john
The major focus in my professional life has been the development of perception based Quality of Experience (QoE) measurement and optimization techniques (see left/top picture).
I started my career in 1974 with an internship on the topic of intonation at the IPO (PHILIPS Eindhoven, see photo).
I have degrees in electronic engineering (ing), physics (MSc) and psychophysics (PhD). My biggest achievements are:
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1) The insight that sustainability has to be strived for in 3, loosely coupled, domains: Information, where growth is possible and necessary (use data compression, jpg, mp3, mp4,... and focus on long term relevancy, dus op goeie groene groei); Energy, where
growth is still possible (but burning fossil fuels is a very bad idea); and Matter, where we have reached our planetary limits (zero sum game, how to divide the pie)
(1975, ing thesis).
This split solves the problem that progress can only be reached through destruction, as formulated by a disappointed Herbert Marcuse, because we can shift the destruction process from Matter towards Information trying to improve quality of life. This split should also be applied in the economy, including inflation analysis.
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2) A minimal mode distortion loudspeaker enclosure that has no points, lines or planes of symmetry
(1983, subsidized private patent).
Symmetry in acoustic spaces and loudspeaker enclosures lead to
unwanted resonances.
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3) An optimum diffuse field loudspeaker reproduction obtained by equalizing the room response
independently from the direct field response,
demonstrated in 1988 at the FIRATO (in co-operation with BNS)
and later extended to optimize the feeling of immersion.
An overall overview of this immersion approach, including the ideas related to transparency and idealization, is given in this American Scientist paper.
A version which includes more scientific references can be found here.
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4) An algorithm for calculating the Pitch Probability Density Function (PPDF) in speech and audio signals
(1989, PhD Chapter 5, Philips Patent).
THE pitch of a signal does not exist, it is strongly dependent on the context,
the best known context dependency example is the
Shepard tone.
Therefore one should calculate the PPDF of a signal and let the context determine THE pitch.
5) Introduction of the concept of idealization in speech quality measurement, leading to the
ITU
POLQA measurement standard
(2011, POLQA P.863, KPN & TNO Patents).
The quality of a signal is determined by the distance between
Realization and Idealization.
See also:
Google Scholar ,
Presentation 50th anniversary of the Netherlands section of the AES (2024) ,
Publications/Patents ,
Curriculum Vitae ,
Interview in TNO magazine (2006 in Dutch
or English)
and
LinkedIn
More details regarding my research activities can be found here:
My non-professional life is focused on Quality (read my philosophy on measuring Quality) and for a part thus on audio quality,
see e.g. my view on HiFi published in 2007 in HiFi Video Test and updated/extended in English over the period 2012-2023:
An overview of conversational quality and music reproduction quality is given in this HiFi over WiFi paper (only available in Dutch).
Or, when shifting towards content quality, listen to my 1 hecto second (1 hs) music taste linkers chosen on the basis of their combined
spectacularity and stability quality score, read my philosophy on measuring Quality
(quality limited by MP3 compression) :
1722 J. S. Bach (Sviatoslav Richter 1972) / Well Tempered Clavier / Prelude & Fugue No. 08 BWV 853
1731 Vivaldi (Jakob Lindberg 1985) / Concerto in Re maggiore / Allegro giusto / RV93
(perfect acoustic capture by BIS)
1814 Beethoven (Hélène Couvert 2004) / Piano Sonatas / Sonate op.27 no 1
1896 Bruckner (Bernard Haitink 1965)/ Symphony no 9 / Scherzo
1940 John Cage (Donald Knaack 1989) / Three Constructions / Second Construction
1969 Frank Zappa / Hot Rats / Little Umbrellas
1973 Gentle Giant / In a Glass House / Experience
1977 Spirit / Future Games / Buried in My Brain
1980 Captain Beefheart / Doc at the Radar Station / Hot Head
1991 Pere Ubu / Worlds in Collision / Worlds in Collision
1997 Slapp Happy / Ça Va / Powerful Stuff
Naming convention = Composer (Interpreter) / CD / Song.
