title: Chironomic stylization of intonation.
abstract: Intonation stylization is studied using "chironomy," i.e., the analogy between hand gestures and prosodic movements. An intonation mimicking paradigm is used. The task of the ten subjects is to copy the intonation pattern of sentences with the help of a stylus on a graphic tablet, using a system for real-time manual intonation modification. Gestural imitation is compared to vocal imitation of the same sentences (seven for a male speaker, seven for a female speaker). Distance measures between gestural copies, vocal imitations, and original sentences are computed for performance assessment. Perceptual testing is also used for assessing the quality of gestural copies. The perceptual difference between natural and stylized contours is measured using a mean opinion score paradigm for 15 subjects. The results indicate that intonation contours can be stylized with accuracy by chironomic imitation. The results of vocal imitation and chironomic imitation are comparable, but subjects show better imitation results in vocal imitation. The best stylized contours using chironomy seems perceptually indistinguishable or almost indistinguishable from natural contours, particularly for female speech. This indicates that chironomic stylization is effective, and that hand movements can be analogous to intonation movements.
authors.affiliation: LIMSI-CNRS (Laboratoire d'Informatique pour la Mécanique et les Sciences de l'Ingénieur - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), BP 133, Orsay 91403, France. cda@limsi.fr
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: d'Alessandro
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rilliard
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Le Beux
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005868:Gestures; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D008297:Male; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological; D010897:Pitch Discrimination; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult