Neurophone
                    1993 Patrick Flanagan

Having read some of the forum comments on my Neurphone
invention, I decided to write a short article in order to
clarify the subject.

First, I would like to say that I have nothing to do with the
people who advertise Neurophones in Popular Electronics, the
Consumertronics company. They do not have or sell a true
Neurophone.

The Neurophone is impossible to manufacture by studying my
patents. While crude representative circuits may be
constructed from the patents, the art of production of a true
Neurophone was not contained in the patents. All the
Neurophones that were constructed by my company in the late
1970's were potted in black epoxy and could not be duplicated.

History of the Neurophone

The first Neurophone was made when I was 14 years old, in
1958. The first crude device was described in my first book:
Pyramid Power. It was constructed by attaching two brillo pads
to insulated copper wires. The brillo pads were inserted into
plastic bags that acted as insulators. The wires from the
brillo pads were connected to a reversed audio output
transformer that was attached to a hi-fi amplifier. The output
of the audio transformer was about 1500 volts peak to peak.
When the insulated pads were placed on the temples  next to
the eyes, and the amplifier was driven by speech or music, you
could "hear" the resulting sound inside your head. The quality
was very poor, highly distorted and the perceived loudness was
very low.

I observed that during some peaks in the audio driving signal,
that the sound perceived in the head was very clear and very
loud. When I examined the signal on an oscilloscope, it was
observed that the signal was perceived the loudest and
clearest when the amplifier was over driven and square waves
were generated. At the same time, the transformer would ring
or oscillate at approximately 40 - 50 KHz.

The next Neurophone consisted of a variable frequency vacuum
tube oscillator that was amplitude modulated. This output
signal was then fed into a high frequency transformer that was
designed to transmit a signal in the 20 - 100 KHz range. When
the electrodes were in place on the head, the oscillator was
tuned so that maximum resonance was obtained using the human
body as part of the tank circuit. Later models had a feedback
mechanism that automatically adjusted the frequency for
resonance. We found that the dielectric constant of human skin
is a variable as galvanic skin response. In order to get
maximum transfer of energy the unit had to re-tune itself
instantly in order to match the "dynamic dielectric response".

The 2,000 volt peak to peak amplitude carrier wave was then
transmitted to the body by means of two inch diameter
electrode disks that were insulated by means of mylar films of
different thicknesses.

The high frequency  amplitude modulated Neurophone was really
fantastic. The perceived signal was very clearly perceived as
coming from within the head. We established quite early that
many totally nerve deaf people could hear with the device. For
some reason however, it does not work on all nerve deaf
people.

We were also able to stimulate visual phenomena when the
electrodes were placed over the occipital region of the brain.

I immediately wrote my own patent application with the help of
a friend and patent attorney from Shell Oil Company and
submitted the application to the patent office.

When I was 15 years old, I gave a lecture at the Houston
Amateur Radio Club. At that time, I demonstrated my Neurophone
to the audience. The next day, I was contacted by a reporter
from the Houston Post. He had a relative that was nerve deaf
from spinal meningitis. When we tried the Neurophone she was
able to hear very clearly. The next day, an article on my
invention appeared went out on the wire services  and was soon
on the front pages of over 300 newspapers throughout the
United States.

The publicity began to grow over the next two years. When I
was seventeen, Life Magazine came to our house and lived with
us for over a week. They took thousands of photographs and
followed me around from dawn to dusk. In September of 1962, a
feature article appeared in Life. Shortly after that, I was
invited to appear on the I've Got a Secret show hosted by Gary
Moore. The show was telecast from the NBC studios in New York.
During the show, I placed electrodes from the Neurophone on
the lower back of Bess Meyerson while the panel tried to guess
what I was doing to her. She was able to "hear" a poem that
was being played through the Neurophone electrodes. The poem
was recorded by Andy Griffith, another guest on the show.
Since the signal from the Neurophone was only perceived by
Bess Meyerson, the panel could not guess what I was doing to
her.

