics their spectra are wide the more they are Yang. The more This does not happen in a random, chaotic way: Yin sound cannot exist in reality, as it would extend indef- to psychological and physiological effects in human their centre of mass is localized towards low frequencies, when Yang reaches its apex, it begins receding to initely in time, spanning the whole universe history. The subjects. Yin, and vice versa (from Wang Chung, in [15]). the more their nature is Yin. same stands for a perfect Yang sound, which would be a Sounds are also characterized by the repetition of micro- As the research is ongoing, the aim of this article is to lay (3) Yin and Yang are opposite poles; there is an infinite perfect Dirac impulse, which is impossible to have due scale events, such as bouncing or rumbling [26]. When the foundations for the extension of the Yin Yang theory number of ”stages” between the two opposites. Tra- to the natural low-pass nature of physical systems, whose the periodicity of these events is low enough not to af- to the fields of sound analysis and synthesis, music clas- ditionally, there has never been a numerical scale of convolution brings to a “smeared” version of any perfect fect the pitch or harmonic content of a sound, it can be sification and composition, and hence to any possible ap- values to define how much Yin or Yang a given en- pulse. Although mathematical abstractions such as the in- used anyway to categorize the sound with a more Yang plication in the field of musicology, music therapy, com- tity is. This concept may be well clear to an artist definitely extended in time or frequency are conceivable nature when they happen faster and closer. This can be position, arts and performance. This article focuses on the or a musician: there is no need to exactly quantify, and useful to gather a first discrimination of Yin and Yang, used fruitfully when discussing the properties of experi- basic physical properties of sound, acoustical signals and they are of no use in reality just as the Fourier transform 4 e.g. how much passionate a piece is. Furthermore, 3 mental or EDM glitch music and the likes, which usually time-frequency analysis and how they can be analyzed in quantification in terms of Yin and Yang is usually as a mathematical operator As will be discussed in more show very fast repetition of very compact sound fragments terms of Yin and Yang. Extension to music and compo- performed in relative terms as it becomes senseless detailed below, the perfect Yin or perfect Yang are non- or sonic events. cochlear entities and cannot be experienced. sition and creation of software tools that can employ the in absolute terms; it must always relate to a similar A fast variation or attack time is a sign of Yang. An concepts of Yin and Yang in sound and music analysis is entity. To further clarify this first step in extending the Yin example of this can be a thunderstruck or a snare sound, still ongoing. Yang theory to acoustics, the spectrogram in Figure 1 de- which usually leads a listener to a more active state. On (4) It is impossible in the real world to experience a The paper outline follows: Section 2 introduces briefly picts two different (orthogonal) signals such as a long sine the other hand monotony and repetition lead to a more phenomena that is completely Yin or completely the Yin Yang theory as it has been defined and applied, wave (extremely compact in frequency) and a Dirac pulse Yin signal. As an empirical example a continuous tone, Yang (just as, for example, the absolute zero is a while Section 3 extends this to acoustic signals, and sound. (extremely compact in time) and a possible transition be- such as a drone, or a sustained “Om” mantra can lead to a theoretical temperature and cannot be achieved). The Section 4 discusses the characterization of sounds from a tween the two. relaxed (Yin) state of mind. two opposites need one another. Yang cannot be signal analysis approach and from the assessment of phys- Finally, as the Yang of the ancient theory represents known or explained without the Yin and vice versa, 2It must be noted that the first work in this field is probably by Dennis iological parameters on human subjects. Section 5 finally Energy and Activity, signals with a higher energy are of just like the concept of cold cannot be understood Gabor, well known to the computer music community for the inspira- concludes the paper and remarks the issues open for future tional effect of Gabor atoms described in his Nature article [10]. These a more Yang nature than lower energy signals. As an ex- without knowing warmth. Lao Tzu [28] expresses work. are said to have inspired early formulation of granular synthesis, but they ample, the same piano sonata, played at a steadier tempo, this as ”The ten thousand things1 carry yin and em- are almost unknown to other fields such as communication theory or dig- with fortissimo results in a more Yang performance than a brace yang. They achieve harmony by combining ital signal processing because of the infinitely extended