_596 _597

6. REFERENCES

[1] N. Adams, Analytical Methods of ElectroacousticMusic. Routledge, 2006, ch. Visualization of Mu-sical Signals, pp. 13–28.

[2] S. Barrass, “Auditory information design,” Ph.D.dissertation, The Australian National University,Canberra, Australia, 1997.

[3] J. L. Bentley, “Multidimensional binary search treesused for associative searching,” Communications ofthe ACM, vol. 18, no. 9, pp. 509–517, 1975.

[4] G. Coleman, “Mused: Navigating the personalsample library,” in Proceedings of the Interna-tional Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2007).Copenhagen, Denmark: Ann Arbor, MI: ScholarlyPublishing Office, University of Michigan Library,2007.

[5] S. Dupont, C. Frisson, X. Siebert, and D. Tardieu,“Browsing sound and music libraries by similarity,”in Proceedings of the 128th Convention of the AudioEngineering Society, London, UK, May 2010.

[6] K. K. Evans and A. Treisman, “Natural cross-modalmappings between visual and auditory features,”Journal of Vision, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 6.1–12, January2010.

[7] M. Ferreira de Oliveira and H. Levkowitz, “From vi-sual data exploration to visual data mining: A sur-vey,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Com-puter Graphics, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 378–394, 2003.

[8] K. Giannakis, “Sound mosaics,” Ph.D. dissertation,Middlesex University, London, UK, October 2001.

[9] ——, “A comparative evaluation of auditory-visual mappings for sound visualisation,” OrganisedSound, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 297–307, 2006.

[10] L. Ginsberg, “A case of synaesthesia,” The AmericanJournal of Psychology, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 582–589,October 1923.

[11] T. Grill, “Constructing high-level perceptual audiodescriptors for textural sounds,” in Proceedings ofthe 9th Sound and Music Computing Conference(SMC 2012), Copenhagen, Denmark, July 2012,forthcoming.

[12] T. Grill, A. Flexer, and S. Cunningham, “Identifica-tion of perceptual qualities in textural sounds usingthe repertory grid method,” in Proceedings of the6th Audio Mostly Conference, ser. AM ’11. NewYork, NY, USA: ACM, 2011, pp. 67–74.

[13] S. Heise, M. Hlatky, and J. Loviscach, “SoundTorch:Quick Browsing in Large Audio Collections,” inProceedings of the 125th Convention of the AudioEngineering Society, San Francisco, CA, USA, Oc-tober 2008.

[14] T. L. Hubbard, “Synesthesia-like mappings of light-ness, pitch, and melodic interval,” The AmericanJournal of Psychology, vol. 109, no. 2, pp. 219–238,1996.

[15] A. Hyvarinen, “Survey on independent componentanalysis,” Neural Computing Surveys, vol. 2, pp.94–128, 1999.

[16] W. Kohler, Gestalt psychology. Oxford, England:Liveright, 1929.

[17] L. E. Marks, “On cross-modal similarity: The per-ceptual structure of pitch, loudness, and brightness,”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Per-ception and Performance, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 586–602, August 1989.

[18] ——, “On perceptual metaphors,” Metaphor andSymbolic Activity, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 39–66, 1996.

[19] D. Maurer, T. Pathman, and C. J. Mondloch, “Theshape of boubas: sound–shape correspondences intoddlers and adults,” Developmental Science, vol. 9,no. 3, pp. 316–322, 2006.

[20] E. Pampalk, A. Rauber, and D. Merkl, “Content-based organization and visualization of musicarchives,” in MULTIMEDIA ’02: Proceedings of thetenth ACM international conference on Multimedia.New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2002, pp. 570–579.

[21] N. Sagiv and J. Ward, “Crossmodal interactions:lessons from synesthesia,” in Visual PerceptionFundamentals of Awareness: Multi-Sensory Inte-gration and High-Order Perception, ser. Progress inBrain Research, S. Martinez-Conde, S. L. Macknik,L. M. Martinez, J.-M. Alonso, and P. U. Tse, Eds.Elsevier, 2006, vol. 155, pp. 259 – 271.

[22] D. Schwarz and N. Schnell, “Sound search bycontent-based navigation in large databases,” inProceedings of the 6th Sound and Music ComputingConference (SMC 2009), Porto, Portugal, July 2009,pp. 253–258.

[23] G. Strobl, G. Eckel, and D. Rocchesso, “Sound tex-ture modeling: A survey,” in Proceedings of the2006 Sound and Music Computing (SMC) Interna-tional Conference, Marseille, France, 2006, pp. 61–65.

[24] L. van der Maaten and G. Hinton, “Visualizing datausing t-SNE,” Journal of Machine Learning Re-search, vol. 9, pp. 2579–2605, 2008.

[25] C. Ware, Information Visualization: Perception fordesign. San Francisco, CA, USA: Morgan Kauf-mann Publishers Inc., 2000.

THE YIN YANG THEORY IN SOUND AND MUSIC: A FIRSTEXPLORATION

Leonardo Gabrielli

Dept. Information Engineering,Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

l.gabrielli@univpm.it

Daniele Gabrielli

Universita di Macerata,Macerata, Italy

ABSTRACT

Today the Chinese theory of the Yin and Yang principles iswell known in western countries, often in its philosophicalaspects. However, in the far east it has been used for mil-lenia to explain and solve pragmatic problems. Notwith-standing its fuzzy and holistic nature, the Yin Yang theoryhas already been successfully applied to the analysis ofphysical and biological systems. In this paper, the the-ory is extended to the field of acoustic signals and theirtime-frequency representation, allowing for a simple yetfunctional way to analyze, discuss and formalize variousaspects of sound, accessible to experts and non-experts.The framework can also have application on synthesis al-gorithms, generative music and music therapy. Two high-level features for automatic analysis are proposed basedon MPEG-7 low-level descriptors and future scenarios toassess sound properties and their effect on human subjectsare discussed.

1. INTRODUCTION

For millennia, the Yin Yang theory has been one of the pil-lars of ancient Asian thoughts, used practically to describeall aspects of life and properties of objects and living be-ings. The theory is the pillar of several eastern philoso-phies and beliefs, such as Taoism and Zen. The Bagua(eight trigrams) and Five Element theory, on which FengShui and I King are based, stem from Yin and Yang.

Western thinkers have been highly fascinated by sucheastern concepts. A remarkable example in contemporarymusic is John Cage’s extensive use of the I King divina-tion book for composition by chance [12]. It must benoted, however, that the Yin Yang theory must not be re-garded “as a religious belief or a principle of lifestyle“[18] but a rather more practical knowledge. Not surpris-ingly some western scientists have found connections be-tween the Chinese theory and the results of contemporaryphysics. An extensive review of the funding principle toancient eastern theories and the evidences of their validityin modern physics is contained in F. Capra’s work “TheTao of Physics” [3]. Holistic thinking is also highly re-garded in contemporary theory of dynamical systems orchaos theory, which exploits new theories drawn from bi-ology and mathematics [4].