The day after the Gary Moore Show, I was invited to lunch at
the 21 Club by Dr. Andreja Puharich, an author and scientist.
Dr. Puharich had written two popular books entitled: The Magic
Mushroom and Beyond Telepathy. During our lunch meeting Dr.
Puharich told me that he had invented a Neurophone type device
and that I should give up on mine because he had beat me to
the patent office. We were to discover many years later that
my patent application got to the patent office first and that
Dr. Puharich's company was infringing on my patent. His
company later purchased the rights to my first patent.

As a result of the Life Magazine article and the exposure on
the Gary Moore Show, we received over one million letters
about the Neurophone. I was offered eight million dollars for
the patent rights when they issued.

The problem was that the patent office was giving us problems.
They said that the device could not possibly work and refused
to issue the patent. I did get the patent  but it took over 12
years! The patent was issued when I was 26 years old and only
after my patent lawyer and I took a working model of the
Neurophone to the patent office. The examiner told me that he
would give me the patent if I could make a deaf employee of
the patent office hear with the Neurophone. The examiner then
brought in a totally nerve deaf employee. To our relief, the
employee could hear with the device and broke down in tears at
the joyful return of hearing. So for the first time in the
history of the patent office, my file was re-opened and the
patent issued.

After the Gary Moore Show a think tank company known as Huyck
Corporation became interested in the Neurophone. They told me
that they could not give me the eight million up front for the
patent rights but they promised to develop and manufacture the
device in a proper business like manner. I believed in their
sincerity and allowed Huyck to research my invention. They
hired me as a consultant in the summer months. Huyck was owned
by a very large and powerful Dutch paper company with offices
all over the world.

At Huyck I met two friends who were close to me for many years
after, Dr. Henri Coanda, the father of fluid dynamics and G.
Harry Stine, scientist and author.  Harry Stine wrote the
book: The Silicon Gods which is about the potential of the
Neurophone.

Huyck Corporation was able to confirm the efficacy of the
Neurophone but they got cold feet because they thought that I
would never get the patent. Normally patents take a maximum of
two or three years to issue. The first Neurophone patent took
over 12 years. The Huyck decision to drop the Neurophone
project was a corporate one. The people in the laboratories
wanted to continue to pursue the device.

In the meantime, I went to work for Tufts University and
Listening Incorporated in Boston as a research scientist. We
were involved in a project to develop a language between man
and dolphin. Our contracts were from the US Navy Department of
Undersea Warfare out of China Lake, California. The senior
scientist on the project was my close friend Dr. Dwight Wayne
Batteau, professor of physics and mechanical engineering at
Harvard and Tufts.

In the Dolphin Project we developed the basis for many new
technologies. We were able to discover the encoding mechanism
used by the human brain to decode speech intelligence patterns
and were also able to decode the mechanism used by the brain
to locate sound sources in 3-D space. These discoveries led to
many new inventions that included the development of a 3-D
holographic sound system that could place sounds in any
location in space as perceived by the listener.

These discoveries led to the development of the Man-Dolphin
language translator. The Man-Dolphin translator was able to
decode human speech so that complex dolphin whistles were
generated. When the dolphins whistled, the loud-speaker out-
put human speech sounds. We were able to develop a joint
language between ourselves and our two dolphins. Our Dolphins
were located in the lagoon of a small island off of Oahu. We
had offices at Sea Life Park in Hawaii and also in Boston. We
would commute from Boston to Hawaii to test out our various
electronic gadgets.

We were able to record dolphins and whales in the open sea and
were able to accurately identify the locations of various
marine mammals in 3-D sound space by means of our 3-D sound
system.

We developed a special Neurophone that enabled us to "hear"
dolphin sounds up to 250,000 Hertz. By using the Neurophone as
part of the Man-Dolphin communicator were able to perceive
more of the intricacies of the dolphin language. The human ear
is limited to a 16 KHz range while dolphins generate and hear
sounds out to 250 KHz. The special Neurophone we developed had
a bandwidth that enabled us to hear the full range of dolphin
interaction. Our sound system could record DC to 250 KHz
within 3 dB.

