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Why Computer Voices Are Mostly Female
PolygamousRanchKid writes with an article exploring the question posed in the headline, which says that "One answer may lie in biology. Scientific studies have shown that people generally find women's voices more pleasing than men's. 'It's much easier to find a female voice that everyone likes than a male voice that everyone likes,' said Stanford University Professor Clifford Nass, author of 'The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us About Human Relationships. 'It's a well-established phenomenon that the human brain is developed to like female voices.' One notable exception has been Germany, where BMW was forced to recall a female-voiced navigation system on its 5 Series cars in the late 1990s after being flooded with calls from German men saying they refused to take directions from a woman. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on why the company gave Siri a female voice in the U.S. Nor would she say why Siri speaks like a man in the UK, where iPhone 4S owners have swarmed online forums to request a female voice instead."
The library around here had an autodialer that would remind folks about late materials and when books were available, they used a pleasant voice from a black gentleman. It had a James Earl Jones quality to it and was quite pleasant despite being relatively unsophistication in use. Meaning that the words were taken from samples so they wouldn't quite match up even if the grammar was correct.
Surely most people prefer to listen to the opposite sex, provided they do not suffer from sexual identity disorder or a similar crippling condition ...
The purpose of existence is to make money.
One day I had the interesting observation on the New York Subway that the recorded voices with informational statements were female, and the statements asking the passenger to do something ("Please stand clear of the door") were all male.
Female computer voice: Star Trek
Male computer voice = HAL 9000
Nothing good ever came from a male computer.
I don't care why you're posting AC
So this is why Holly got replaced by Hilly?
So US Siri is a secretary and UK Siri is a gentleman's gentleman ?
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Clearly they have never heard Morgan Freeman.
"German men saying they refused to take directions from a woman."
Don't forget the Austrian accent!
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
A toggle switch.
In the BMW it could be a real physical toggle somewhere, but an OS setting would work as well. In Apple's case they need to relax a little, pull the stick out, and let the people toggle which voice they want, even MS allows that on their voice related functions.
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My question is, why aren't users simply given a choice? If they've put the effort into making both voice sets, let the user choose which one they prefer. Then again, this is Apple we're talking about.
In the army there is a known fact/myth that female voices are easier to understand on noisy radio links.
Something to do white the a different/better frequency spread than a male voice.
In my not very scientific experience, it seems to be true.
As of Postgres v6.2, time travel is no longer supported.
"where BMW was forced to recall a female-voiced navigation system on its 5 Series cars in the late 1990s after being flooded with calls from German men saying they refused to take directions from a woman"
Urban myth that dovetails nocely with american stereotypical views of foreigners, Germans in particular.
Car navigation systems should all have Mr. T voice. I mean, who wouldn't listen to directions from him?
"Turn a right fool!"
"I pity the fool who doesn't do a u-turn here"
On a serious note, pleasing != listening. Like many background music are soothing yet the more jarred/harsh sounds are much more attention seeking.
German men refused to take directions from a woman UNLESS they were getting spanked at the time.
BMW simply found it more cost effective to change to a male voice, rather than go with the seat spanking technology the engineers had already developed for another application.
Garmin allows you to pick from a number of different voices, with different regional accents and languages as well.
Dog is my co-pilot.
Everyone can appreciate that, even if they don't understand what's being said.
Even assuming the 1990s were the middle ages, this is hard to believe. Firstly, nearly all navigational systems I've encountered here in Germany in the past ten years have female voices (if they have any), and the public transport system's automated announcements have been made by a female voice since forever.
The frequency spectrum of a female voice just fits better the badwidth of typical audio devices so the recorded message is less distorted.
Ru Paul for everyone.
I've read (though I can't quote sources, sorry) that the main reason computerised voices on navigation aids is female is the higher pitch. In jets where that sort of thing was pioneered it made the voice easier to distinguish clearly from the "background" noise of the engines without having to raise the volume, and presumably the difference is similar in cars.
There may be cultural reasons too, of course, but this theory of a physical reason makes sense to me.
From my experience the gender of the synthetic voices has been male by default so I don't recognize this. The default voice on the old Amiga narrator.device was male. The default voice on loud-reading software used to be NeoSpeech Paul which has been one of the best English spoken computer narrator compilations out there.
The GPS software I have used have both male and female voices in different languages to choose from, I have primarily used TomTom and Navigon. I cannot recall that I preferred one gender over the other.
Telephone voices on the other hand have from my experience been dominated by females, and we're talking about automated phone services and phone queue notifications. But seriously, I wouldn't care whether the voice is male or female.
