Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

Contact: whatdorobotssoundlike@gmail.com Any comments or guest suggestions are welcome.

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Show notes:

This month's guest is Adam Elman, a veteran voice designer with 20 years experience working on Amazon Alexa, Ford Sync, Xbox and more.

Adam's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vuiadam

Conversation design list, curated by Adam - https://medium.com/@aelman/list/conversation-design-d03ad47d84b8

Adam's "Favourite Sound" example I used was the trumpet stem from: "Carousel Ride" by Rubblebucket

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

Contact: whatdorobotssoundlike@gmail.com Any comments or guest suggestions are welcome.

_______

Show notes:

This month's guest is Chelsea Titus, Principal Conversation Design at Amazon Lab 126 - Emerging Products and Consumer Robotics

Chelsea's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-titus-cat

Extra links

How button boards are changing human-canine communication: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTnVSJ8V4wk 

Immanuel Kant quote: "Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made"

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

Contact: whatdorobotssoundlike@gmail.com Any comments or guest suggestions are welcome.

_______

Show notes:

This month's guest, Vasundhara Gupta, is a Senior UX Sound Designer at the Amazon Device Design Group.

N.B. One editorial note: we discuss the delicate art of tiny sounds that is the domain of the UX designer. We mention 3m/s sound (three one thousandths of a second), but realistically we should've been speaking in multiplications of 10, to quote Vasu; "3ms is not a number I play with haha. It’s more like 30!"

Vasu's website - https://www.vasundharagupta.com/

Extra links

Lata Mangeshkar (legendary Bollywood female lead playback singer) https://tidal.com/artist/30815

Audio UX Sonic branding https://www.auxnyc.com/about

Article about San Francisco Int'l Airport's quiet spaces project: https://www.airport-technology.com/features/san-francisco-quiet-airport/

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

Contact: whatdorobotssoundlike@gmail.com I welcome any comments or guest suggestions.

_______

Show notes:

This month's guest, Paul Bremner, is Associate Professor in Human-Robot Interaction at Bristol Robotics Laboratory

Paul's publications - https://scholar.google.fr/

Extra links

Bristol Robotics Lab - https://www.bristolroboticslab.com/Core-Staff

Sellafield UK Nuclear site - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield

Paro seal robot - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJq5PQZHU-I

Geminoid realistic clone robot - https://robotsguide.com/robots/geminoidhi1

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

_______

Show notes:

This month's episode was experimental. With the help of my friend Matt I attempted something I've been thinking about for a while. A human robot interaction - with ChatGPT as the robot.

Extra links:

Andrej Karpathy explains the workings of Large Language Models (1hr) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjkBMFhNj_g

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

_______

Show notes:

This month's guest, Kenny Young, is a 9x academy nominated composer and sound designer for games (he got one more since I recorded the intro!!)

Kenny's website - https://www.audbod.com/

Kenny on socials: bsky - https://bsky.app/profile/kcmyoung.bsky.social Twitter - https://x.com/kcmyoung

Extra links

AURA at the sphere - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfRo2qLMcUw

"Enshittification" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

Astrobot game trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unYFdcEjV9k

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

_______

Show notes:

This month's guest, Professor Kerstin Fischer from University of Southern Denmark, she is Director of the Human-Robot Interaction Lab Sønderborg and

Professor (MSO) for Language and Technology Interaction.

Kerstin's Google Scholar page - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CSf7_Q0AAAAJ&hl=en

Kerstin's LinkedIn - https://dk.linkedin.com/in/kerstin-fischer-sdu

Extra links

Pepper Robot https://us.softbankrobotics.com/pepper

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

_______

Show notes:

This month's guest, Evan Ratliff, is the writer and host of the 2024 smash hit podcast Shell Game. He is also an award winning investigative journalist and author, having written about technology for the past 25 years.

Shell Game Podcast - https://www.shellgame.co/podcast

Evan's substack - https://substack.com/@evanratliff

Evan's website - https://cazart.net/

Radiolab episode about Shell Game - https://radiolab.org/podcast/shell-game

Extra links

Character AI https://character.ai

Zoom CEO wants AI clones in meetings Article

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

_______

Show notes:

This month's guest, Professor Roger Moore, is Professor of Spoken Language Processing at the University of Sheffield. He was head of the UK Govt’s Speech Research Unit from 1985 to 1999 and is also chair of a multi-disciplinary research group called VIHAR - which stands for Vocal Interactivity in-and-between Humans, Animals and Robots.

University of Sheffield - https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/cs/people/academic/roger-k-moore

Roger's LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/roger-moore-6671972

VIHAR - https://vihar.lis-lab.fr/

Extra links

Hanson Robotics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Mwl6p1enA 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qxRsCZwcQ 

MRI of a tongue when singing (trigger warning - slightly gross) 

https://youtu.be/zGi3CrFx1S4?si=uaUzU8Vb5mlzq1dY

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

_______

Show notes:

This month's guest, Gabriel Skantze, is the Chief Scientist at Furhat Robotics - a robotics company based in Sweden. He is also Professor in Speech Communication and Technology, with a specialization in Conversational Systems, at KTH in Stockholm.