support of their 2. THE YIN YANG THEORY slower tempo, feeble piano performance. these forces.” A visual explanation of this concept Gaussian basis functions that makes their use unpractical. In practical signal processing compact basis functions (or more simply, windows) Yin and Yang (and the transition from one to another) is the Taijitu, often incorrectly referred to as ”Tao”. For millennia, the Yin Yang theory has been one of the are needed, as the ones used in the Wavelet Transform [6]. are attributes that can be applied to different properties of In this symbol, the Yin (black) contains a spot of 3Gabor himself criticized the direct use of the Fourier operator on foundations of Chinese philosophy. In China, it led to the a sound (or in general any phenomenon). However it often creation of philosophies such as the I King and the Five Yang (white) and vice versa. real-life signals “Though mathematically this theorem is beyond re- proach, even experts could not at times conceal an uneasy feeling when happens that different properties are related one another Element theory. Yin and Yang have found practical ap- 1Lao Tzu employs a metaphorical language. Here ”ten thousand it came to the physical interpretation of results obtained by the Fourier plication in traditional Chinese medicine ([23]), martial things” means everything. method.”[9]. 4Electronic Dance Music

_598 _599 and carry similar polarity. By combining all the different (2) A sound is always generated by transformation and two opposite aspects of sound, i.e. time and fre- 4.2. By assessment of human psychological and phys- properties it is possible to better understand the nature of a fluctuation between opposite polarities, in the same quency, cannot be arbitrarily perfect. The resolution iological parameters a sound, compared to other sounds taken as reference. It way as Yin and Yang continuously change one into of one dimension in a space-phase representation of Another concept arising from direct comparison with mac- must be noted however that a reference sound, i.e. a per- the other. In Chinese theories this turnover is de- the signal, such as the spectrogram, cannot be arbi- robiotics and similar disciplines is that the nature of a fectly balanced sound does not exist: can an intermediate picted similarly to what we know as a harmonic sys- trarily high without affecting the resolution of the sound can be determined by its effect on human subjects. time compactness or an intermediate frequency localiza- tem, as illustrated in Figure 2. other dimension. This is formalized in the indeter- For instance a Yin sound (e.g. a prolonged pad texture tion between 0 and infinite be found? Can the bounds minacy principle exposed by Gabor in [9], which in with slow attack) is expected to have a Yin effect on the given by human hearing (in both time resolution and fre- turn relies on the similar principle by Heisenberg in mood or the physiology of a listening subject that can be quency response thresholds) or by digital sampling (in quantum physics. qualified by questionnaires or quantified by measuring its both time resolution and the Nyquist frequency limit) be heartbeat rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, EEG and used to find an intermediate sound? This is questionable other parameters. Similar test involving music have been as other variables also appear related to human percep- 4. ASSESSING YIN AND YANG used in a wide variety of works spanning from evaluation (should the intermediate frequency be found as the tion of chord progressions [8] and variation of physiolog- arithmetic mean of the 20 Hz - 20 kHz audibility range, 4.1. By audio analysis techniques ical parameters under exposure to musical stimuli [29], or in a linear scale or in an octave-spaced scale?). Although Figure 2: The turnover between Yin and Yang as an os- Discrimination of a sound’s character can be done by ear, involving other acoustic stimuli in psychology [21] and finding a “standard reference sound” in scientific terms is cillating harmonic system. provided that the listener knows well enough the Yin Yang pedagogy [19] to human and animal environmental health difficult, perhaps impossible, the human mind seems ca- theory. However, to enable human-machine interaction, [22]. The methodology employed in these works can be pable of assessing the absolute value of a sound (its pitch automatic analysis and classification, some algorithms can extended to the evaluation of sounds and music of Yin or or loudness, for example) with ease. Any non-impaired Concepts like chaos and randomness were not known 5 be designed in order to extract information in terms of Yang character. Once a scenario is designed, including listener, when presented with a pitched sound, will be at the time . Fluctuations between the two oppo- Yin and Yang. To do so, several low-level descriptors description of the desired subjects, methodology of the able to define it as either “high” or “low”, according to sites are found also when looking at the evolution of (LLDs) are