Don't Say Yes, Say Yes: Interacting with Synthetic Speech Using Tonetable

This demo is not about what you say but how you say it. Using a tangible system, Tonetable, we explore the shades of meaning carried by the same word said in many different ways. The same word or phrase is synthesised using the Intel Edison with different expressive techniques. Tonetable allows participants to play these different tokens and select the manner they should be synthesised for different contexts. Adopting the visual language of mid-century modernism, the system provokes participants to think deeply about how they might want to say yes, oh really, or I see. Designed with the very serious objective of supporting expressive personalisation of AAC devices, but with the ability to produce a playful and amusing experience, Tonetable will change the way you think about speech synthesis and what yes really means.