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: [email protected] Any comments or guest suggestions are welcome.

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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: [email protected] 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.