combined to obtain two high-level features trial and the expected effects to be monitored, tests can be a personal scale. ”To some extent tonal relations are com- a sound at a higher level: any sound will raise (birth that analyze the sound in time and frequency. In this work, conducted and sounds can be classified by the effect they puted even when only a single tone is higher or lower, or is regarded as Yang in the theory) and fade (aging the proposed LLDs are taken from the well documented induce on psychological or physiological parameters. A longer or shorter, than a conceptual average tone encoun- and death of living beings is regarded as Yin), its MPEG-7 standard [1]. pattern must be then extracted to find acoustic or musical tered across the course of a lifetime” [14]. The same can spectral content may change with time, etc. features that are correlated with the obtained effect. The be said about a listener who is familiar with the Yin Yang Feature 1: this feature highlights temporal character- (3) No sound can be measured in terms of Yin or Yang preparation of the test procedure and the administration of theory, assessing a presented sound in terms of Yin and istics of signals by adopting the LogAttackTime (LAT) as it would be with a physical quantity, as the true the stimuli must be carefully planned. The Yin Yang the- Yang. This clearly relates to what stated in Section 2, (3). and TemporalCentroid (TC) features. The former pro- nature of Yin and Yang cannot be known by pure ory does not rely on absolute concepts, e.g. the effect of When dealing with acoustic signals, several proper- vides a measure of the rise time of a signal attack time rational thought. We can however discern and learn a certain stimulus depends on the current condition of the ties can be analyzed in terms of compactness, energy and (the faster, the more Yang), while the second provides the discriminating sounds by applying some general prin- subject, the length of the stimulus administration (which transformation. Table 1 reports some of these properties localization of a signal (the closer to the attack or decay ciples and construct tools for the assessment, such on the long term may cause the opposite effect), etc. and their assessment in terms of Yin and Yang follow- time, the more Yang). The resulting feature sums the two as the time compactness, the spectral center of mass, Our research on this topic is very promising though ing the criteria introduced hitherto for analysis of acoustic LLDs with weight w to be evaluated empirically, provid- and so on. An absolute measure is not feasible, nor at its early stages. In future works, case studies will be signals. ing sounds that are more Yang in their nature with higher of particular practical use within this framework: indexes: reported in order to show the accuracy of the ancient Yin it is the change or the difference between differ- Yang theory in predicting effects of auditory stimuli on Table 1: Description of sound properties in terms of Yin ent sounds that are of interest, e.g.: is a change 1 td subjects. ( ) and Yang ( ). F1 = w LAT +(1 w) TC . (2) of dynamic in a piece useful to gather the atten- · − · td | − 2 | tion of the audience? Is a noisy glitch better for sharp 5. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK Envelope shape (attack, decay) an alarm clock tone than an ascending sound tex- where td is the decay time and the attack time is supposed smooth ture? By collecting assessment in the time domain to be at t = 0. This work provides a first extension of the ancient Yin compact Envelope (at different scales) and in the frequency domain, Feature 2: this feature highlights spectral character- Yang theory to the case of acoustic signals and sound wide these measures can provide a relative assessment. istics of signals by adopting the AudioSpectrumCentroid perception. Motivation for such a task are provided for aperiodic Periodicity Unfortunately, a perfect intermediate sound to use (ASC) and the AudioSpectrumSpread (ASS). In addition several fields of application. Extension of the theory to periodic as a reference cannot be found a priori. Reference it evaluates the spectral change between consecutive frames musical structure is still to be documented as more com- rich Spectral content sounds can, however, be chosen depending on the by difference between two subsequent AudioSpectrumEn- plex aspects are involved. However, it can be regarded as poor context. Also, the evolution of a sound or a group velope (ASE) vectors ASE(k) ASE(k 1). This accounts a particular case of the time-frequency conceptualization high − − Pitch of sounds can be evaluated, as generally speaking for spectral changes that do not cause noticeable energy discussed in this paper, in which (i) the temporal scale is low it is of higher human interest to know how sound changes in time. more relaxed (the shortest event being the shortest possi- high Sound Pressure Level evolves rather than how it is in a specific instant. ble note), (ii) events are (ideally) quantized and (iii) pitched low 1 Fs events are (ideally) locked to discrete steps in frequency (4) Yin and Yang cannot be tore apart or exist as sepa- F2 = a ASC +bASS+c(ASE(k) ASE(k 1) Fs/2| − 4 | − − depending on the tonal system in use. Also, interplay be- After having briefly discussed general properties of rate entities: a sound that is perfectly Yin or Yang (3) tween events affects the quality of a musical verse (clus- sound, the four basic principles (1)-(4) reported at Section cannot exist in reality as it would have infinite ex- with a, b, c, being weights to tune the performance of the tering vs. sparseness, dissonance vs. consonance, etc.). 