Barry Blesser

Blesser Associates

Ever since the concept of a soundscape entered our culture in the mid 20 th century, various disciplines have examined its properties from the perspective of sound sources distributed throughout the environment. Yet, soundscapes are far more than experiencing nature, enjoying music, and understanding speech. To fully appreciate the meaning of sound...

While acoustic architecture focuses primarily on the acoustic physics of objects and geometries, aural architecture emphasizes the experience of space in terms of behavior and emotions. Because auditory spatial awareness, which is the basis for aural architecture, depends on a social value system, the role of acoustics varies among individuals and...

This article reviews Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture by Barry Blesser, Linda-Ruth Salter , Cambridge, MA, 2007, 437 pp, Price: $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 13: 978-0-262-02605-5

Recent development in real-time recognition of handprinted characters have resulted in a commercial device that reads "unconstrained," or free-form, handprinting. Unlike most devices that optically read machineprinted characters in finished text, this device is suitable for interactive system: It reads from a digitizing tablet while the user is wri...

The interfacing problems and the different methods that Pencept, Inc. , has developed for recognizing handprinted characters in real-world applications are described. Using this information, Pencept has developed a commercially viable device for adding interactive handprinted input to a number of computer applications. This device is especially sui...

In our techno-visual culture, the ascendancy of vision as the primary means for sensing the physical world has undermined the importance of hearing. Yet the aural experience of an environment is critically important to the social and emotional well-being of the inhabitants. However, we tend to only recognize the aural architecture of a space when i...