Date:
Fri, 11/22/2013 - 11:00am - 12:30pm
Location:
CCRMA Seminar Room
Event Type:
Hearing Seminar
Laughter is a universal human response to emotional stimuli. Though the production mechanism of laughter may seem crude when compared to other modes of vocalization such as speech and singing, the resulting auditory signal is nonetheless expressive. By implementing prototypes for interactive laughter synthesis and conducting crowdsourced experiments using the synthesized laughter stimuli, this project investigates how acoustic features may give rise to emotional meaning. By focusing on the affective dimensions of laughter, this work complements prior works on laughter synthesis that have primarily emphasized the acceptability criteria. Moreover, by collecting listeners’ response to synthesized laughter stimuli, this work attempts to establish a causal link between acoustic features and emotional meaning that was not possible in prior studies using real laughter stimuli.
Jieun Oh is currently a PhD Candidate at CCRMA, and she received her Bachelor of Science in Symbolic Systems at Stanford University in 2008. Throughout her graduate career, she has conducted research in new music-making paradigms (laptop and mobile phone ensembles), crowdsourcing for conducting experiments in auditory perception, and, more broadly, how music and technology change the way people interact. Her dissertation topic explores analysis and synthesis of laughter expressions.