2 will be discussed again but directly applied to sound. tension in time or in frequency. This is also re- feature. Characterizing music will require more complex analysis flected in the analysis of any signal: analyzing the The performances of the two features should be max- techniques than those introduced in the present paper as (1) Yin and Yang stem from the same source: a fluc- imized by finding the best parameters for their algorithms cognitive aspects are also involved in the perception of 5However it can be argued that a perfectly uncorrelated sound is im- tuation of a physical quantity, which bears both the possible to find in nature as even when digitally designed to be so in against a set of human-annotated sounds to obtain the high- music. A framework involving information theory, en- two opposites at the same time in a specific ratio. propagating through a physical systems it gains a slight correlation. est possible accuracy. This is left as a future work. tropy and their relations to the Yin and Yang principles

_600 _601 and carry similar polarity. By combining all the different (2) A sound is always generated by transformation and two opposite aspects of sound, i.e. time and fre- 4.2. By assessment of human psychological and phys- properties it is possible to better understand the nature of a fluctuation between opposite polarities, in the same quency, cannot be arbitrarily perfect. The resolution iological parameters a sound, compared to other sounds taken as reference. It way as Yin and Yang continuously change one into of one dimension in a space-phase representation of Another concept arising from direct comparison with mac- must be noted however that a reference sound, i.e. a per- the other. In Chinese theories this turnover is de- the signal, such as the spectrogram, cannot be arbi- robiotics and similar disciplines is that the nature of a fectly balanced sound does not exist: can an intermediate picted similarly to what we know as a harmonic sys- trarily high without affecting the resolution of the sound can be determined by its effect on human subjects. time compactness or an intermediate frequency localiza- tem, as illustrated in Figure 2. other dimension. This is formalized in the indeter- For instance a Yin sound (e.g. a prolonged pad texture tion between 0 and infinite be found? Can the bounds minacy principle exposed by Gabor in [9], which in with slow attack) is expected to have a Yin effect on the given by human hearing (in both time resolution and fre- turn relies on the similar principle by Heisenberg in mood or the physiology of a listening subject that can be quency response thresholds) or by digital sampling (in quantum physics. qualified by questionnaires or quantified by measuring its both time resolution and the Nyquist frequency limit) be heartbeat rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, EEG and used to find an intermediate sound? This is questionable other parameters. Similar test involving music have been as other variables also appear related to human percep- 4. ASSESSING YIN AND YANG used in a wide variety of works spanning from evaluation (should the intermediate frequency be found as the tion of chord progressions [8] and variation of physiolog- arithmetic mean of the 20 Hz - 20 kHz audibility range, 4.1. By audio analysis techniques ical parameters under exposure to musical stimuli [29], or in a linear scale or in an octave-spaced scale?). Although Figure 2: The turnover between Yin and Yang as an os- Discrimination of a sound’s character can be done by ear, involving other acoustic stimuli in psychology [21] and finding a “standard reference sound” in scientific terms is cillating harmonic system. provided that the listener knows well enough the Yin Yang pedagogy [19] to human and animal environmental health difficult, perhaps impossible, the human mind seems ca- theory. However, to enable human-machine interaction, [22]. The methodology employed in these works can be pable of assessing the absolute value of a sound (its pitch automatic analysis and classification, some algorithms can extended to the evaluation of sounds and music of Yin or or loudness, for example) with ease. Any non-impaired Concepts like chaos and randomness were not known 5 be designed in order to extract information in terms of Yang character. Once a scenario is designed, including listener, when presented with a pitched