Sonic characteristics of robots in films

• Robots are increasingly becoming an integral part of our everyday life. Expectations on robots could be influenced by how robots are represented in science fiction films. We hypothesize that sonic interaction design for real-world robots may find inspiration from sound design of fictional robots. In this paper, we present an exploratory study focusing on sonic characteristics of robot sounds in films. We believe that findings from the current study could be of relevance for future robotic applications involving the communication of internal states through sounds, as well for sonification of expressive robot movements. Excerpts from five films were annotated and analysed using Long Time Average Spectrum (LTAS). As an overall observation, we found that robot sonic presence is highly related to the physical appearance of robots. Preliminary results show that most of the robots analysed in this study have “metallic” voice qualities, matching the material of their physical form. Characteristics of robot voices show significant differences compared to voices of human characters; fundamental frequency of robotic voices is either shifted to higher or lower values, and the voices span over a broader frequency band.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Medieteknik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Media and Communication Technology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Människa-datorinteraktion (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Human Computer Interaction (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Mediateknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Media Engineering (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Interaktionsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Interaction Technologies (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Musik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Music (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Datorseende och robotik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Computer Vision and Robotics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

robot sound

non-verbal communication

sonic interaction design

human-robot interaction

film sound design

LTAS

Media Technology

Medieteknik

Människa-datorinteraktion

Human-computer Interaction

Art, Technology and Design

Konst, teknik och design

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)