Evaluating speech synthesis in a mobile context: Audio presentation of Facebook, Twitter and RSS

Mathew Aylett, Yolanda Vazquez-Alvarez, Lynne Baillie

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper presents an evaluation of a podcast service that aggregates data from Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds, using speech synthesis. The service uses a novel approach to speech synthesis generation, where XML markup is used to control both the speech synthesis and the sound design of a resulting podcast. A two-phase evaluation was carried out: 1) participants listening to the podcasts on desktop computers, 2) participants listening to the podcasts while walking. Our findings show that participants preferred shorter podcasts with sound effects and background music, and were affected by the surrounding environmental noise. However, audio advertising which is part of the service did not have a significant negative effect. Another finding was that the advantage of using multiple voices for content segmentation may have been undermined by difficulties in listener adaptation. The work is part of a new approach to speech synthesis provision, where its style of rendition forms a part of the application design and it is evaluated within an application context.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the ITI 2013 35th International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces
PublisherIEEE
Pages167-172
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9789537138325
ISBN (Print)9789537138301
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Oct 2013
Event35th International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces 2013 - Cavtat / Dubrovnik, Croatia
Duration: 24 Jun 201327 Jun 2013

Conference

Conference35th International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces 2013
Abbreviated titleITI 2013
Country/TerritoryCroatia
CityCavtat / Dubrovnik
Period24/06/1327/06/13

Keywords

  • auditory interfaces
  • evaluation
  • mobile systems
  • Speech synthesis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Computer Science

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