{
  "abstract": "A mobile phone vibrating on a hard surface often sounds qualitatively unlike ordinary audiovisual recordings when reproduced through laptop loudspeakers. We propose that part of this perceptual distinctiveness can be described as a nested periodicity: a first-order cepstral structure reflecting the vibration period and its multiples, and a second-order cepstral structure reflecting repeated spacing within the first-order cepstrum. Treating the perceptual effect as real and using a deliberately transparent synthetic signal chain, we model six stages: mechanical generation, surface and air propagation, microphone capture, encoding and decoding, laptop-speaker playback, and re-recording or post-processing. The synthetic analysis shows that the first-order cepstral periodicity is preserved across the chain, whereas a cleaner bimodal or quasi-bimodal second-order cepstral signature is most evident at the mechanical source and at laptop-speaker playback. The result supports, but does not prove, the hypothesis that laptop reproduction can re-emphasize a latent contact-vibration periodicity that is less cleanly expressed in intermediate recorded and encoded forms. We frame second-order cepstral bimodality as an exploratory descriptor of contact-vibration playback rather than as a completed perceptual metric. Required validation includes recordings of real devices, controlled playback transfer functions, perceptual judgments, and comparisons against ordinary speech, music, and environmental recordings.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2606.04475",
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Jim Salsman"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a4c7anetjwrwj.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2606.04475",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "a4c7anetjwrwj",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.04475",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cs.MM"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cs.SD"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "math.SP"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1707|Music Technology and Sound Studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7163546697",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.04475",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-27",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a4c7anetjwrwj.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:25:17Z",
      "native_id": "2606.04475",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.04475"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "mathematics",
      "origin": "arxiv:math.SP",
      "subfield": "analysis-pdes"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A Second-Order Cepstral Signature of Contact-Vibration Sounds Reproduced by Laptop Loudspeakers: A Synthetic Case Study",
  "title_text": "A Second-Order Cepstral Signature of Contact-Vibration Sounds Reproduced by Laptop Loudspeakers: A Synthetic Case Study",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:25:17Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a4c7anetjwrwj",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}