According to the Oxford English Dictionary, noise is defined as “a sound, especially one that is loud or unpleasant or that causes disturbance: making a noise like a pig | what's that rustling noise outside the door?” People always seem to want to suppress what they believe to be unnecessary background noise; whether it’s coming from a computer processor or a mobile conversation. These background noises make it difficult for people to understand each other or to efficiently carry out whatever task they’ve set out to do. Noise can cause a person to completely miss something important in a speech or miss the latest gossip that their best friend called them for. In our information society, nobody likes or appreciates the disturbance of noise, especially if the cost is some important information that they want to hear.
Noises can at times be nuisances, but as technology improves so does our ability to reduce these nuisances from our surroundings. “Special purpose noise reduction software programs” exist and have been made available in order to reduce the unpleasant disturbances of noises. Some of these software programs “include Neat Image, Grain Surgery, Noise Ninja, DenoiseMyImage (freeware), GREYCstoration and pnmnlfilt (nonlinear filter) found in the open source Netpbm tools. General purpose image and photo editing software including noise reduction functions include Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, PhotoImpact and Helicon Filter also features noise reduction abilities.” As technology becomes more sophisticated noise may no longer be problematic, but will that make us better off and more efficient when trying to receive a conveyor’s message?
This makes me wonder how one can view "noise reducing headphones". These headphones effectively block out all other noises except for the noise (usually music) that the person is listening to. However, would this qualify as noise reducing? I would almost categorize this is noise eliminating--but which is worse? To have so many noise distractions that one cannot distinguish one's true interest, or having no noise at all?
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting. Note that you've discussed noise reduction only in regard to noise as an acoustic phenomenon, not in the sense of noise being anything that interferes with communication.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing about noise reducing headphones is that to block out the noise, it actually produces another noise by recording the environment ambient noise and "canceling" it out with more noise. Now if noise is being defined as "anything that interferes with communication," couldn't the noise reduction that effectively silences the ambient noise, be considered noise in itself? However, if the communication is between the headphones and the listener, then if anything it aids communication.
ReplyDeleteNoise as an acoustic phenomenon is a good example for noise blocking any sort of communication.
ReplyDeleteThe Shannon-Weaver model of communication shows that noise can interfere at any step of the communication process. The sender may deliver the wrong message, something may go wrong during the transmission, there could be an issue with the channel, the reception could be bad, the receiver could misinterpret the message, and finally the feedback could also be misinterpreted. All of these are examples of noise within the communication process.
Noise can also be looked at in a way that has nothing to do with headphones or acoustics. Noise is not just static on the other line or another annoyance. In regards to communication, noise can be viewed as any sort of distraction from the message one is trying to communicate. For example, one might consider that there is such a thing as visual noise. Often, especially in this age, we use visuals to communicate. These can be as simple as symbols or as complex as films. A visual noise might be some other visual component that distracts from the message. Maybe the design of a package is incorrect or an advertisement is too confusing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, other messages can be considered noise. The more messages that are sent out the more noise is created. It is harder for one message to stand out among many.