Bebe and Louis Barron and the Machine", by mathematician Norbert Wiener from MIT played an important role in the development of the Barrons' composition. The science of cybernetics proposes that certain natural laws of behavior apply to both animals and more complex electronic machines. By following the equations presented in the book, Louis was able to build electronic circuits which he manipulated to generate sounds. Most of the tonalities were generated with a circuit called a ring modulator. The sounds and patterns that came out of the circuits were unique and unpredictable because they were actually overloading the circuits until they burned out to
Norbert Wiener Center for Harmonic Analysis and Applications is actively involved in research project involved with waveform design, dimension reduction, geospatial terrain and image processing, data fusion, phase retrieval frames, and analysis on graphs. The Norbert Wiener Center hosts the annual conference, the February Fourier Talks (FFT). The first FFT was held in 2002 and 2003, and then annually since 2006. The aim of the annual FFT is to bring together researchers from academia, government, and industry, as a means to spur innovation and foster interaction in Harmonic Analysis and its Applications. The FFT lasts two days and consists of approximately 15 half-hour talks, a distinguished lecture, a