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- rhoohr> What is it like to hear vocal folds vibrate?I wouldn't normally describe hearing a voice as hearing "vibrations". Vibrations are indeed the physical basis of sound, and the auditory system detects changes in air pressure caused by them. But vibrations can also be perceived through touch, and the subjective experience of hearing is quite different from the tactile sensation of feeling something vibrate. When talking about feeling vibrations, I usually think of the touching sensation.Still, both sensations originate from the same physical phenomenon. You can try to feel your own vocal chords vibrate by placing your fingers on your throat while humming. It's certainly a very different sensation, and touch generally conveys fewer acoustic details than typical hearing, but you're sensing the same underlying physical event.One interesting example is Dani Valeska (Instagram: @daniivaleska), a Brazilian Sign Language interpreter whose husband is deaf (I couldn't find his name). She shares content about their experiences, and I remember seeing a video in which her husband used the vibrations of her voice, felt by touching her throat, to reproduce what she was saying. This resembles a technique called "tactiling", which has been studied as a tactile aid to speechreading (https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/tactiling-a-us...).
- hackerciENT surgeon who has bilateral CIs and has been in the research field for 20+ years. This sort of stuff is cool, but there are lots of limitations at the auditory nerve interface that limits improvements to speech and music processing strategies. Crazily enough, many of these studies were done in the 1960s to 1990s and are still valid today. There are strategies that can help at individual level, but do not help everyone. Thus they have not made it to clinical use.
- losvedir> But I cannot know what sound is really like, because I have no memory of normal hearing.and> I was born with normal hearing. I began losing my hearing in childhood ... After I was registered, I started wearing hearing aids. People's voices became clear, and for a few months things were good. ... A specialist told me that I badly needed cochlear implant surgery, but I hesitated because it was very expensive.I'm confused what's going on here.
- libpcapSoftware like Voicemod transforms speaking voice into a bright, robotic, or Miku-inspired digital idol tone in real time. I wonder if this would help in hearing and understanding speech better.
- whycomeI'm realizing what an utterly wild English language word "psychophysics" is for new learners. It's so many conflicting sounds and rules in one.
- cosmojgTheir GitHub repo with all of their data is here: https://github.com/mi-rae-lab/ci-psychophysics-data
- anonundefined
- mi-raeAuthor here. I'm Korean, and I have cochlear implants in both ears, which I received in a clinical trial in 2025. No one could tell me what I actually hear, so between 11 October and 4 November 2026 I ran seven psychophysical tests on myself (10,992 trials), using browser test apps that Claude built for me. I'm an amateur, so there are surely mistakes, and corrections are very welcome.All trial-level data, the analysis code and Lean 4 checks of the apps' logic are on GitHub (non-commercial licenses): https://github.com/mi-rae-lab/ci-psychophysics-dataI do not speak English. The page was translated with Claude, and I will use AI to read and answer replies, so my answers may be slow.This is my first time visiting Hacker News, and my first post here. I don't know the culture here well yet, but I deeply respect it and support it.It is past 1 a.m. here in Korea and I am very tired, so I need to get some sleep. I will check back around 9:30 a.m. Korean time (00:30 UTC).
- jedbrooke[flagged]