Although the seemingly dualist approach at the basisof this theory may seem excessively reductionist, thus ap-parently making the object of highly specialized techni-cal knowledge a trivial matter, it is not. On the contrary,by incorporating many aspects of the object under anal-ysis, it achieves a holistic gaze, enabling to better dealwith complex phenomena such as those related to humanperception, emotion and health. Objections to holistic ap-proaches are often made by scientists, especially in fieldslike medicine and medical care where the health of peopleis at stake. It must be stated, however, that modern medi-cal science because of the drastically sectorial knowledge(which helped fighting e.g. communicable diseases in thepast century), is now failing to provide effective therapiesand prevention to noncommunicable diseases such as car-diovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseasesand diabetes [2], which are found in both high-income andlow-income countries and can be prevented with a changein lifestyle and dietary habits [31]. In fact, there have beendocumented cases of successful applications of holisticapproaches to medicine. An excellent example is the mac-robiotic diet [24, 20, 17], a well-defined dietary regimenbased on the Yin Yang principle and on the Five Elementstheory, which is proving capable of reducing risks andgreatly improve health conditions in individuals affectedby several chronic diseases [25, 13, 11].

The Yin Yang theory has also been applied in com-putational sciences and logic, where it inspired the for-malization of a bipolar fuzzy set [35], machine learningtechniques [34, 33, 16] and of a pattern classification sys-tem for mental disorders [36]. We can probably say thatthe ancient Yin Yang theory can be applied to most, if notall, fields of human knowledge and practice, with goodchances of achieving benefits by gathering a broader un-derstanding.

It is our belief, thus, that the Yin Yang theory canbe applied to music and sound by direct extension of thephysical properties of Yin and Yang, as has been done inother fields of physics and biology. Henceforth, if thistheory is properly applied and it is correlated to emotionalstates and human activities (the ancient theory does cate-gorize these in terms of Yin and Yang), it can prove prof-itable for different scenarios, e.g.:

• for composers or performers to drive high-level au-tomatic composition or synthesis techniques in a

_598 _599

more holistic way, thus delegating all the problemsrelated to low-level control and the large dimensionof the parameters space to the machine;

• for artists of different backgrounds to communicatein mixed media performances and installations with-out the need for a highly specific common languageto be shared;

• for any kind of performance where there is a human-computer feedback and a high-level control variableneeds to be controlled and balanced;

• for individuals with no formal music training to as-sess and describe sound and music;

• for psychotherapist to understand the Yin or Yangstate of mind (and hence his general mental condi-tion) of a person from his speech, observing generalproperties such as prosody, pitch, and so on. Gener-ally speaking, Yin is linked to relaxation and Yangto strain;

• for patients under music therapy to share with theirtherapist, and for the latter to deduct the effect ofmusic and sound on their patients avoiding troublesin a more rigorous description;

• to possibly lead to a better understanding of the ef-fect of acoustic pollution and environment acousticsto psychological and physiological effects in humansubjects.

As the research is ongoing, the aim of this article is to laythe foundations for the extension of the Yin Yang theoryto the fields of sound analysis and synthesis, music clas-sification and composition, and hence to any possible ap-plication in the field of musicology, music therapy, com-position, arts and performance. This article focuses on thebasic physical properties of sound, acoustical signals andtime-frequency analysis and how they can be analyzed interms of Yin and Yang. Extension to music and compo-sition and creation of software tools that can employ theconcepts of Yin and Yang in sound and music analysis isstill ongoing.

The paper outline follows: Section 2 introduces brieflythe Yin Yang theory as it has been defined and applied,while Section 3 extends this to acoustic signals, and sound.Section 4 discusses the characterization of sounds from asignal analysis approach and from the assessment of phys-iological parameters on human subjects. Section 5 finallyconcludes the paper and remarks the issues open for futurework.

2. THE YIN YANG THEORY

For millennia, the Yin Yang theory has been one of thefoundations of Chinese philosophy. In China, it led to thecreation of philosophies such as the I King and the FiveElement theory. Yin and Yang have found practical ap-plication in traditional Chinese medicine ([23]), martial

arts [5] and Feng Shui (which has gained in popularityalso in western countries [7]), to name a few. In histori-cal times, the theory has spread outside the boundaries ofChina, such as in Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

The Yin Yang theory is based on the concept that allsensible phenomena are manifestations of two oppositeforces, namely Yin and Yang. The earliest definition ofYin and Yang is found in the I King, and is ”firm” and”soft” [32]. Other attributes have been (respectively) darkand light, cold and heat, full and empty, expansion andcontraction, transformation and conservation. These ex-amples help understand the properties of these two ”el-ements”, but the nature of Yin and Yang is much morecomplex. What differentiates Yin and Yang from otherdualistic philosophies is its fuzziness and the set of lawsthat rule the interplay between the elements. There is ahuge amount of literature describing the Yin Yang theory,both ancient [28], [30] and modern [15]; in this paper,however, we will focus on four basic points, that will beused later on to demonstrate how Yin and Yang can beapplied to sound and music:

(1) Yin and Yang are opposite principles, but stemmingfrom the same source; in this paper we will defineYin as the principle of expansion and Yang as theprinciple of contraction (as in [17]).

(2) Yin and Yang continuously change one into another.This does not happen in a random, chaotic way:when Yang reaches its apex, it begins receding toYin, and vice versa (from Wang Chung, in [15]).

(3) Yin and Yang are opposite poles; there is an infinitenumber of ”stages” between the two opposites. Tra-ditionally, there has never been a numerical scale ofvalues to define how much Yin or Yang a given en-tity is. This concept may be well clear to an artistor a musician: there is no need to exactly quantify,e.g. how much passionate a piece is. Furthermore,quantification in terms of Yin and Yang is usuallyperformed in relative terms as it becomes senselessin absolute terms; it must always relate to a similarentity.

(4) It is impossible in the real world to experience aphenomena that is completely Yin or completelyYang (just as, for example, the absolute zero is atheoretical temperature and cannot be achieved). Thetwo opposites need one another. Yang cannot beknown or explained without the Yin and vice versa,just like the concept of cold cannot be understoodwithout knowing warmth. Lao Tzu [28] expressesthis as ”The ten thousand things1 carry yin and em-brace yang. They achieve harmony by combiningthese forces.” A visual explanation of this conceptis the Taijitu, often incorrectly referred to as ”Tao”.In this symbol, the Yin (black) contains a spot ofYang (white) and vice versa.

1Lao Tzu employs a metaphorical language. Here ”ten thousandthings” means everything.

3. EXTENSION OF THE YIN YANG THEORY TOSOUND

In this paper we demonstrate how the rules on the inter-play between Yin and Yang can be applied also to sound.Sound is a continuous time-domain signal, physically rep-resenting the pressure variation from its local atmosphericvalue P0

s(t) = p(t)−P0 (1)

with p(t) being the instantaneous pressure level. Inci-dentally, in the fluctuation generating any audible phe-nomenon, the pressure p(t) expands and contracts, thusvarying between two opposite polarities. The more theenergetic this variation is, the more the loud a sound isperceived. Highly energetic sounds are regarded as Yang(Yang is generally associated with Energy), as opposed toweak sounds (silence is regarded as Yin).

As explained before, Yin is here regarded as the prin-ciple of expansion and Yang as the principle of contrac-tion. Therefore, it can be assumed that a signal s(t) that iscompact in time can be seen as a Yang sound, while onethat is extended in time is more Yin. In the field of sig-nal processing and analysis, the time localization[6] of asignal and the choice of a compact yet optimal[27] basisfunction used for the analysis is a classical topic2. Fol-lowing what has been stated, it can be said that a perfectYin sound cannot exist in reality, as it would extend indef-initely in time, spanning the whole universe history. Thesame stands for a perfect Yang sound, which would be aperfect Dirac impulse, which is impossible to have dueto the natural low-pass nature of physical systems, whoseconvolution brings to a “smeared” version of any perfectpulse. Although mathematical abstractions such as the in-definitely extended in time or frequency are conceivableand useful to gather a first discrimination of Yin and Yang,they are of no use in reality just as the Fourier transformas a mathematical operator3 As will be discussed in moredetailed below, the perfect Yin or perfect Yang are non-cochlear entities and cannot be experienced.