sound, will be at the time . Fluctuations between the two oppo- Yin and Yang. To do so, several low-level descriptors description of the desired subjects, methodology of the able to define it as either “high” or “low”, according to sites are found also when looking at the evolution of (LLDs) are combined to obtain two high-level features trial and the expected effects to be monitored, tests can be a personal scale. ”To some extent tonal relations are com- a sound at a higher level: any sound will raise (birth that analyze the sound in time and frequency. In this work, conducted and sounds can be classified by the effect they puted even when only a single tone is higher or lower, or is regarded as Yang in the theory) and fade (aging the proposed LLDs are taken from the well documented induce on psychological or physiological parameters. A longer or shorter, than a conceptual average tone encoun- and death of living beings is regarded as Yin), its MPEG-7 standard [1]. pattern must be then extracted to find acoustic or musical tered across the course of a lifetime” [14]. The same can spectral content may change with time, etc. features that are correlated with the obtained effect. The be said about a listener who is familiar with the Yin Yang Feature 1: this feature highlights temporal character- (3) No sound can be measured in terms of Yin or Yang preparation of the test procedure and the administration of theory, assessing a presented sound in terms of Yin and istics of signals by adopting the LogAttackTime (LAT) as it would be with a physical quantity, as the true the stimuli must be carefully planned. The Yin Yang the- Yang. This clearly relates to what stated in Section 2, (3). and TemporalCentroid (TC) features. The former pro- nature of Yin and Yang cannot be known by pure ory does not rely on absolute concepts, e.g. the effect of When dealing with acoustic signals, several proper- vides a measure of the rise time of a signal attack time rational thought. We can however discern and learn a certain stimulus depends on the current condition of the ties can be analyzed in terms of compactness, energy and (the faster, the more Yang), while the second provides the discriminating sounds by applying some general prin- subject, the length of the stimulus administration (which transformation. Table 1 reports some of these properties localization of a signal (the closer to the attack or decay ciples and construct tools for the assessment, such on the long term may cause the opposite effect), etc. and their assessment in terms of Yin and Yang follow- time, the more Yang). The resulting feature sums the two as the time compactness, the spectral center of mass, Our research on this topic is very promising though ing the criteria introduced hitherto for analysis of acoustic LLDs with weight w to be evaluated empirically, provid- and so on. An absolute measure is not feasible, nor at its early stages. In future works, case studies will be signals. ing sounds that are more Yang in their nature with higher of particular practical use within this framework: indexes: reported in order to show the accuracy of the ancient Yin it is the change or the difference between differ- Yang theory in predicting effects of auditory stimuli on Table 1: Description of sound properties in terms of Yin ent sounds that are of interest, e.g.: is a change 1 td subjects. ( ) and Yang ( ). F1 = w LAT +(1 w) TC . (2) of dynamic in a piece useful to gather the atten- · − · td | − 2 | tion of the audience? Is a noisy glitch better for sharp 5. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK Envelope shape (attack, decay) an alarm clock tone than an ascending sound tex- where td is the decay time and the attack time is supposed smooth ture? By collecting assessment in the time domain to be at t = 0. This work provides a first extension of the ancient Yin compact Envelope (at different scales) and in the frequency domain, Feature 2: this feature highlights spectral character- Yang theory to the case of acoustic signals and sound wide these measures can provide a relative assessment. istics of signals by adopting the AudioSpectrumCentroid perception. Motivation for such a task are provided for aperiodic Periodicity Unfortunately, a perfect intermediate sound to use (ASC) and the AudioSpectrumSpread (ASS). In addition several fields of application. Extension of the theory to periodic as a reference cannot be found a priori. Reference it evaluates the spectral change between consecutive frames musical structure is still to be documented as more com- rich Spectral content sounds can, however, be chosen depending on the by difference between two subsequent AudioSpectrumEn- plex aspects are involved. However, it can be regarded as poor context. Also, the evolution of a sound or a group velope (ASE) vectors ASE(k) ASE(k 1). This accounts a particular case of the time-frequency conceptualization high − − Pitch of sounds can be evaluated, as generally speaking for spectral changes that do not cause noticeable energy discussed in this