The Face and Voice laboratory provides equipment to measure the static and dynamic properties of the head and face along with properties of the voice and the relationship between face and voice signals. The primary aim of the research is to understand how communication is facilitated by the interlinked face and voice signals and the ways that these provide a rich source of information about a person’s identity. The Face and Voice lab contains the following equipment:
| Optotrak |
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We have a Northern digital Optotrak 3020 housed in a sound attenuated booth and a fully adjustable chair to ensure that participants can be comfortably recorded. The Optotrak 3020 provides very high precision and excellent repeatability for measures of distance and angle. It has better reliability than most motion analysis systems. For example, in a recent study, the within-trial standard deviation (SD) for the Optotrak 3020 were smaller than all eight other motion analysis systems for which within-trial SD was reported (States & Pappas, 2006). The measurement error of the Optotrak system is minimal and is unlikely to be the limiting factor in defining reliability for the vast majority of studies investigating gross human movement. Precision of the Optotrak 3020 is excellent during static and motion conditions and decreases only slightly as the markers are moved away from, or are tilted relative to the sensors.
Project: Faces and Voices
Project: Processes - auditory/visual speech perception and production
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| 3DMD Scanner |
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We also have a 3dMD scanner for capturing 3D head and face structure. This scanner is non-invasive (it involves simply taking a series of photographs), fast, safe and produces high-resolution, static face postures. Our 3dMDface system is a stereo scanner designed specifically for scanning faces. It uses four cameras along with a protected texture pattern in order to acquire the data in two milliseconds once the flash is fully charged (a process that takes about 10 seconds). It also uses the data acquired to produce a high quality color texture map that is registered with the 3D data. The captured shape and texture data typically extends from ear to ear, providing a texture-mapped mesh with greater coverage than a raster-structured scanner.
Project:takaaki kuratate - research
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| Auditory-Visual Recording |
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The Face and Voice laboratory also has auditory-visual recording facilities housed in a 3 x 4 meter sound-attenuated booth. This set up allows for simultaneous, high quality recording of audio and visual stimulus in which the stimulus control computer is located outside of the booth (minimizing acoustic noise in the audio recordings). This computer can be controlled internally using a wireless keyboard and mouse, with presentation of stimulus items on a 17 inch Digicrystal LCD Monitor.
Project:faces-and-voices
Project:Processes - auditory/visual speech perception and production |
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