Furhat Website - https://furhatrobotics.com

Gabriel's LinkedIn - https://se.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-skantze

Featured -

Furhat railway station video (it was in Japan not China according to Gabriel)

https://youtu.be/PFQliroGeUo?si=CcpBoWtvQFiTFYt5

Gabriel demonstrating the complexities of conversational turn taking and engaging in conversation with Furhat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmp6Se5wh1M

Amanda Stenberg on the "douche" personality at Furhat conference https://youtu.be/A0e-kYQDavo?si=Sy61Iy7oNV9-v7aA

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

_______

Show notes:

This month's guest, Calle Stenqvist, is the Creative Director for Plan8 - a design agency for sound.

Plan8 Website - https://plan8.se/

Calle's LinkedIn - https://se.linkedin.com/in/calle-stenqvist-9353204

Featured -

Projects discussed: Thorne & Volvo Recharge Room

Needscope archetype wheel explainer video

Misattributed Frank Zappa quote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_about_music_is_like_dancing_about_architecture

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

_______

Show notes:

This month's guest is UX sound designer Harrison Zafrin who, in his words, "nobody cares more about 8ms sound effects." Harrison works to design sound for multi-sensory interactions on technological devices. I was extra excited to talk to Harrison because he does not work with robots, but the crossover in his professional skillset was seriously illuminating for me.

Harrison's LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/harrison-zafrin

Harrison's Website - https://www.harrisonzafrin.com/

Featured clips -

Star Wars battle droids are not very likeable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShQwuJi_FwM

Brian Eno, The Microsoft Sound: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Eno#The_Microsoft_Sound "...when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time."

HBO brand ident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_Oh7HizY5I

Bernie Krause, natural soundscape book: The Great Animal Orchestra

Harrison's favourite sound: Noisia & The Upbeats

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

_______

Show notes:

This month's guest is composer and sound designer Mike Forst who released Amazon's home companion robot Astro. Mike worked as Audio Lead and then became Character Lead on that project. He is now a freelance composer, sound designer and artist.

Mike's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-forst-77823718

Mike's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mikeforst/?hl=en

Amazon Astro - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj1t3msy8dc

Definitions: I noticed Mike and I reference "TTS" several times without defining it as "Text To Speech" - the ability for a computer system to generate speech audio from text rather than pre-recorded voice lines.

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

_______

Show notes:

This month's guest is composer and sound designer Tracy Bush who worked at robotics company Sphero on several licensed robots from film - R2D2, BB8, Lightning McQueen.

Tracy's Twitter/X - https://twitter.com/tracywbush

Mars Rover birthday song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGkUbvPsgNY&t=7s

Neal Stephenson w/ Lex Fridman https://youtu.be/xAfdSak2fs8?si=i9ZZSk4QccBNXAFl

BB8 from Starwars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgP5flzrcE4

Lightning McQueen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdGWRq1dVBA

Kuri robot https://robotsguide.com/robots/kuri

Star Trek Scotty "hello computer" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpWhugUmV5U

Definitions: 2 terms from our discussion that I thought could be useful to define.

Nyquist - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist_frequency

Eprom - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPROM

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

_______

Show notes:

This episode’s guest is Ben Gabaldon, formerly Audio Lead for robotics company Anki, where he shipped audio for robots Cozmo and Vector.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-gabaldon-0b829110

Cozmo/Vector: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-MsY9pLWKI

Ben's WIP videos creating voice for the robots: https://vimeo.com/345223512

Elevenlabs - cutting edge voice synthesis: https://elevenlabs.io/

Ben Burtt IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0123785/

Facial micro expressions: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5751645/

Railway station robot promo video - "Furhat": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irx30qbiVlU

Game audio: https://youtu.be/89_WG5PiTpo?si=V-Pqp3mUzk-1uRbt

Boston Dynamics - Spot new feature video: https://youtu.be/qgHeCfMa39E?si=dCBskTrV4kuqFWAi

Children do better with 1on1 tuition study: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-tutoring-in-schools-and-16-to-19-providers/independent-review-of-tutoring-in-16-to-19-providers-phase-1-findings

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

_______

Show notes:

This episode’s guest is Dr Iain McGregor, an Associate Professor of sound design at Edinburgh’s Napier University.

Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/driainmcgregor

Link to Dr McGregor’s survey “What's in a name? Human-Robot Interaction” Please fill it out if you're interested.

https://survey.napier.ac.uk/TakeSurveyPage.aspx?s=b0311e403a7c405f8e56d34f1b538981&tsid=064aa7b448124d29b481d09a546edd60&c=en-GB

Dr McGregor’s article on robotics sound design

https://www.asoundeffect.com/robot-sound-design/

Moxi hospital robot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLY3XxLtkng

Audio watermarking in advertising

https://medium.com/intrasonics/can-audio-watermarked-connected-ads-reverse-the-drop-in-tv-ad-spend-and-help-save-commercial-tv-8df06fa3a94b

Boston dynamics robot “abuse” testing videos *trigger warning*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFuA50H9uek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR5Z6AoMh6U

Boston dynamics spot with ChatGPT integration: https://youtu.be/djzOBZUFzTw?si=eK3nc0u-G3PRu66V

***SPECIAL THANKS***

Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/

Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.