paper, in which (i) the temporal scale is low it is of higher human interest to know how sound changes in time. more relaxed (the shortest event being the shortest possi- high Sound Pressure Level evolves rather than how it is in a specific instant. ble note), (ii) events are (ideally) quantized and (iii) pitched low 1 Fs events are (ideally) locked to discrete steps in frequency (4) Yin and Yang cannot be tore apart or exist as sepa- F2 = a ASC +bASS+c(ASE(k) ASE(k 1) Fs/2| − 4 | − − depending on the tonal system in use. Also, interplay be- After having briefly discussed general properties of rate entities: a sound that is perfectly Yin or Yang (3) tween events affects the quality of a musical verse (clus- sound, the four basic principles (1)-(4) reported at Section cannot exist in reality as it would have infinite ex- with a, b, c, being weights to tune the performance of the tering vs. sparseness, dissonance vs. consonance, etc.). 2 will be discussed again but directly applied to sound. tension in time or in frequency. This is also re- feature. Characterizing music will require more complex analysis flected in the analysis of any signal: analyzing the The performances of the two features should be max- techniques than those introduced in the present paper as (1) Yin and Yang stem from the same source: a fluc- imized by finding the best parameters for their algorithms cognitive aspects are also involved in the perception of 5However it can be argued that a perfectly uncorrelated sound is im- tuation of a physical quantity, which bears both the possible to find in nature as even when digitally designed to be so in against a set of human-annotated sounds to obtain the high- music. A framework involving information theory, en- two opposites at the same time in a specific ratio. propagating through a physical systems it gains a slight correlation. est possible accuracy. This is left as a future work. tropy and their relations to the Yin and Yang principles

_600 _601 will be proposed. The use of the Five Elements theory [7] C. Emmons, “Hong kong’s feng shui: popular magic [22] A. Popper, J. Fewtrell, M. Smith, and R. McCauley, [36] W. Zhang and K. Peace, “Yin Yang mental squares- can prove helpful to connect this knowledge to moods and in a modern urban setting,” The Journal of Popular “Anthropogenic sound: Effects on the behavior and an equilibrium-based system for bipolar neurobio- emotional states. Culture, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 39–50, 1992. physiology of fishes,” Marine Technology Society logical pattern classification and analysis,” in 7th The concepts adopted for acoustic signals can be fur- Journal, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 35–40, 2003. IEEE Int. Conf. on Bioinformatics and Bioengineer- ther extended to other kind of signals by using the same [8] M. Fukumoto, S. Ogawa, S. Nakashima, and J.- ing, 2007, pp. 1240–1244. principles. Electromagnetism can easily relate to this du- I. Imai, “Extended interactive evolutionary compu- [23] M. Porkert, Theoretical foundations of Chinese alistic theory as it has a innate dualism also from a physics tation using heart rate variability as fitness value medicine: Systems of correspondence, 1978. standpoint. Physiological signals are of particular inter- for composing music chord progression,” in Nature [24] C. Porrata, M. Hernandez´ Triana, D. Castro, est as they can be correlated with other aspects of human and Biologically Inspired Computing (NaBIC), 2010 M. Naranjo, R. Vila,´ M. D´ıaz et al., “Security and health considered in the Yin Yang theory and the Five El- Second World Congress on, dec. 2010, pp. 407 –412. nutritional value of macrobiotic diet: The cuban ex- ements theory. [9] D. Gabor, “Theory of communication,” J. of the In- perience.” Proccedings of Intrafood, 2005. As Yin or Yang do not represent any physical quantity, stitution of Electrical Engineers, vol. 93, no. 26, pp. their assessment is no easy task. Two simple algorithms 429–441, 1946. [25] C. Porrata, J. Sanchez,´ V. Correa, A. Abu´ın, are proposed as a high-level features for a Yin Yang sound M. Hernandez-Triana,´ R. Dacosta-Calheiros, analysis. Their accuracy in describing sounds is still to be [10] ——, “Acoustical quanta and the theory of hearing,” M. D´ıaz, M. Mirabal, E. Cabrera, C. Campa et al., quantified. Assessing the effects of sounds on subjects’ Nature, pp. 591–594, 1947. “Ma-pi 2 macrobiotic diet intervention in adults physiological parameters is also regarded as another way with type 2 diabetes mellitus,” MEDICC review, [11] M. Jakkriss Bhumisawasdi and O. Vanna, “The self- of understanding the nature of their properties and their vol. 11, no. 4, p. 30, 2009. relation to human health, psyche and physiology. Study- reliant system for alternative care of diabetes melli- ing the effect of sounds on physical and mental states will tus patients–experience macrobiotic management in [26] M. Rath, F. Avanzini, N. Bernardini, G. Borin, gather further insight on their nature and will help pro- Trad province,” J Med Assoc