The Science of Perception

Dialed-GG is more than a game—it is a study in sensory processing, neural retention, and mathematical modeling of human vision and hearing. Here is how it works.

1. Human Sensory Memory

When you see a color or hear a tone, it first enters your sensory memory—specifically, iconic memory for visual inputs and echoic memory for auditory inputs. Iconic memory decays in less than a second, while echoic memory lasts up to 3–4 seconds. The short delay in Dialed-GG tests the transition of this raw sensory information into your working memory.

2. Color Space & Delta E 2000

Computers represent colors in RGB, which is non-perceptual (a change of 10 units in green looks much larger than in blue). Dialed-GG converts HSB parameters into CIELAB, a coordinate system modeled on human vision. We grade accuracy using the CIEDE2000 formula, which computes the perceptual difference (ΔE) between your guess and the target. A score of 10 means a difference (ΔE) of 0, while a ΔE of 30 or higher yields 0.

3. Auditory Pitch & Cents

Our hearing is logarithmic, meaning we perceive pitch changes based on frequency ratios rather than absolute difference in Hertz. The distance between frequencies is measured in cents (1200 cents equal one octave, or 100 cents per semitone). The Sound mode maps your guess to the target in cents, clamping the maximum error to 600 cents (a tritone). Accurate restoration relies on the cochlea's frequency mapping and auditory memory.