Visualising Voices

At this station there were three activities to allow visitors to 'see' their own voices on a computer screen.

How long is your vocal tract?

A script that calculates vocal tract length based on the frequency of the first formant (F1) when saying a schwa was used.

These were then mapped on a chart using colour-coded stickers for different sexes.

Seeing Your Vowels

Visitors' voices were recorded and then volunteers analysed their formants using Praat.

Seeing the Pitch of Your Voice

Visitors' voices were recorded and then volunteers analysed the pitch tracking using Praat.

In addition, volunteers were on hand to answer questions such as "How are vowels made?" and "How does speech work?".

What Did and Didn't Work

Laptops could not record and play back recordings at the same time because the headphone jack could not simultaneously accommodate speakers and a microphone, which made it difficult to find vowels in a recording.

Visitors thought that volunteers were speech therapists and were concerned were concerned about what their child's vocal tract length meant for his/her development.

Use a headphone jack splitter so that visitors can both record their voices and listen back to their recordings.

Volunteers need to be trained in the further implications and applications of Praat.