To further clarify this first step in extending the YinYang theory to acoustics, the spectrogram in Figure 1 de-picts two different (orthogonal) signals such as a long sinewave (extremely compact in frequency) and a Dirac pulse(extremely compact in time) and a possible transition be-tween the two.

2It must be noted that the first work in this field is probably by DennisGabor, well known to the computer music community for the inspira-tional effect of Gabor atoms described in his Nature article [10]. Theseare said to have inspired early formulation of granular synthesis, but theyare almost unknown to other fields such as communication theory or dig-ital signal processing because of the infinitely extended support of theirGaussian basis functions that makes their use unpractical. In practicalsignal processing compact basis functions (or more simply, windows)are needed, as the ones used in the Wavelet Transform [6].

3Gabor himself criticized the direct use of the Fourier operator onreal-life signals “Though mathematically this theorem is beyond re-proach, even experts could not at times conceal an uneasy feeling whenit came to the physical interpretation of results obtained by the Fouriermethod.”[9].

Figure 1: Spectrogram of two opposite signals: a sinewave and a dirac pulse and the transition between the two.

Together from the time localization of a sound, alsoperiodicity, pitch and spectral properties must be carefullyanalyzed. Periodic sounds can be characterized by their(instantaneous) pitch, or inversely, their wavelength: ahigh-pitched tone has shorter wavelength, or a more com-pact periodicity, hence is more Yang than a low-frequencytone. The nature of high frequency tones is Yang with re-spect to lower frequency tones. This finds support alsoin the quantum theory for waves and light: e.g. high fre-quency photons bring a high energetic content.

Aperiodic signals can be analyzed in terms of theirspectrum: compactness vs. expansion, localization of theircentre of mass towards low or high frequencies. The moretheir spectra are wide the more they are Yang. The moretheir centre of mass is localized towards low frequencies,the more their nature is Yin.

Sounds are also characterized by the repetition of micro-scale events, such as bouncing or rumbling [26]. Whenthe periodicity of these events is low enough not to af-fect the pitch or harmonic content of a sound, it can beused anyway to categorize the sound with a more Yangnature when they happen faster and closer. This can beused fruitfully when discussing the properties of experi-mental or EDM4 glitch music and the likes, which usuallyshow very fast repetition of very compact sound fragmentsor sonic events.

A fast variation or attack time is a sign of Yang. Anexample of this can be a thunderstruck or a snare sound,which usually leads a listener to a more active state. Onthe other hand monotony and repetition lead to a moreYin signal. As an empirical example a continuous tone,such as a drone, or a sustained “Om” mantra can lead to arelaxed (Yin) state of mind.

Finally, as the Yang of the ancient theory representsEnergy and Activity, signals with a higher energy are ofa more Yang nature than lower energy signals. As an ex-ample, the same piano sonata, played at a steadier tempo,with fortissimo results in a more Yang performance than aslower tempo, feeble piano performance.

Yin and Yang (and the transition from one to another)are attributes that can be applied to different properties ofa sound (or in general any phenomenon). However it oftenhappens that different properties are related one another

4Electronic Dance Music

_598 _599

more holistic way, thus delegating all the problemsrelated to low-level control and the large dimensionof the parameters space to the machine;

• for artists of different backgrounds to communicatein mixed media performances and installations with-out the need for a highly specific common languageto be shared;

• for any kind of performance where there is a human-computer feedback and a high-level control variableneeds to be controlled and balanced;

• for individuals with no formal music training to as-sess and describe sound and music;

• for psychotherapist to understand the Yin or Yangstate of mind (and hence his general mental condi-tion) of a person from his speech, observing generalproperties such as prosody, pitch, and so on. Gener-ally speaking, Yin is linked to relaxation and Yangto strain;

• for patients under music therapy to share with theirtherapist, and for the latter to deduct the effect ofmusic and sound on their patients avoiding troublesin a more rigorous description;

• to possibly lead to a better understanding of the ef-fect of acoustic pollution and environment acousticsto psychological and physiological effects in humansubjects.

As the research is ongoing, the aim of this article is to laythe foundations for the extension of the Yin Yang theoryto the fields of sound analysis and synthesis, music clas-sification and composition, and hence to any possible ap-plication in the field of musicology, music therapy, com-position, arts and performance. This article focuses on thebasic physical properties of sound, acoustical signals andtime-frequency analysis and how they can be analyzed interms of Yin and Yang. Extension to music and compo-sition and creation of software tools that can employ theconcepts of Yin and Yang in sound and music analysis isstill ongoing.

The paper outline follows: Section 2 introduces brieflythe Yin Yang theory as it has been defined and applied,while Section 3 extends this to acoustic signals, and sound.Section 4 discusses the characterization of sounds from asignal analysis approach and from the assessment of phys-iological parameters on human subjects. Section 5 finallyconcludes the paper and remarks the issues open for futurework.

2. THE YIN YANG THEORY

For millennia, the Yin Yang theory has been one of thefoundations of Chinese philosophy. In China, it led to thecreation of philosophies such as the I King and the FiveElement theory. Yin and Yang have found practical ap-plication in traditional Chinese medicine ([23]), martial

arts [5] and Feng Shui (which has gained in popularityalso in western countries [7]), to name a few. In histori-cal times, the theory has spread outside the boundaries ofChina, such as in Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

The Yin Yang theory is based on the concept that allsensible phenomena are manifestations of two oppositeforces, namely Yin and Yang. The earliest definition ofYin and Yang is found in the I King, and is ”firm” and”soft” [32]. Other attributes have been (respectively) darkand light, cold and heat, full and empty, expansion andcontraction, transformation and conservation. These ex-amples help understand the properties of these two ”el-ements”, but the nature of Yin and Yang is much morecomplex. What differentiates Yin and Yang from otherdualistic philosophies is its fuzziness and the set of lawsthat rule the interplay between the elements. There is ahuge amount of literature describing the Yin Yang theory,both ancient [28], [30] and modern [15]; in this paper,however, we will focus on four basic points, that will beused later on to demonstrate how Yin and Yang can beapplied to sound and music:

(1) Yin and Yang are opposite principles, but stemmingfrom the same source; in this paper we will defineYin as the principle of expansion and Yang as theprinciple of contraction (as in [17]).

(2) Yin and Yang continuously change one into another.This does not happen in a random, chaotic way:when Yang reaches its apex, it begins receding toYin, and vice versa (from Wang Chung, in [15]).

(3) Yin and Yang are opposite poles; there is an infinitenumber of ”stages” between the two opposites. Tra-ditionally, there has never been a numerical scale ofvalues to define how much Yin or Yang a given en-tity is. This concept may be well clear to an artistor a musician: there is no need to exactly quantify,e.g. how much passionate a piece is. Furthermore,quantification in terms of Yin and Yang is usuallyperformed in relative terms as it becomes senselessin absolute terms; it must always relate to a similarentity.

(4) It is impossible in the real world to experience aphenomena that is completely Yin or completelyYang (just as, for example, the absolute zero is atheoretical temperature and cannot be achieved). Thetwo opposites need one another. Yang cannot beknown or explained without the Yin and vice versa,just like the concept of cold cannot be understoodwithout knowing warmth. Lao Tzu [28] expressesthis as ”The ten thousand things1 carry yin and em-brace yang. They achieve harmony by combiningthese forces.” A visual explanation of this conceptis the Taijitu, often incorrectly referred to as ”Tao”.In this symbol, the Yin (black) contains a spot ofYang (white) and vice versa.

1Lao Tzu employs a metaphorical language. Here ”ten thousandthings” means everything.

3. EXTENSION OF THE YIN YANG THEORY TOSOUND

In this paper we demonstrate how the rules on the inter-play between Yin and Yang can be applied also to sound.Sound is a continuous time-domain signal, physically rep-resenting the pressure variation from its local atmosphericvalue P0

s(t) = p(t)−P0 (1)

with p(t) being the instantaneous pressure level. Inci-dentally, in the fluctuation generating any audible phe-nomenon, the pressure p(t) expands and contracts, thusvarying between two opposite polarities. The more theenergetic this variation is, the more the loud a sound isperceived. Highly energetic sounds are regarded as Yang(Yang is generally associated with Energy), as opposed toweak sounds (silence is regarded as Yin).

As explained before, Yin is here regarded as the prin-ciple of expansion and Yang as the principle of contrac-tion. Therefore, it can be assumed that a signal s(t) that iscompact in time can be seen as a Yang sound, while onethat is extended in time is more Yin. In the field of sig-nal processing and analysis, the time localization[6] of asignal and the choice of a compact yet optimal[27] basisfunction used for the analysis is a classical topic2. Fol-lowing what has been stated, it can be said that a perfectYin sound cannot exist in reality, as it would extend indef-initely in time, spanning the whole universe history. Thesame stands for a perfect Yang sound, which would be aperfect Dirac impulse, which is impossible to have dueto the natural low-pass nature of physical systems, whoseconvolution brings to a “smeared” version of any perfectpulse. Although mathematical abstractions such as the in-definitely extended in time or frequency are conceivableand useful to gather a first discrimination of Yin and Yang,they are of no use in reality just as the Fourier transformas a mathematical operator3 As will be discussed in moredetailed below, the perfect Yin or perfect Yang are non-cochlear entities and cannot be experienced.

To further clarify this first step in extending the YinYang theory to acoustics, the spectrogram in Figure 1 de-picts two different (orthogonal) signals such as a long sinewave (extremely compact in frequency) and a Dirac pulse(extremely compact in time) and a possible transition be-tween the two.

2It must be noted that the first work in this field is probably by DennisGabor, well known to the computer music community for the inspira-tional effect of Gabor atoms described in his Nature article [10]. Theseare said to have inspired early formulation of granular synthesis, but theyare almost unknown to other fields such as communication theory or dig-ital signal processing because of the infinitely extended support of theirGaussian basis functions that makes their use unpractical. In practicalsignal processing compact basis functions (or more simply, windows)are needed, as the ones used in the Wavelet Transform [6].

3Gabor himself criticized the direct use of the Fourier operator onreal-life signals “Though mathematically this theorem is beyond re-proach, even experts could not at times conceal an uneasy feeling whenit came to the physical interpretation of results obtained by the Fouriermethod.”[9].

Figure 1: Spectrogram of two opposite signals: a sinewave and a dirac pulse and the transition between the two.

Together from the time localization of a sound, alsoperiodicity, pitch and spectral properties must be carefullyanalyzed. Periodic sounds can be characterized by their(instantaneous) pitch, or inversely, their wavelength: ahigh-pitched tone has shorter wavelength, or a more com-pact periodicity, hence is more Yang than a low-frequencytone. The nature of high frequency tones is Yang with re-spect to lower frequency tones. This finds support alsoin the quantum theory for waves and light: e.g. high fre-quency photons bring a high energetic content.

Aperiodic signals can be analyzed in terms of theirspectrum: compactness vs. expansion, localization of theircentre of mass towards low or high frequencies. The moretheir spectra are wide the more they are Yang. The moretheir centre of mass is localized towards low frequencies,the more their nature is Yin.

Sounds are also characterized by the repetition of micro-scale events, such as bouncing or rumbling [26]. Whenthe periodicity of these events is low enough not to af-fect the pitch or harmonic content of a sound, it can beused anyway to categorize the sound with a more Yangnature when they happen faster and closer. This can beused fruitfully when discussing the properties of experi-mental or EDM4 glitch music and the likes, which usuallyshow very fast repetition of very compact sound fragmentsor sonic events.

A fast variation or attack time is a sign of Yang. Anexample of this can be a thunderstruck or a snare sound,which usually leads a listener to a more active state. Onthe other hand monotony and repetition lead to a moreYin signal. As an empirical example a continuous tone,such as a drone, or a sustained “Om” mantra can lead to arelaxed (Yin) state of mind.

Finally, as the Yang of the ancient theory representsEnergy and Activity, signals with a higher energy are ofa more Yang nature than lower energy signals. As an ex-ample, the same piano sonata, played at a steadier tempo,with fortissimo results in a more Yang performance than aslower tempo, feeble piano performance.

Yin and Yang (and the transition from one to another)are attributes that can be applied to different properties ofa sound (or in general any phenomenon). However it oftenhappens that different properties are related one another

4Electronic Dance Music

_600 _601

and carry similar polarity. By combining all the differentproperties it is possible to better understand the nature ofa sound, compared to other sounds taken as reference. Itmust be noted however that a reference sound, i.e. a per-fectly balanced sound does not exist: can an intermediatetime compactness or an intermediate frequency localiza-tion between 0 and infinite be found? Can the boundsgiven by human hearing (in both time resolution and fre-quency response thresholds) or by digital sampling (inboth time resolution and the Nyquist frequency limit) beused to find an intermediate sound? This is questionableas other variables also appear related to human percep-tion (should the intermediate frequency be found as thearithmetic mean of the 20 Hz - 20 kHz audibility range,in a linear scale or in an octave-spaced scale?). Althoughfinding a “standard reference sound” in scientific terms isdifficult, perhaps impossible, the human mind seems ca-pable of assessing the absolute value of a sound (its pitchor loudness, for example) with ease. Any non-impairedlistener, when presented with a pitched sound, will beable to define it as either “high” or “low”, according toa personal scale. ”To some extent tonal relations are com-puted even when only a single tone is higher or lower, orlonger or shorter, than a conceptual average tone encoun-tered across the course of a lifetime” [14]. The same canbe said about a listener who is familiar with the Yin Yangtheory, assessing a presented sound in terms of Yin andYang. This clearly relates to what stated in Section 2, (3).

When dealing with acoustic signals, several proper-ties can be analyzed in terms of compactness, energy andtransformation. Table 1 reports some of these propertiesand their assessment in terms of Yin and Yang follow-ing the criteria introduced hitherto for analysis of acousticsignals.

Table 1: Description of sound properties in terms of Yin(�) and Yang (�).

Envelope shape (attack, decay) � sharp� smooth

Envelope � compact� wide

Periodicity � aperiodic� periodic

Spectral content � rich� poor

Pitch � high� low

Sound Pressure Level � high� low

After having briefly discussed general properties ofsound, the four basic principles (1)-(4) reported at Section2 will be discussed again but directly applied to sound.