Thai, vol. 89, no. 12, F. Fontana, L. Ottaviani, and D. Rocchesso, “An in- viding the best analytical tools for their selection and ma- pp. 2104–15, 2006. troductory catalog of computer-synthesized contact nipulation. The subtle, relative and fuzzy nature of this sounds, in real-time,” in Proc. Colloquium of Musi- [12] R. Kostelanetz, Conversing with Cage. New York: theory makes its use, however, delicate. The mastering cal Informatics, 2003, pp. 103–108. of these concept is nor easy nor fast to obtain and surely Routledge, 2003. [27] J. O. Smith, Spectral Audio Signal Processing. always perfectable. Much work must be conducted in all [13] R. Lerman, “The macrobiotic diet in chronic dis- W3K Publishing, 2011. the areas reported above; the effort, however, is motivated ease,” Nutrition in Clinical Practice, vol. 25, no. 6, by the ability to construct a new framework enabling for a p. 621, 2010. more holistic approach to the use of music and sound and, [28] L. Tzu and J. Legge, Tao te ching. Digireads, 2009. ultimately, to the realization of Fritjof Capra’s dream: that [14] D. Levitin and A. Tirovolas, “Current advances in [29] M. D. van der Zwaag, J. H. Westerink, and E. L. is the renewal of western sciences by their harmonization the cognitive neuroscience of music,” Annals of the van den Broek, “Emotional and psychophysiological with ancient wisdom. New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1156, no. 1, pp. responses to tempo, mode, and percussiveness,” Mu- 211–231, 2009. sicae Scientiae, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 250–269, 2011. 6. REFERENCES [15] J. Needham, Science and Civilisation in China. [30] B. Watson, The complete works of Chuang Tzu. Cambridge University Press, 1956. [1] ISO: Information technology Multimedia content Columbia University Press, 1968, vol. 80. description interface Part 1: Systems (ISO/IEC [16] M. Nguyen, D. Shi, and J. Fu, “An online bayesian [31] N. WHO/FAO Expert Consultation on Diet, 15938-1:2002). International Standards Organiza- Ying-Yang learning applied to fuzzy CMAC,” Neu- P. of Chronic Diseases, and W. H. Organization, tion, 2002. rocomputing, vol. 72, no. 13, pp. 562 – 572, 2008. Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Dis- [2] Noncommunicable diseases country profiles 2011. [17] G. Ohsawa, Zen macrobiotics: the art of rejuvena- eases: Report of a WHO/FAO Expert Consultation. World Health Organization, 2011. tion and longevity. GOMF, 1965. World Health Organization, 2003. [32] R. Wilhelm and U. Diederichs, I-ging. Europ. Bil- [3] F. Capra, The Tao of physics: An exploration of the [18] B. Ou, D. Huang, M. Hampsch-Woodhill, and dungsgemeinschaft, 1956. parallels between modern physics and Eastern mys- J. Fanagan, “When east meets west: the re- ticism. Shambhala Publications, 1975. lationship between Yin-Yang and antioxidation- oxidation,” The Fed. American Soc. Experimental [33] L. Xu, “Bayesian Ying-Yang system, best harmony Biology journal, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 127–129, 2003. learning, and five action circling,” Frontiers of Elec- [4] ——, The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understand- trical and Electronic Engineering in China, vol. 5, ing of Living Systems. Anchor Books, 1997. [19] H. Palmqvist, “The effect of heartbeat sound stim- no. 3, pp. 281–328, 2010. ulation on the weight development of newborn in- [5] D. Chu, “Tai chi, qi gong and reiki,” Physical fants,” Child development, pp. 292–295, 1975. [34] ——, “Bayesian-kullback coupled YING-YANG Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North Amer- machines: Unified learning and new results on vec- ica, vol. 15, pp. 773–782, 2004. [20] M. Pianesi, Le 5 diete Ma-Pi. L’Chi, Macerata, tor quantization,” in International Conference on Italy, 2009. Neural Information Processing, 1995, pp. 977–988. [6] I. Daubechies, “The wavelet transform, time- frequency localization and signal analysis,” Infor- [21] R. Plutchik, “The effects of high intensity intermit- [35] W. Zhang, “YinYang bipolar fuzzy sets,” in Fuzzy mation Theory, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 36, no. 5, tent sound on performance, feeling and physiology.” Systems, IEEE World Congress on Computational pp. 961–1005, 1990. Psychological Bulletin, vol. 56, no. 2, p. 133, 1959. Intelligence, vol. 1. IEEE, 1998, pp. 835–840.