There may or may not be some bearing in the statements regarding the gender of the computer voice although I seriously doubt it. But when I read the following:
"What's interesting to me is how they seem to intentionally make her speech sound artificial -- they could choose to make her speech more seamless and human-like, but they choose instead to highlight the technology,"
I seriously started to believe that this article is paid for by Apple. Making a really good and natural voice is a very difficult undertaking and I have not yet heard a perfect and seamless computer voice that sounds as natural as a real human.
I'd prefer Woodie Allen's voice.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Whoever wrote this story hasn't been listening to the republican debate. I want to poke out my eardrums whenever michelle bachman speaks, sorry, screams.
Liberty.
In WW2 ground controllers for the British Air Force were almost all women. I was told (by someone who had good reason to know) that there was a debate about whether to have women radio operators in the aircraft. There were two reasons: One was more reliable communication, the other was to prevent the Germans spoofing aircraft radio operators. A number of women operators were asked for their views and immediately volunteered to fly (a very dangerous occupation). Despite this, the proposal was turned down. The attitudes at the time were truly backward; there were women pilots who were allowed to deliver aircraft to their bases, but they were not allowed to fly with guns loaded - a quite incomprehensible decision since some of them were shot down by enemy action without a chance of fighting back.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
This doesn't seem to be the case for narrators.
Pretty sure that neither Oprah nor Sigourney Weaver were considered more pleasing than David Attenborough.
I would listen to James Earl Jones giving me driving directions any day. My current GPS female voice is annoying -- I mute it.
Least for IVRs, on average people find male voices more intimidating than female voices. We also find female voices more nurturing than male voices on average.
Other posters have already point this out. Suggestions ( facilitated by nurturing speaker ) then women are used. Commands ( facilitated by intimidation, i.e. subtle threat of punishment ) then males are more often used.
Systems where you may need to intimidate the listener a bit will tend to use male voices. I kid you not, but in the future pay attention to how many collections operators or conflict desks sound 'black'. Also think of how often you spoke to a collections/conflict department and got a deep voiced male. Now compare that to how often you called the general operator and got a deep voiced male.
Because computers, like women, are there to serve.
Everyone likes Morgan Freeman's voice. Fact.
Seriously? An Apple spokeswoman!!!!!!!!!!! There's no such word! Spokesperson, maybe...
It seems to me though that most audiobooks are read by men, and of the ones I have read by women, I find the voice irritating. These are real people though, maybe its more to do with how male and female voices are synthed.
Male rock stars make more money than female ones. The proof is in the pudding.
I like female voices on GPS in particular because the frequency spread of a typical female voice is easier to hear (over engine drone, wind noise, etc) regardless of the vehicle I'm driving, and whether I have the targa roof off my car, or driving a truck, I can still hear it but sometimes the male voices are diminished - plus the voices are sometimes more pleasant.
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Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
Sir David Frederick Attenborough.
Privacy is terrorism.
Discussion is over. The primary demographic for BMW's is insecure middle aged men who can't even listen to a computer for fear of degrading their "Macho"! Soooo pathetic.
Because the men programming the systems never have another opportunity to hear a woman's voice telling them what to touch.
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
after being flooded with calls from German men saying they refused to take directions from a woman.
For real? Not only were these men pissed off about taking direction from a computerized woman's voice, but they also felt it necessary to call BMW to bitch about it. And then, BMW took these tools seriously enough to recall the cars? This just has to be a urban legend.
[runs off to check snopes]
Because computer programmers are mostly male.
How come every xtranormal video has the male character teaching the uninformed and/or ignorant female character?
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
Most female voices are grating unless lower pitched than average, ( just listen to any local female news caster....GRATING) I think the real reason is that you are telling the voice what to do and subconsciously marketing views women as subservient, I honestly believe males are generally more pleasant to listen to due to the deeper tone.
I'll toss a little homophobia on top as most men want a female voice.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Norio Wakamoto doesn't speak more languages.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lzG9MnkVlA
that's why.
I wonder if german fighter pilots refuse to eject in emergencies?
I was having a similar conversation about responsiveness to female voices with a speech pathologist and an Airforce officer. The former used results from child education as an example, and the latter pointed out that this is why a female voice is used for the 'eject eject' for fighter pilots.
Morgan Freeman
...would all probably be universally accepted.
...you add some more...