As a result of the discovery of the encoding system used by
the brain to localize sound in space and also to recognize
speech intelligence, I was able to make a digital Neurophone.
I never published the mathematical algorithm that is the basis
of this discovery. but included only a crude electronic
circuit of such a device in my next patent application.

When my next Neurophone patent was sent to the patent office,
the National Security Agency put it under secrecy. I was
unable to work on the device or talk about it for another five
years and was not compensated for my invention by the
government.

I was terribly discouraged by this time. My first patent took
12 years to get and my second patent application was put under
secrecy for five years. The secrecy order was rescinded only
by the heroic efforts of my attorneys. If it were not for
them, my second patent would never have issued.

The digital Neurophone converts sound waves into a digital
signal that match the time encoded signals used by the brain.
Our studies for the Navy proved that the brain could
differentiate times differences of one microsecond. These time
signals are used not only in speech recognition but also in
spatial recognition for the 3-D sound localization.

The reason we can hear up to 250 KHz with the Neurophone is
due to that capability of the brain. The brain is like a
Whitehouse Correlator. It can process time encoded ratios.

The digital Neurophone is the version that we eventually
produced and sold as the Mark XI and the Thinkman Model 50
versions.

How Does it Work?

The skin is our largest and most complex organ. In addition
to being the first line of defense against infection, the
skin is a gigantic liquid crystal brain.

The skin is piezo-electric. When it is vibrated or rubbed it
generates electrical signals. Every organ of perception
evolved from the skin. When we are embryos, our organs of
sight and hearing evolve from folds in the skin. Many
primitive organisms see and hear with their skin. Our
individual cells see and hear with the cell membranes.
Snakes hear with their skin.

In addition to the Neurophone, we have had success in
stimulation of visual perceptions and plan to develop a
Vidiophone in the future.

When the Neurophone was originally developed,
neurophysiologists considered that the brain was hard-wired
and that the various cranial nerves were hard wired to every
sense. The eight cranial nerve is the nerve bundle that goes
from the inner ear to the brain. In later years, the concept
of a holographic brain came into being and now is considered
possible that other nerve channels may be able to carry
acoustical information to the brain.

The key to the Neurophone is to stimulate the nerves of the
skin with a digitally encoded signal that carries the same
time-ratio encoding that is in the original signal.

All digital speech recognition circuitry is based on the so
called dominant frequency power analysis. While speech can
be recognized by such a circuit, the truth is that speech
encoding is based on time ratios. The frequency content of
the voice gives voice its rich harmonic nature but does not
contain information. The current digital recognition and
generation equipment keeps time ratio information as a part
of its nature but does not use time ratio data for voice
recognition.

The computer that we developed to recognize speech for the
Dolphin communicator used time ratio analysis only and
removed the dominant frequencies that are currently used in
the industry. The result was that we could transmit clear
voice data through extremely narrow bandwidths. In one
device, we developed a radio transmitter that had a
bandwidth of only 300 Hz while maintaining crystal clear
transmission. Since signal to noise ratio is based on
bandwidth considerations we were able to transmit clear
voice over thousand of miles  whiles using milliwatt power.

Improved signal processing algorithms are the basis of a new
series of Neurophones that are currently under development.
These new Neurophones use state of the art digital
processing to render sound information much more accurately.

Although I have not been in the public eye quite as much as
I have been in past years, my wife Gael Crystal and I have
made some significant discoveries in the field of health and
longevity.

If you wish a news letter describing some of our latest
research just send a SASE to us at the following address:

Patrick Flanagan
Gael Crystal Flanagan
1109 S. Plaza Way, Suite 399
Flagstaff, AZ 86001

Compuserve ID:
71650,60