_602 _603 will be proposed. The use of the Five Elements theory [7] C. Emmons, “Hong kong’s feng shui: popular magic [22] A. Popper, J. Fewtrell, M. Smith, and R. McCauley, [36] W. Zhang and K. Peace, “Yin Yang mental squares- can prove helpful to connect this knowledge to moods and in a modern urban setting,” The Journal of Popular “Anthropogenic sound: Effects on the behavior and an equilibrium-based system for bipolar neurobio- emotional states. Culture, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 39–50, 1992. physiology of fishes,” Marine Technology Society logical pattern classification and analysis,” in 7th The concepts adopted for acoustic signals can be fur- Journal, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 35–40, 2003. IEEE Int. Conf. on Bioinformatics and Bioengineer- ther extended to other kind of signals by using the same [8] M. Fukumoto, S. Ogawa, S. Nakashima, and J.- ing, 2007, pp. 1240–1244. principles. Electromagnetism can easily relate to this du- I. Imai, “Extended interactive evolutionary compu- [23] M. Porkert, Theoretical foundations of Chinese alistic theory as it has a innate dualism also from a physics tation using heart rate variability as fitness value medicine: Systems of correspondence, 1978. standpoint. Physiological signals are of particular inter- for composing music chord progression,” in Nature [24] C. Porrata, M. Hernandez´ Triana, D. Castro, est as they can be correlated with other aspects of human and Biologically Inspired Computing (NaBIC), 2010 M. Naranjo, R. Vila,´ M. D´ıaz et al., “Security and health considered in the Yin Yang theory and the Five El- Second World Congress on, dec. 2010, pp. 407 –412. nutritional value of macrobiotic diet: The cuban ex- ements theory. [9] D. Gabor, “Theory of communication,” J. of the In- perience.” Proccedings of Intrafood, 2005. As Yin or Yang do not represent any physical quantity, stitution of Electrical Engineers, vol. 93, no. 26, pp. their assessment is no easy task. Two simple algorithms 429–441, 1946. [25] C. Porrata, J. Sanchez,´ V. Correa, A. Abu´ın, are proposed as a high-level features for a Yin Yang sound M. Hernandez-Triana,´ R. Dacosta-Calheiros, analysis. Their accuracy in describing sounds is still to be [10] ——, “Acoustical quanta and the theory of hearing,” M. D´ıaz, M. Mirabal, E. Cabrera, C. Campa et al., quantified. Assessing the effects of sounds on subjects’ Nature, pp. 591–594, 1947. “Ma-pi 2 macrobiotic diet intervention in adults physiological parameters is also regarded as another way with type 2 diabetes mellitus,” MEDICC review, [11] M. Jakkriss Bhumisawasdi and O. Vanna, “The self- of understanding the nature of their properties and their vol. 11, no. 4, p. 30, 2009. relation to human health, psyche and physiology. Study- reliant system for alternative care of diabetes melli- ing the effect of sounds on physical and mental states will tus patients–experience macrobiotic management in [26] M. Rath, F. Avanzini, N. Bernardini, G. Borin, gather further insight on their nature and will help pro- Trad province,” J Med Assoc Thai, vol. 89, no. 12, F. Fontana, L. Ottaviani, and D. Rocchesso, “An in- viding the best analytical tools for their selection and ma- pp. 2104–15, 2006. troductory catalog of computer-synthesized contact nipulation. The subtle, relative and fuzzy nature of this sounds, in real-time,” in Proc. Colloquium of Musi- [12] R. Kostelanetz, Conversing with Cage. New York: theory makes its use, however, delicate. The mastering cal Informatics, 2003, pp. 103–108. of these concept is nor easy nor fast to obtain and surely Routledge, 2003. [27] J. O. Smith, Spectral Audio Signal Processing. always perfectable. Much work must be conducted in all [13] R. Lerman, “The macrobiotic diet in chronic dis- W3K Publishing, 2011. the areas reported above; the effort, however, is motivated ease,” Nutrition in Clinical Practice, vol. 25, no. 6, by the ability to construct a new framework enabling for a p. 621, 2010. more holistic approach to the use of music and sound and, [28] L. Tzu and J. Legge, Tao te ching. Digireads, 2009. ultimately, to the realization of Fritjof Capra’s dream: that [14] D. Levitin and A. Tirovolas, “Current advances in [29] M. D. van der Zwaag, J. H. Westerink, and E. L. is the renewal of western sciences by their harmonization the cognitive neuroscience of music,” Annals of the van den Broek, “Emotional and psychophysiological with ancient wisdom. New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1156, no. 1, pp. responses to tempo, mode, and percussiveness,” Mu- 211–231, 2009. sicae Scientiae, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 250–269, 2011. 6. REFERENCES [15] J. Needham, Science and Civilisation in China. [30] B. Watson, The complete works of Chuang Tzu. Cambridge University Press, 1956. [1] ISO: Information technology Multimedia content Columbia University Press, 1968, vol. 80. description interface Part 1: Systems (ISO/IEC [16] M. Nguyen, D. Shi, and J. Fu, “An online bayesian [31] N. WHO/FAO Expert Consultation on Diet, 15938-1:2002). International Standards Organiza- Ying-Yang learning applied to fuzzy CMAC,” Neu- P. of Chronic Diseases, and W. H. Organization, tion, 2002. rocomputing, vol. 72, no. 13, pp. 562 – 572, 2008. Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Dis- [2] Noncommunicable diseases country profiles 2011. [17] G. Ohsawa, Zen macrobiotics: the art of rejuvena- eases: Report of a WHO/FAO Expert Consultation. World Health Organization, 2011. tion and longevity. GOMF, 1965. World Health Organization, 2003. [32] R. Wilhelm and U. Diederichs, I-ging. Europ. Bil- [3] F. Capra, The Tao of physics: An exploration of the [18] B. Ou, D. Huang, M. 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