On the pursuit of making machines talk, and the quality of digital assistants’ voices.

 

SOURCES

• Hey, Siri! Meet the real people behind Apple’s voice-activated assistant – http://bit.ly/2sUkd1U
• Real Voice Of Siri!!! – http://bit.ly/2sXqqKq
• Five Minutes With The Voice Of Australian Siri Karen Jacobsen – http://bit.ly/2sXTmlF
• Deep Learning for Siri’s Voice: On-device Deep Mixture Density Networks for Hybrid Unit Selection Synthesis – https://apple.co/2sUvZJS
• How Apple Finally Made Siri Sound More Human – http://bit.ly/2sUw2p2
• Google’s response to Siri is codenamed Majel, could be released by end of year – http://bit.ly/2sYn5uS
• The Voder, the First Machine to Create Human Speech – http://bit.ly/2t1FwhY
• Review of text‐to‐speech conversion for English – http://bit.ly/2sZrKwj
• “Klatt Record” audio examples – http://bit.ly/2sZS3T9
• IBM 704 – Daisy Bell (1961) – http://bit.ly/2sWjc9D
• Stephen Hawking: My Computer – http://bit.ly/2sWYc2J
• DECTalk Voices – http://bit.ly/2t2qFEg
• The Story of MacinTalk Part 1 – http://bit.ly/2sZspOj
• No, Women’s Voices Are Not Easier to Understand Than Men’s Voices – http://bit.ly/2sTyr2Y
• Emma Nutt, The World’s 1st Woman Telephone Operator – http://bit.ly/2sWYh6x

 

RESEARCH SOURCES

• Are Consumers More Responsive to Male or Female Voices? – http://bit.ly/2sZHCin
• Can Computer-Generated Speech Have Gender? An Experimental Test of Gender Stereotype – http://bit.ly/2t06BlJ
• Gendered Voice and Robot Entities: Perceptions and Reactions of Male and Female Subjects – http://bit.ly/2sYBJSS [PDF]
• How Do You Say ‘Hello’? Personality Impressions from Brief Novel Voices – http://bit.ly/2t06E0T
• Implications of Using Male and Female Voices in Commercials: An Exploratory Study – http://bit.ly/2sWybAp
• Making Social Robots More Attractive: The Effects of Voice Pitch, Humor and Empathy – http://bit.ly/2t06J4H
• The influence of voice pitch on perceptions of trustworthiness across social contexts – http://bit.ly/2sVQfL3
• The Materiality of the Digital and the Gendered Voice of Siri – http://bit.ly/2sWyew5 [PDF]
• The speaker/gender effect: does the speaker’s gender matter when presenting auditory text in multimedia messages? – http://bit.ly/2sVT275
• Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human ­Computer Relationship – http://bit.ly/2sWyhYN

 

THANKS

Thanks to the shows current patrons and supporters! Without you the show would not be possible. Special thanks to: Adam Neely, Andrew MacLarty, Andrew Carlos, Anthony Kirkpatrick, Benjamin , Camilla Greer, Cassandra Durnford, Chelsea Whyte, Christopher McKitterick, Clarissa Redwine, Clayton Grey, Cole Sarar, Dale Jakes, Dylan Neal, Elliott , Ethan Hermer, Hans Buetow, Hector Suzanne, J.S. Majer, Jack Britton, Jana Deppe, Joe Krushinsky, Johnny C, Kathy Ahfid, Keith Broni, Mahlen Morris, Mischa Stanton, Nick Goertzen, Oscar Acton, Philip Campbell, Rachaul Paul, Royce Rackham, Scott Fassett, Susan Rugnetta, Talia F E, Tim, Tod Kurt, Trey Connelly

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• instagram.com/mikerugnetta

 

Reasonably Sound’s theme and act break music are by Will Stratton, and its visual design by Tida Tep.