David Attenborough
Mike Rowe
Patrick Stewart
Unacceptable:
Bobcat Goldthwait
Almost anyone from Pulp Fiction ( Christopher Walken, Steve Buschemi, John Travolta....Sammuel Jackson's voice might not be bad.)
Chairman Kaga
Marlon Brando
We really need your help
http://www.gofundme.com/help-sherry
Men will pay more attention to a females voice, and females feel more comfortable with another female voice. Its simple psychology.
You are listening to NOAA's national weather service station...
(Sounds like Stephen Hawking to me...)
How come nobody has mentioned Peter Tuddenham (Zen from B7)
As far as narrating a story, or documentary I have always frefered male british voices. (Richard Burton, Patrick Stewart, John Hurt, Sir John Geilgud) but then I was born in a Commonwealth country.
That doesn't mean 'only hang out with dudes', it means 'don't screw over your friends to get laid'.
My fav is when the sexy unreal 2004 voice say 'Holy Shit'. Sounds like she is creaming herself.
That voice has been used in UK electronica for decades...it's infamous...
Studies have shown that people pay closer attention to a female voice. A female voice is also more likely to stand out above the din of jet noise, rumble and common male-dominated radio chatter. Furthermore, a higher-pitched voice can enunciate more clearly. Although lower-pitched male voices can contain high-frequency overtones that aid recognition, the lower pitches dominate.
By the way, the cockpit warning system voice is nicknamed "Bitching Betty" or "Bitchin' Betty".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitching_Betty
The hypothesis isn't "it's hard to find male voices that everybody likes": rather "it's much easier to find a female voice that everyone likes than a male voice that everyone likes". Notice the difference.
Boeing and Airbus, use only MALE voices for their cockpit computer in charge of reading altitude call outs, critical speeds and various alerts and announcements.
No place for "a Siri" in any serious environment.
Then why...does NOAA use a synthesized male voice on all of its weather broadcast stations?
1) Include female synthesized voices in Germany and other places which prefer male.
2) Include male synthesized voices in the USA and other places which prefer female.
3) Sell "value enhancement" packages of other voices for $10 a shot.
4) Profit!
5) Uhm, where's my slice of the pie for thinking of the idea?
I would pay good money (as opposed to Bitcoins) to listen to James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman have a conversation about types of cheese.
unacceptable sylvester stallone Gilbert Gottfried
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Mainly because of Star Trek
Every talking GPS unit I have had, I find the higher pitch of the female voice to cut thru the low frequency background noise of driving better than the mail voices.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
um, because they are?
I am not a robot. I am a unicorn.
I can tell you something I noticed at Walgreens pharmacy. When they call to tell you your prescription will be delayed, it is a male computer voice delivering the bad news. However, when they call you to tell you your prescription is ready (good news), it is always a female computer voice.
But I wonder if there is a difference in voice preference between the sexes? The whole anima/animus thing, you know. Guess it depends on how individuated you are.
Most people implementing various sorts of voice technology are blokes who wished they'd dated more in high school. Who doesn't want a female touch in the cubicle?
genetically predisposed to obey a female voice. years of natural selection.
when they first implemented their subway system between gates. It has changed a few times since then but being a product of that generation many of us used to comment on it all the time in BBS days.
Personal favorite female voice on a computer was the voice used in Mechwarrior 2.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
My custom made GPS navigation unit in my car with my wife's voice .... :-)
In my limited experience, older ears seem to lose the high frequencies more/first.
My hearing test charts show a simple linear roll-off (log-log) plot
Right - 6 dB/octave
Left - 8 dB/octave
Age - 66
My mother-in-law was worse. Above 3kHz, it just fell to nothing. She couldn't understand most female voices. Age 90.
--
A POW in the war of wits
... beats HAL9000s insanity with pure, unadulterated malice.
So, nothing evil ever came from a male computer, either.
Majel Barrett Rodenberry
Hers was the female voice of every Star Fleet computer.
She also played:
"Number One" in the original pilot "The Cage"
"Nurse Christine Chapel" in TOS
"Dr. Christine Chapel" in the TOS-based ST movies
"Lwaxana Troi" in TNG and DS9
See
Told yah so!
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All systems: nominal
Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
voiced by Helga von Bulow?
There has been plenty of research showing that female voices are easier to pickup in a noisy airplane cockpit. I would not be surprised if the same holds in a car.
The BMW story really has a citation needed tag as far as I see it. A university professor, specialized in avionics told me the same thing, but about some airlines (situated in some politically and religiously conservative countries) who complained that their pilots did not want to listen to a female voice.
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