Perception of Paralinguistic Traits in Synthesized Voices
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review
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Perception of Paralinguistic Traits in Synthesized Voices. / Baird, Alice Emily; Hasse Jørgensen, Stina; Parada-Cabaleiro, Emilia; Hantke, Simone; Cummins, Nicholas; Schuller, Bjorn .
Proceedings of the 12th International Audio Mostly Conference : Augmented and Participatory Sound and Music Experiences : AM '17. New York : Association for Computing Machinery, 2017. 17.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review
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TY - GEN
T1 - Perception of Paralinguistic Traits in Synthesized Voices
AU - Baird, Alice Emily
AU - Hasse Jørgensen, Stina
AU - Parada-Cabaleiro, Emilia
AU - Hantke, Simone
AU - Cummins, Nicholas
AU - Schuller, Bjorn
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Along with the rise of artificial intelligence and the internet-of-things, synthesized voices are now common in daily–life, providing us with guidance, assistance, and even companionship. From formant to concatenative synthesis, the synthesized voice continues to be defined by the same traits we prescribe to ourselves. When the recorded voice is synthesized, does our perception of its new machine embodiment change, and can we consider an alternative, more inclusive form? To begin evaluating the impact of aesthetic design, this study presents a first–step perception test to explore the paralinguistic traits of the synthesized voice. Using a corpus of 13 synthesized voices, constructed from acoustic concatenative speech synthesis, we assessed the response of 23 listeners from differing cultural backgrounds. Evaluating if the perception shifts from the known ground–truths, we asked listeners to assigned traits of age, gender, accent origin, and human–likeness. Results present a difference in perception for age and human–likeness across voices, and a general agreement across listeners for both gender and accent origin. Connections found between age, gender and human–likeness call for further exploration into a more participatory and inclusive synthesized vocal identity.
AB - Along with the rise of artificial intelligence and the internet-of-things, synthesized voices are now common in daily–life, providing us with guidance, assistance, and even companionship. From formant to concatenative synthesis, the synthesized voice continues to be defined by the same traits we prescribe to ourselves. When the recorded voice is synthesized, does our perception of its new machine embodiment change, and can we consider an alternative, more inclusive form? To begin evaluating the impact of aesthetic design, this study presents a first–step perception test to explore the paralinguistic traits of the synthesized voice. Using a corpus of 13 synthesized voices, constructed from acoustic concatenative speech synthesis, we assessed the response of 23 listeners from differing cultural backgrounds. Evaluating if the perception shifts from the known ground–truths, we asked listeners to assigned traits of age, gender, accent origin, and human–likeness. Results present a difference in perception for age and human–likeness across voices, and a general agreement across listeners for both gender and accent origin. Connections found between age, gender and human–likeness call for further exploration into a more participatory and inclusive synthesized vocal identity.
KW - Faculty of Humanities
KW - user studies
KW - human-centered computing
U2 - 10.1145/3123514.3123528
DO - 10.1145/3123514.3123528
M3 - Article in proceedings
BT - Proceedings of the 12th International Audio Mostly Conference
PB - Association for Computing Machinery
CY - New York
T2 - Audio Mostly
Y2 - 23 August 2017 through 26 August 2017
ER -
ID: 195758688