https://github.com/nitrocosmstudios/temperature-sonification
Experimental sonification of temperature sensor data revealing structured, speech-like patterns coinciding with geomagnetic disturbances. Includes original dataset processing, synthetic signal attempts, and full write-up.
https://github.com/nitrocosmstudios/temperature-sonification
audio-analysis data-visualization electromagnetic-interference emf environmental-monitoring open-science raspberry-pi signal-processing sonification temperature temperature-monitoring temperature-sensor usb-devices weird-science
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Experimental sonification of temperature sensor data revealing structured, speech-like patterns coinciding with geomagnetic disturbances. Includes original dataset processing, synthetic signal attempts, and full write-up.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/nitrocosmstudios/temperature-sonification
- Owner: nitrocosmstudios
- License: mit
- Created: 2025-05-06T07:53:05.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-05-06T19:53:22.000Z (about 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-05-08T01:33:45.105Z (about 1 year ago)
- Topics: audio-analysis, data-visualization, electromagnetic-interference, emf, environmental-monitoring, open-science, raspberry-pi, signal-processing, sonification, temperature, temperature-monitoring, temperature-sensor, usb-devices, weird-science
- Language: PHP
- Homepage: https://www.nitrocosm.com
- Size: 20.9 MB
- Stars: 0
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
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Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# Temperature Sonification and Environmental EMF Artifact Detection
**Author:** Troy McQuinn
**Status:** Experimental / Open Research
**Keywords:** sonification, EMF interference, geomagnetic storms, pareidolia, audio synthesis, environmental sensing
---
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## What This Is
This project explores the unexpected and oddly structured results of sonifying temperature data collected from a low-cost USB thermometer. By mapping each 5-minute temperature reading to a single 16-bit audio sample and playing the resulting waveform at 8,000 Hz, the dataset was time-compressed by a factor of 2.4 million.
Surprisingly, the resulting audio sometimes exhibits **speech-like formants and syllabic rhythms** particularly during periods of known **geomagnetic activity**.
---
## Why It’s Weird
While it started as a quirky sonification experiment, cross-referencing the audio with NOAA space weather logs revealed a persistent correlation between **structured audio artifacts** and **solar/geomagnetic storm windows**.
Even after ruling out software artifacts via independent Python and PHP implementations, the effect remained. This suggests that the USB thermometer might be acting (unintentionally) as a crude EMF sensor due to poor shielding or internal analog quirks.
---
## What’s Inside
- `paper/` – Full write-up in ODT and PDF formats (with figures and event alignment)
- `code/` – Sonification scripts in both PHP and Python
- `audio_samples/` – WAV files of real and simulated data
- `figures/` – Spectrograms and waveform plots of key audio segments
- `data.zip` – Temperature log data
- `README.md` – This file
---
## Simulated Control Experiments
Several synthetic datasets were generated to test whether **pareidolia alone** could explain the perception of speech-like structure. These included:
- Simulated thermal cycles with realistic modulation
- Formant-band noise shaping
- Chaotic amplitude envelopes
- Transient consonant-like bursts
- Phrase pacing and pitch glides
Despite best efforts, none of the synthetic signals reproduced the same kind of **uncanny speech illusion** found in the real dataset, suggesting the phenomenon may involve real-world nonlinearities or subtle environmental-electronic interactions.
See Section 6 of the write-up for detailed results.
---
## Reproduction Instructions
All code runs with standard PHP 7+ or Python 3.8+ with `numpy`, `scipy`, and `matplotlib`.
1. Clone the repo.
2. Unzip and place your `.dat` log files in `data/` (format: `
---
## Reflections
This work walks a fine line between traditional signal analysis and what could be described as *accidental instrumentation*. Whether these structures are artifacts, interference, or something more exotic, they appear real, repeatable, and worthy of further exploration.
Questions? Feedback? Want to fork this into a haunted USB ghost detector? Go for it.
---
## License
- Code: MIT License
- Write-up: [Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)