(1) Yin and Yang stem from the same source: a fluc-tuation of a physical quantity, which bears both thetwo opposites at the same time in a specific ratio.

(2) A sound is always generated by transformation anda fluctuation between opposite polarities, in the sameway as Yin and Yang continuously change one intothe other. In Chinese theories this turnover is de-picted similarly to what we know as a harmonic sys-tem, as illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The turnover between Yin and Yang as an os-cillating harmonic system.

Concepts like chaos and randomness were not knownat the time5. Fluctuations between the two oppo-sites are found also when looking at the evolution ofa sound at a higher level: any sound will raise (birthis regarded as Yang in the theory) and fade (agingand death of living beings is regarded as Yin), itsspectral content may change with time, etc.

(3) No sound can be measured in terms of Yin or Yangas it would be with a physical quantity, as the truenature of Yin and Yang cannot be known by purerational thought. We can however discern and learndiscriminating sounds by applying some general prin-ciples and construct tools for the assessment, suchas the time compactness, the spectral center of mass,and so on. An absolute measure is not feasible, norof particular practical use within this framework:it is the change or the difference between differ-ent sounds that are of interest, e.g.: is a changeof dynamic in a piece useful to gather the atten-tion of the audience? Is a noisy glitch better foran alarm clock tone than an ascending sound tex-ture? By collecting assessment in the time domain(at different scales) and in the frequency domain,these measures can provide a relative assessment.Unfortunately, a perfect intermediate sound to useas a reference cannot be found a priori. Referencesounds can, however, be chosen depending on thecontext. Also, the evolution of a sound or a groupof sounds can be evaluated, as generally speakingit is of higher human interest to know how soundevolves rather than how it is in a specific instant.

(4) Yin and Yang cannot be tore apart or exist as sepa-rate entities: a sound that is perfectly Yin or Yangcannot exist in reality as it would have infinite ex-tension in time or in frequency. This is also re-flected in the analysis of any signal: analyzing the

5However it can be argued that a perfectly uncorrelated sound is im-possible to find in nature as even when digitally designed to be so inpropagating through a physical systems it gains a slight correlation.

two opposite aspects of sound, i.e. time and fre-quency, cannot be arbitrarily perfect. The resolutionof one dimension in a space-phase representation ofthe signal, such as the spectrogram, cannot be arbi-trarily high without affecting the resolution of theother dimension. This is formalized in the indeter-minacy principle exposed by Gabor in [9], which inturn relies on the similar principle by Heisenberg inquantum physics.

4. ASSESSING YIN AND YANG

4.1. By audio analysis techniques

Discrimination of a sound’s character can be done by ear,provided that the listener knows well enough the Yin Yangtheory. However, to enable human-machine interaction,automatic analysis and classification, some algorithms canbe designed in order to extract information in terms ofYin and Yang. To do so, several low-level descriptors(LLDs) are combined to obtain two high-level featuresthat analyze the sound in time and frequency. In this work,the proposed LLDs are taken from the well documentedMPEG-7 standard [1].

Feature 1: this feature highlights temporal character-istics of signals by adopting the LogAttackTime (LAT)and TemporalCentroid (TC) features. The former pro-vides a measure of the rise time of a signal attack time(the faster, the more Yang), while the second provides thelocalization of a signal (the closer to the attack or decaytime, the more Yang). The resulting feature sums the twoLLDs with weight w to be evaluated empirically, provid-ing sounds that are more Yang in their nature with higherindexes:

F1 = w·LAT+(1−w)· 1td|TC− td

2|. (2)

where td is the decay time and the attack time is supposedto be at t = 0.

Feature 2: this feature highlights spectral character-istics of signals by adopting the AudioSpectrumCentroid(ASC) and the AudioSpectrumSpread (ASS). In additionit evaluates the spectral change between consecutive framesby difference between two subsequent AudioSpectrumEn-velope (ASE) vectors ASE(k)−ASE(k−1). This accountsfor spectral changes that do not cause noticeable energychanges in time.

F2 = a1

Fs/2|ASC− Fs

4|+bASS+c(ASE(k)−ASE(k−1)

(3)with a, b, c, being weights to tune the performance of thefeature.

The performances of the two features should be max-imized by finding the best parameters for their algorithmsagainst a set of human-annotated sounds to obtain the high-est possible accuracy. This is left as a future work.

4.2. By assessment of human psychological and phys-iological parameters

Another concept arising from direct comparison with mac-robiotics and similar disciplines is that the nature of asound can be determined by its effect on human subjects.For instance a Yin sound (e.g. a prolonged pad texturewith slow attack) is expected to have a Yin effect on themood or the physiology of a listening subject that can bequalified by questionnaires or quantified by measuring itsheartbeat rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, EEG andother parameters. Similar test involving music have beenused in a wide variety of works spanning from evalua-tion of chord progressions [8] and variation of physiolog-ical parameters under exposure to musical stimuli [29], orinvolving other acoustic stimuli in psychology [21] andpedagogy [19] to human and animal environmental health[22]. The methodology employed in these works can beextended to the evaluation of sounds and music of Yin orYang character. Once a scenario is designed, includingdescription of the desired subjects, methodology of thetrial and the expected effects to be monitored, tests can beconducted and sounds can be classified by the effect theyinduce on psychological or physiological parameters. Apattern must be then extracted to find acoustic or musicalfeatures that are correlated with the obtained effect. Thepreparation of the test procedure and the administration ofthe stimuli must be carefully planned. The Yin Yang the-ory does not rely on absolute concepts, e.g. the effect ofa certain stimulus depends on the current condition of thesubject, the length of the stimulus administration (whichon the long term may cause the opposite effect), etc.

Our research on this topic is very promising thoughat its early stages. In future works, case studies will bereported in order to show the accuracy of the ancient YinYang theory in predicting effects of auditory stimuli onsubjects.

5. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

This work provides a first extension of the ancient YinYang theory to the case of acoustic signals and soundperception. Motivation for such a task are provided forseveral fields of application. Extension of the theory tomusical structure is still to be documented as more com-plex aspects are involved. However, it can be regarded asa particular case of the time-frequency conceptualizationdiscussed in this paper, in which (i) the temporal scale ismore relaxed (the shortest event being the shortest possi-ble note), (ii) events are (ideally) quantized and (iii) pitchedevents are (ideally) locked to discrete steps in frequencydepending on the tonal system in use. Also, interplay be-tween events affects the quality of a musical verse (clus-tering vs. sparseness, dissonance vs. consonance, etc.).Characterizing music will require more complex analysistechniques than those introduced in the present paper ascognitive aspects are also involved in the perception ofmusic. A framework involving information theory, en-tropy and their relations to the Yin and Yang principles

_600 _601

and carry similar polarity. By combining all the differentproperties it is possible to better understand the nature ofa sound, compared to other sounds taken as reference. Itmust be noted however that a reference sound, i.e. a per-fectly balanced sound does not exist: can an intermediatetime compactness or an intermediate frequency localiza-tion between 0 and infinite be found? Can the boundsgiven by human hearing (in both time resolution and fre-quency response thresholds) or by digital sampling (inboth time resolution and the Nyquist frequency limit) beused to find an intermediate sound? This is questionableas other variables also appear related to human percep-tion (should the intermediate frequency be found as thearithmetic mean of the 20 Hz - 20 kHz audibility range,in a linear scale or in an octave-spaced scale?). Althoughfinding a “standard reference sound” in scientific terms isdifficult, perhaps impossible, the human mind seems ca-pable of assessing the absolute value of a sound (its pitchor loudness, for example) with ease. Any non-impairedlistener, when presented with a pitched sound, will beable to define it as either “high” or “low”, according toa personal scale. ”To some extent tonal relations are com-puted even when only a single tone is higher or lower, orlonger or shorter, than a conceptual average tone encoun-tered across the course of a lifetime” [14]. The same canbe said about a listener who is familiar with the Yin Yangtheory, assessing a presented sound in terms of Yin andYang. This clearly relates to what stated in Section 2, (3).