More 1 hs taste linkers can be found here
Or listen to some of my favorite hit single (guilty?) pleasures
Or to some hit and non hit modern classics
Or to some video clips where the video is dominating the perception
Or to some of my favorite hit singles about "idealization" and "dreaming"
Or to some of my favorite hit singles about "farewell" and "the end"
Or, when shifting away from quality, listen to some of my old private recordings in the 80's with low quality audio equipment:
Unknown marimba piece by Paul Jongsthover (recorded 1985, technical set up by Hans van Beekhuyzen )
Rain pipe marimba algorithmic music by Leon van Noorden (recorded 1985 using my Jecklin Disc like walkman recording bag) link to Leon
Piano improvisation by Bart Dijkman (recorded 1982 using my home built tube condenser microphones) link to Bart
My Turkish neighbors in the early 80's when MultiCulti still had a positive connotation (recorded in 1982 using my
home built tube condenser microphones)
Karaoke Hauser Orkater door Ineke Beerends Hazebroek, Ton Willekes en Rasida Jahangir (recorded 1980 using my home built tube condenser microphones) link to Ton Willekes Ensemble Pittorresque
My quick try-out algorithmic music construction (recorded 1987 using a Mac and Yamaha FB01 synthesizer)
Some of my favorite music video clips:
1966 Kinks - Dead End Street
1987 New Order - True Faith
1987 Interpol - The Heinrich Maneuver
1995 Radiohead - Street Spirit
2000 The Dandy Warholes - Godless
2006 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion
2006 Raconteurs - Steady, As She Goes
2006 Stromae - L’enfer 2022
Nederlandstalige muziek, ook gekozen op basis van de gecombineerde spectaculari-stabiliteit:
1965 Het / Ik heb geen zin om op te staan
1974 Drs P / Dodenrit
1976 Bots / Zeven dagen lang
1979 Hauser Orkater / Zie de mannen vallen
2001 Maarten van Roozendaal / Red mij niet
Maarten van Roozendaal / Het Leven Heeft Geen Zin
2015 Broederliefde / Alaka
You may also want to watch some of my favorite live performances:
1968 The Doors - When The Music's Over / EUROPE
1968 Small Faces - Full Concert / UK, BBC
1968 Soft Machine - Full Concert / France
1968 The Mothers Of Invention (Frank Zappa) - Concert / UK London
1969 Fleetwood Mac - Man of the world / Germany, Beat-Club
1969 The Jimi Hendrix Experience / Sweden Stockholm
1970 Joni Mitchell - Woodstock / UK, BBC
1972 Captain Beefheart Concert / Germany, Beat-Club
1972 Pacific Gas and Electric - Are You Ready / Germany, Beat-Club
1985 Mink DeVille - Demasiado Corazon / Netherlands, Top-Pop
2010 Iva Bittova - Sirka v louzi / Netherlands, VPRO Vrije Geluiden
2013 Wire - Full Concert / USA Seattle, KEXP
2014 Thurston Moore - Full Concert / USA Seattle, KEXP
2016? Rogerio Tutti - Malagueña (Lecuona) / Brasil
2021 Mdou Moctar - Afrique Victime / Niger
2023 Buddy Guy | / Netherlands Rotterdam, North Sea Jazz
Moving further away from music towards art:
1612 Artemisia Gentileschi / Judith and Holofernes (The result of Me Too)
1658 Johannes Vermeer / Milkmaid (Paint the Light)
1914 Jan Mankes / Young white goat (Essentialization of a goat)
1944 Piet Mondriaan / Victory Boogie Woogie (Abstract Ultimo)
1986 Ingrid Sikkens / Fragile Bird (Essentialization of fragility)
1987 Madi Phala / These Guys Are Heavy (Black Artists matter)
1999 Francis Alÿs / El Ensayo (Multi Media, Should be experienced in surround)
2000 Ingrid Sikkens / Blauwe Pop (Personal favorite)
2015 Tereza Rullerova / Playbour Supersonik (Multi Media)
2015 Laurie Anderson / Heart of a Dog, With a touch of Kierkegaard and Wittgenstein (see last page of my PhD)
Best talks/documentaries in the search of the basics we need to understand the world:
1985 The Little Drummer Boy: Essay on Mahler (French subtitles) | Leonard Bernstein | USA
2007 Why the universe seems so strange | Richard Dawkins | USA Monterey, TED talk
2010 Visualizing Eleven Dimensions | Thad Roberts | USA Boulder, TEDx talk
2013 The Particle at the End of the Universe | Sean Carroll | UK London, The Royal Institution presentation
2013 The most important lesson from 83,000 brain scans | Daniel Amen | USA Orange Coast, TEDx talk
2014 How to Love Intelligently In the Age of Instant Gratification | Sue Johnson | MindBodyGreen
2014 Mathematics as Hidden Reality | Edward Frenkel | Science and Non Duality
2015 How dogs love us | Gregory Berns | USA Atlanta, TEDx talk
2015 Have we reached the end of physics? | Harry Cliff | Switzerland Geneva, TED Global talk
2016 The most mysterious star in the universe | Tabetha Boyajian | Canada Vancouver, TED talk
2016 Why Does Time Exist at All? | Sean Carroll | USA Caltec, TEDx talk
2016 What is the best diet for humans? | Eran Segal | TEDx Ruppin
2017 De maatschappelijke oorzaken van burnout | Paul Verhaeghe | Netherlands, Steunpunt sociaal-cultureel werk vzw
2017 Nihilism - There’s an App for That! | Nolen Gertz | Germany Frankfurt, TEDx talk
2017 Quantum Fields: The Real Building Blocks of the Universe | David Tong | UK London, The Royal Institution presentation
2018 Quantum Computing: Untangling the Hype | Artur Ekert and Harry Buhrman| UK London, The Royal Institution presentation
2018 Lessons from a Tiananmen Massacre Survivor | Jianli Yang | USA Pittsburgh, TEDx talk Carnegie Mellon,
2019 Super ethics or super intelligence | Pim Haselager | Netherlands Nijmegen, Donders Institute presentation
2024 Consciousness in humans and other things | Anil K Seth | UK London, The Royal Institution presentation