Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, Schrödinger's Cat And Keith Southern

[Rick K - First Member]

My esteemed pal Keith Southern is a virtuoso of metal detector audio. Not only is he a highly accomplished and respected detectorist and hunter, but he deeply understands and appreciates the audio languages that they speak. I once was so inspired by his insight that I began to link it up with some very limited knowledge of information theory, dim remnants of the "Observe, Orient, Decide, Act" air combat theory as defined by John Boyd which us dumbass USAF Pilot Trainees struggled to grasp, and a couple of glasses of wine and came up with this...

The purpose of a metal detectors user interface is two-fold. 

The first purpose is to allow user control of operating parameters. These include all the well known things like sensitivity, ground balance, discrimination, audio characteristics and visual display characteristics. 

The second purpose is to inform the user of what the detector is extracting from the target signal. The extremely faint electric currents induced in the target are processed in the detector and presented to the user by audio or visual means. This target feedback information - through the operator’s ears and eyes has one purpose - to cause a “Change of State” of the operator. 

There is no observation unless there is a change in state of the observer.  The energy to change that state comes from the phenomenon being observed.  The energy supplied by the phenomenon to change the state of the observer is no longer part of the phenomenon that was being observed.  

Keith reported that he had good results in specific circumstances with this detector due to its rich audio feedback. The energy given off by in ground targets was analyzed by the detector and presented as a complex audio signal through the headphones. The result was a “change of state” of the operator - Keith. This caused him to either dig or not dig various targets. He was pleased with the results based on his decades of experience hunting similar targets under similar circumstances. 

There is nothing to suggest that the largely analog single frequency circuitry resulted in inferior performance to more “advanced” machines utilizing digital signal processing instead of analog hardware signal processing. The absence of any visual user information doesn’t really have any relevance as long as the audio information is “conclusive” - that it caused the correct “change of state” of the operator. In the case of a metal detector it would mean desired targets dug, undesirable targets ID as unlikely to be worth digging. 

To better understand where Keith is coming from in his love of a complex audio interface have a look at his post from December 2016 titled “The Future of detector design will be Sonically aimed” 

[www.dankowskidetectors.com]

 

Rick Kempf 

 

[Rick K - First Member]

I am busy archiving lots of his posts other places, no website is forever...

here is a concrete example of what I am talking about...Keith at his finest...

"What's funny on analog audio only machine especially the Tejon once you get hours on them and know them like the back of you hand at least to the operator in control of it .A coin of high conductance has a different ring to it vs a nickle ..they both sound tight and round but you know its higher the way the signal snaps.The edges f the signal the rise and fall of the target is very telling on conductance of a target on a single tone unit.Nickles hit's later and stops shorter in the instance of peak hit like a rise and and fall but round Vs a coin that hits sooner and ends later with a sharp rise and fall though round and tight too. Low conductors like to start off sort of laggy before the sharp peak where as high conductors like to snap to peak almost instantly..You may not know it or even sense it at first it takes awhile and alot of holes dug to paint a picture that one day your 6th sense takes over when your swinging and you can start to sense TIMING of hits that are round.I'm talking nano seconds delay but after awhile you get a feel for it.If you try to notice it you may never in a learning environ. but after awhile even years of analog no Visual ID on same unit use day in day out your doing it and dont know your doing it.Even foil etc can become wavy and weird sounding..NON ROUND.Subtle waves in report.

Analog audio has tiny minute audio traces that a digital machine can not convey.Digital is getting better but there's still a place for audio aficionado hunting".

A concert of information vs a number...lovely!

[Lost Scout]

I understand. I am trying. Still putting in time and learning more but not there yet. It's becoming one with the machine. I can achieve this state when I'm running an excavator. Haven't reached it with a detector yet. Something to aspire to.

[Rick K - First Member]

my uncle Harold, long deceased was a sonar man on a USN escort vessel in the North Atlantic in 1943-1944. The accomplishment of their mission to protect convoys and their own survival depended on the audio intelligence that the ears and brains of Harold and his shipmates could derive from analogue audio signals.

Audio is a rich and sometimes undervalued source of intelligence, just ask a whale!

[Rick N. MI]

The Tejon is a special detector. Iron relics hit with a high tone. You can tell by the tone it's iron and dig it or not. If I could only have 1 detector it would be my Tejon with a concentric coil.

[JCR]

The Vista X is right there too even though it is a sort of hybrid analog/digital process.

Excellent headphones are a must.

[kac]

Tejon is my first choice in old iron infested properties with the concentric coil also. I like how the breaks are soft and don't completely eliminate the target so I can use that as if it was a tone. Key break points I use is iron line, nickel, tab and line above tab depending on the trash I may run into.

As an all metal machine it doesn't have the speed of modern machines but the all metal is invaluable when further checking targets and pin pointingl