When dealing with acoustic signals, several proper-ties can be analyzed in terms of compactness, energy andtransformation. Table 1 reports some of these propertiesand their assessment in terms of Yin and Yang follow-ing the criteria introduced hitherto for analysis of acousticsignals.

Table 1: Description of sound properties in terms of Yin(�) and Yang (�).

Envelope shape (attack, decay) � sharp� smooth

Envelope � compact� wide

Periodicity � aperiodic� periodic

Spectral content � rich� poor

Pitch � high� low

Sound Pressure Level � high� low

After having briefly discussed general properties ofsound, the four basic principles (1)-(4) reported at Section2 will be discussed again but directly applied to sound.

(1) Yin and Yang stem from the same source: a fluc-tuation of a physical quantity, which bears both thetwo opposites at the same time in a specific ratio.

(2) A sound is always generated by transformation anda fluctuation between opposite polarities, in the sameway as Yin and Yang continuously change one intothe other. In Chinese theories this turnover is de-picted similarly to what we know as a harmonic sys-tem, as illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The turnover between Yin and Yang as an os-cillating harmonic system.

Concepts like chaos and randomness were not knownat the time5. Fluctuations between the two oppo-sites are found also when looking at the evolution ofa sound at a higher level: any sound will raise (birthis regarded as Yang in the theory) and fade (agingand death of living beings is regarded as Yin), itsspectral content may change with time, etc.

(3) No sound can be measured in terms of Yin or Yangas it would be with a physical quantity, as the truenature of Yin and Yang cannot be known by purerational thought. We can however discern and learndiscriminating sounds by applying some general prin-ciples and construct tools for the assessment, suchas the time compactness, the spectral center of mass,and so on. An absolute measure is not feasible, norof particular practical use within this framework:it is the change or the difference between differ-ent sounds that are of interest, e.g.: is a changeof dynamic in a piece useful to gather the atten-tion of the audience? Is a noisy glitch better foran alarm clock tone than an ascending sound tex-ture? By collecting assessment in the time domain(at different scales) and in the frequency domain,these measures can provide a relative assessment.Unfortunately, a perfect intermediate sound to useas a reference cannot be found a priori. Referencesounds can, however, be chosen depending on thecontext. Also, the evolution of a sound or a groupof sounds can be evaluated, as generally speakingit is of higher human interest to know how soundevolves rather than how it is in a specific instant.

(4) Yin and Yang cannot be tore apart or exist as sepa-rate entities: a sound that is perfectly Yin or Yangcannot exist in reality as it would have infinite ex-tension in time or in frequency. This is also re-flected in the analysis of any signal: analyzing the

5However it can be argued that a perfectly uncorrelated sound is im-possible to find in nature as even when digitally designed to be so inpropagating through a physical systems it gains a slight correlation.

two opposite aspects of sound, i.e. time and fre-quency, cannot be arbitrarily perfect. The resolutionof one dimension in a space-phase representation ofthe signal, such as the spectrogram, cannot be arbi-trarily high without affecting the resolution of theother dimension. This is formalized in the indeter-minacy principle exposed by Gabor in [9], which inturn relies on the similar principle by Heisenberg inquantum physics.

4. ASSESSING YIN AND YANG

4.1. By audio analysis techniques

Discrimination of a sound’s character can be done by ear,provided that the listener knows well enough the Yin Yangtheory. However, to enable human-machine interaction,automatic analysis and classification, some algorithms canbe designed in order to extract information in terms ofYin and Yang. To do so, several low-level descriptors(LLDs) are combined to obtain two high-level featuresthat analyze the sound in time and frequency. In this work,the proposed LLDs are taken from the well documentedMPEG-7 standard [1].

Feature 1: this feature highlights temporal character-istics of signals by adopting the LogAttackTime (LAT)and TemporalCentroid (TC) features. The former pro-vides a measure of the rise time of a signal attack time(the faster, the more Yang), while the second provides thelocalization of a signal (the closer to the attack or decaytime, the more Yang). The resulting feature sums the twoLLDs with weight w to be evaluated empirically, provid-ing sounds that are more Yang in their nature with higherindexes:

F1 = w·LAT+(1−w)· 1td|TC− td

2|. (2)

where td is the decay time and the attack time is supposedto be at t = 0.

Feature 2: this feature highlights spectral character-istics of signals by adopting the AudioSpectrumCentroid(ASC) and the AudioSpectrumSpread (ASS). In additionit evaluates the spectral change between consecutive framesby difference between two subsequent AudioSpectrumEn-velope (ASE) vectors ASE(k)−ASE(k−1). This accountsfor spectral changes that do not cause noticeable energychanges in time.

F2 = a1

Fs/2|ASC− Fs

4|+bASS+c(ASE(k)−ASE(k−1)

(3)with a, b, c, being weights to tune the performance of thefeature.

The performances of the two features should be max-imized by finding the best parameters for their algorithmsagainst a set of human-annotated sounds to obtain the high-est possible accuracy. This is left as a future work.

4.2. By assessment of human psychological and phys-iological parameters

Another concept arising from direct comparison with mac-robiotics and similar disciplines is that the nature of asound can be determined by its effect on human subjects.For instance a Yin sound (e.g. a prolonged pad texturewith slow attack) is expected to have a Yin effect on themood or the physiology of a listening subject that can bequalified by questionnaires or quantified by measuring itsheartbeat rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, EEG andother parameters. Similar test involving music have beenused in a wide variety of works spanning from evalua-tion of chord progressions [8] and variation of physiolog-ical parameters under exposure to musical stimuli [29], orinvolving other acoustic stimuli in psychology [21] andpedagogy [19] to human and animal environmental health[22]. The methodology employed in these works can beextended to the evaluation of sounds and music of Yin orYang character. Once a scenario is designed, includingdescription of the desired subjects, methodology of thetrial and the expected effects to be monitored, tests can beconducted and sounds can be classified by the effect theyinduce on psychological or physiological parameters. Apattern must be then extracted to find acoustic or musicalfeatures that are correlated with the obtained effect. Thepreparation of the test procedure and the administration ofthe stimuli must be carefully planned. The Yin Yang the-ory does not rely on absolute concepts, e.g. the effect ofa certain stimulus depends on the current condition of thesubject, the length of the stimulus administration (whichon the long term may cause the opposite effect), etc.

Our research on this topic is very promising thoughat its early stages. In future works, case studies will bereported in order to show the accuracy of the ancient YinYang theory in predicting effects of auditory stimuli onsubjects.

5. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

This work provides a first extension of the ancient YinYang theory to the case of acoustic signals and soundperception. Motivation for such a task are provided forseveral fields of application. Extension of the theory tomusical structure is still to be documented as more com-plex aspects are involved. However, it can be regarded asa particular case of the time-frequency conceptualizationdiscussed in this paper, in which (i) the temporal scale ismore relaxed (the shortest event being the shortest possi-ble note), (ii) events are (ideally) quantized and (iii) pitchedevents are (ideally) locked to discrete steps in frequencydepending on the tonal system in use. Also, interplay be-tween events affects the quality of a musical verse (clus-tering vs. sparseness, dissonance vs. consonance, etc.).Characterizing music will require more complex analysistechniques than those introduced in the present paper ascognitive aspects are also involved in the perception ofmusic. A framework involving information theory, en-tropy and their relations to the Yin and Yang principles

_602 _603

will be proposed. The use of the Five Elements theorycan prove helpful to connect this knowledge to moods andemotional states.

The concepts adopted for acoustic signals can be fur-ther extended to other kind of signals by using the sameprinciples. Electromagnetism can easily relate to this du-alistic theory as it has a innate dualism also from a physicsstandpoint. Physiological signals are of particular inter-est as they can be correlated with other aspects of humanhealth considered in the Yin Yang theory and the Five El-ements theory.

As Yin or Yang do not represent any physical quantity,their assessment is no easy task. Two simple algorithmsare proposed as a high-level features for a Yin Yang soundanalysis. Their accuracy in describing sounds is still to bequantified. Assessing the effects of sounds on subjects’physiological parameters is also regarded as another wayof understanding the nature of their properties and theirrelation to human health, psyche and physiology. Study-ing the effect of sounds on physical and mental states willgather further insight on their nature and will help pro-viding the best analytical tools for their selection and ma-nipulation. The subtle, relative and fuzzy nature of thistheory makes its use, however, delicate. The masteringof these concept is nor easy nor fast to obtain and surelyalways perfectable. Much work must be conducted in allthe areas reported above; the effort, however, is motivatedby the ability to construct a new framework enabling for amore holistic approach to the use of music and sound and,ultimately, to the realization of Fritjof Capra’s dream: thatis the renewal of western sciences by their harmonizationwith ancient wisdom.

6. REFERENCES

[1] ISO: Information technology Multimedia contentdescription interface Part 1: Systems (ISO/IEC15938-1:2002). International Standards Organiza-tion, 2002.

[2] Noncommunicable diseases country profiles 2011.World Health Organization, 2011.

[3] F. Capra, The Tao of physics: An exploration of theparallels between modern physics and Eastern mys-ticism. Shambhala Publications, 1975.

[4] ——, The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understand-ing of Living Systems. Anchor Books, 1997.

[5] D. Chu, “Tai chi, qi gong and reiki,” PhysicalMedicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North Amer-ica, vol. 15, pp. 773–782, 2004.

[6] I. Daubechies, “The wavelet transform, time-frequency localization and signal analysis,” Infor-mation Theory, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 36, no. 5,pp. 961–1005, 1990.

[7] C. Emmons, “Hong kong’s feng shui: popular magicin a modern urban setting,” The Journal of PopularCulture, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 39–50, 1992.

[8] M. Fukumoto, S. Ogawa, S. Nakashima, and J.-I. Imai, “Extended interactive evolutionary compu-tation using heart rate variability as fitness valuefor composing music chord progression,” in Natureand Biologically Inspired Computing (NaBIC), 2010Second World Congress on, dec. 2010, pp. 407 –412.

[9] D. Gabor, “Theory of communication,” J. of the In-stitution of Electrical Engineers, vol. 93, no. 26, pp.429–441, 1946.

[10] ——, “Acoustical quanta and the theory of hearing,”Nature, pp. 591–594, 1947.

[11] M. Jakkriss Bhumisawasdi and O. Vanna, “The self-reliant system for alternative care of diabetes melli-tus patients–experience macrobiotic management inTrad province,” J Med Assoc Thai, vol. 89, no. 12,pp. 2104–15, 2006.

[12] R. Kostelanetz, Conversing with Cage. New York:Routledge, 2003.

[13] R. Lerman, “The macrobiotic diet in chronic dis-ease,” Nutrition in Clinical Practice, vol. 25, no. 6,p. 621, 2010.

[14] D. Levitin and A. Tirovolas, “Current advances inthe cognitive neuroscience of music,” Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1156, no. 1, pp.211–231, 2009.

[15] J. Needham, Science and Civilisation in China.Cambridge University Press, 1956.

[16] M. Nguyen, D. Shi, and J. Fu, “An online bayesianYing-Yang learning applied to fuzzy CMAC,” Neu-rocomputing, vol. 72, no. 13, pp. 562 – 572, 2008.

[17] G. Ohsawa, Zen macrobiotics: the art of rejuvena-tion and longevity. GOMF, 1965.

[18] B. Ou, D. Huang, M. Hampsch-Woodhill, andJ. Fanagan, “When east meets west: the re-lationship between Yin-Yang and antioxidation-oxidation,” The Fed. American Soc. ExperimentalBiology journal, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 127–129, 2003.

[19] H. Palmqvist, “The effect of heartbeat sound stim-ulation on the weight development of newborn in-fants,” Child development, pp. 292–295, 1975.

[20] M. Pianesi, Le 5 diete Ma-Pi. L’Chi, Macerata,Italy, 2009.

[21] R. Plutchik, “The effects of high intensity intermit-tent sound on performance, feeling and physiology.”Psychological Bulletin, vol. 56, no. 2, p. 133, 1959.

[22] A. Popper, J. Fewtrell, M. Smith, and R. McCauley,“Anthropogenic sound: Effects on the behavior andphysiology of fishes,” Marine Technology SocietyJournal, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 35–40, 2003.

[23] M. Porkert, Theoretical foundations of Chinesemedicine: Systems of correspondence, 1978.

[24] C. Porrata, M. Hernandez Triana, D. Castro,M. Naranjo, R. Vila, M. Dıaz et al., “Security andnutritional value of macrobiotic diet: The cuban ex-perience.” Proccedings of Intrafood, 2005.

[25] C. Porrata, J. Sanchez, V. Correa, A. Abuın,M. Hernandez-Triana, R. Dacosta-Calheiros,M. Dıaz, M. Mirabal, E. Cabrera, C. Campa et al.,“Ma-pi 2 macrobiotic diet intervention in adultswith type 2 diabetes mellitus,” MEDICC review,vol. 11, no. 4, p. 30, 2009.

[26] M. Rath, F. Avanzini, N. Bernardini, G. Borin,F. Fontana, L. Ottaviani, and D. Rocchesso, “An in-troductory catalog of computer-synthesized contactsounds, in real-time,” in Proc. Colloquium of Musi-cal Informatics, 2003, pp. 103–108.

[27] J. O. Smith, Spectral Audio Signal Processing.W3K Publishing, 2011.

[28] L. Tzu and J. Legge, Tao te ching. Digireads, 2009.

[29] M. D. van der Zwaag, J. H. Westerink, and E. L.van den Broek, “Emotional and psychophysiologicalresponses to tempo, mode, and percussiveness,” Mu-sicae Scientiae, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 250–269, 2011.

[30] B. Watson, The complete works of Chuang Tzu.Columbia University Press, 1968, vol. 80.

[31] N. WHO/FAO Expert Consultation on Diet,P. of Chronic Diseases, and W. H. Organization,Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Dis-eases: Report of a WHO/FAO Expert Consultation.World Health Organization, 2003.

