When Prince William and Kate Middleton spoke their wedding vows before 2 billion people they might have been surprised to learn that a laboratory in the English Lake District was making their voices visible with a new type of scientific instrument. The voice patterns of Prince William and Kate Middleton, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, revealed some surprising results on the CymaScope, a device designed to make sound visible that could help children with autism.
According to John Stuart Reid, Prince William and Kate Middleton’s voice’s have some interesting characteristics.
‘His Royal Highness’ voice pattern is based on the number twelve, a sacred number for many religions, including the royal Egyptian dynasties. The twelve plant-like motifs around the Duke’s voice image resemble the lotus blossom, prevalent throughout Egypt, while the central hexagon is very crown-like. A sun or star-like symbol inside Prince William’s hexagon reminds us that in ancient times all kings were associated with the sun god. Her Royal Highness’ voice pattern contains 14 flower-like motifs, which ancient symbology suggests is someone with a vivid imagination and full of ideas, energy and vitality. The inner part of the pattern includes a seven-sided figure, a number associated with the seven virtues: Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Justice, Prudence, and Temperance.’
The CymaScope allows normally invisible voice patterns to become visible, each as unique as a fingerprint. This new technology, which involves imprinting sounds on the surface tension of water, can be used in a variety of research areas. When used in phonology, the study of speech sounds, the research may lead to the development of successful therapies to support autistic and deaf children in their acquisition of speech and language. The CymaScope permits the actual voice sounds of children and adults to be made visible and when the visual equivalent of vocal sounds or words can be created in real time it becomes possible for people to see the patterns of their own voices on a computer screen.
Some speech pathologists have suggested that voice pattern recognition by children could assist in the process of acquiring speech and language. Marsha Steinberger, M.A. CCC-SLP, a Speech-Language Pathologist based in Las Vegas, USA, works with autistic children. ‘Since many children with autism are visual thinkers the CymaScope technology provides an ideal way to capitalize on their learning style. The visual feedback offered by this new instrument offers a real ray of hope to families with autistic children—if the child can see the sounds they are making it could greatly accelerate their ability to speak and acquire language. I plan on setting up a CymaScope study as soon as funding support is available. I would also like to conduct a study of people with brain injuries as it seems likely that the interactive and fun aspect of the CymaScope imagery will be a very stimulating and enjoyable experience for brain-injured patients and may well lead to improvements in brain function.’
The CymaScope represents the first scientific instrument that can give us a visual image of sound and vibration that is sure to lead to new discoveries and therapies. To obtain your own souvenir copy of the Royal kiss and Harmonic Love Mandala please visit:Â http://www.globalheart.org/Â All donations will be shared between the dolphin language research program and the CymaScope autism program.