[32] R. Wilhelm and U. Diederichs, I-ging. Europ. Bil-dungsgemeinschaft, 1956.

[33] L. Xu, “Bayesian Ying-Yang system, best harmonylearning, and five action circling,” Frontiers of Elec-trical and Electronic Engineering in China, vol. 5,no. 3, pp. 281–328, 2010.

[34] ——, “Bayesian-kullback coupled YING-YANGmachines: Unified learning and new results on vec-tor quantization,” in International Conference onNeural Information Processing, 1995, pp. 977–988.

[35] W. Zhang, “YinYang bipolar fuzzy sets,” in FuzzySystems, IEEE World Congress on ComputationalIntelligence, vol. 1. IEEE, 1998, pp. 835–840.

[36] W. Zhang and K. Peace, “Yin Yang mental squares-an equilibrium-based system for bipolar neurobio-logical pattern classification and analysis,” in 7thIEEE Int. Conf. on Bioinformatics and Bioengineer-ing, 2007, pp. 1240–1244.

_602 _603

will be proposed. The use of the Five Elements theorycan prove helpful to connect this knowledge to moods andemotional states.

The concepts adopted for acoustic signals can be fur-ther extended to other kind of signals by using the sameprinciples. Electromagnetism can easily relate to this du-alistic theory as it has a innate dualism also from a physicsstandpoint. Physiological signals are of particular inter-est as they can be correlated with other aspects of humanhealth considered in the Yin Yang theory and the Five El-ements theory.

As Yin or Yang do not represent any physical quantity,their assessment is no easy task. Two simple algorithmsare proposed as a high-level features for a Yin Yang soundanalysis. Their accuracy in describing sounds is still to bequantified. Assessing the effects of sounds on subjects’physiological parameters is also regarded as another wayof understanding the nature of their properties and theirrelation to human health, psyche and physiology. Study-ing the effect of sounds on physical and mental states willgather further insight on their nature and will help pro-viding the best analytical tools for their selection and ma-nipulation. The subtle, relative and fuzzy nature of thistheory makes its use, however, delicate. The masteringof these concept is nor easy nor fast to obtain and surelyalways perfectable. Much work must be conducted in allthe areas reported above; the effort, however, is motivatedby the ability to construct a new framework enabling for amore holistic approach to the use of music and sound and,ultimately, to the realization of Fritjof Capra’s dream: thatis the renewal of western sciences by their harmonizationwith ancient wisdom.

6. REFERENCES

[1] ISO: Information technology Multimedia contentdescription interface Part 1: Systems (ISO/IEC15938-1:2002). International Standards Organiza-tion, 2002.

[2] Noncommunicable diseases country profiles 2011.World Health Organization, 2011.

[3] F. Capra, The Tao of physics: An exploration of theparallels between modern physics and Eastern mys-ticism. Shambhala Publications, 1975.

[4] ——, The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understand-ing of Living Systems. Anchor Books, 1997.

[5] D. Chu, “Tai chi, qi gong and reiki,” PhysicalMedicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North Amer-ica, vol. 15, pp. 773–782, 2004.

[6] I. Daubechies, “The wavelet transform, time-frequency localization and signal analysis,” Infor-mation Theory, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 36, no. 5,pp. 961–1005, 1990.

[7] C. Emmons, “Hong kong’s feng shui: popular magicin a modern urban setting,” The Journal of PopularCulture, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 39–50, 1992.

[8] M. Fukumoto, S. Ogawa, S. Nakashima, and J.-I. Imai, “Extended interactive evolutionary compu-tation using heart rate variability as fitness valuefor composing music chord progression,” in Natureand Biologically Inspired Computing (NaBIC), 2010Second World Congress on, dec. 2010, pp. 407 –412.

[9] D. Gabor, “Theory of communication,” J. of the In-stitution of Electrical Engineers, vol. 93, no. 26, pp.429–441, 1946.

[10] ——, “Acoustical quanta and the theory of hearing,”Nature, pp. 591–594, 1947.

[11] M. Jakkriss Bhumisawasdi and O. Vanna, “The self-reliant system for alternative care of diabetes melli-tus patients–experience macrobiotic management inTrad province,” J Med Assoc Thai, vol. 89, no. 12,pp. 2104–15, 2006.

[12] R. Kostelanetz, Conversing with Cage. New York:Routledge, 2003.

[13] R. Lerman, “The macrobiotic diet in chronic dis-ease,” Nutrition in Clinical Practice, vol. 25, no. 6,p. 621, 2010.

[14] D. Levitin and A. Tirovolas, “Current advances inthe cognitive neuroscience of music,” Annals of theNew York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1156, no. 1, pp.211–231, 2009.

[15] J. Needham, Science and Civilisation in China.Cambridge University Press, 1956.

[16] M. Nguyen, D. Shi, and J. Fu, “An online bayesianYing-Yang learning applied to fuzzy CMAC,” Neu-rocomputing, vol. 72, no. 13, pp. 562 – 572, 2008.

[17] G. Ohsawa, Zen macrobiotics: the art of rejuvena-tion and longevity. GOMF, 1965.

[18] B. Ou, D. Huang, M. Hampsch-Woodhill, andJ. Fanagan, “When east meets west: the re-lationship between Yin-Yang and antioxidation-oxidation,” The Fed. American Soc. ExperimentalBiology journal, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 127–129, 2003.

[19] H. Palmqvist, “The effect of heartbeat sound stim-ulation on the weight development of newborn in-fants,” Child development, pp. 292–295, 1975.

[20] M. Pianesi, Le 5 diete Ma-Pi. L’Chi, Macerata,Italy, 2009.

[21] R. Plutchik, “The effects of high intensity intermit-tent sound on performance, feeling and physiology.”Psychological Bulletin, vol. 56, no. 2, p. 133, 1959.

[22] A. Popper, J. Fewtrell, M. Smith, and R. McCauley,“Anthropogenic sound: Effects on the behavior andphysiology of fishes,” Marine Technology SocietyJournal, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 35–40, 2003.

[23] M. Porkert, Theoretical foundations of Chinesemedicine: Systems of correspondence, 1978.

[24] C. Porrata, M. Hernandez Triana, D. Castro,M. Naranjo, R. Vila, M. Dıaz et al., “Security andnutritional value of macrobiotic diet: The cuban ex-perience.” Proccedings of Intrafood, 2005.

[25] C. Porrata, J. Sanchez, V. Correa, A. Abuın,M. Hernandez-Triana, R. Dacosta-Calheiros,M. Dıaz, M. Mirabal, E. Cabrera, C. Campa et al.,“Ma-pi 2 macrobiotic diet intervention in adultswith type 2 diabetes mellitus,” MEDICC review,vol. 11, no. 4, p. 30, 2009.

[26] M. Rath, F. Avanzini, N. Bernardini, G. Borin,F. Fontana, L. Ottaviani, and D. Rocchesso, “An in-troductory catalog of computer-synthesized contactsounds, in real-time,” in Proc. Colloquium of Musi-cal Informatics, 2003, pp. 103–108.

[27] J. O. Smith, Spectral Audio Signal Processing.W3K Publishing, 2011.

[28] L. Tzu and J. Legge, Tao te ching. Digireads, 2009.

[29] M. D. van der Zwaag, J. H. Westerink, and E. L.van den Broek, “Emotional and psychophysiologicalresponses to tempo, mode, and percussiveness,” Mu-sicae Scientiae, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 250–269, 2011.

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