Re: Speech intelligibility and spatial information

[=?X-UNKNOWN?Q?T=F3th_L=E1szl=F3?= <tothl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 17 Sep 2001, Eckard Blumschein wrote:

> I prefer to close may eyes because the singer might be fat
>
Well, I think of some more reasonable explanation. Something like:
Our goal when listening to speech signals is to get information. Visual
information can help this procedure, so we look at the direction of the
source, as lip-reading or simply seeing the face of the talker can help
our understanding. When there is no talker present, we simply gaze at the
speakers...
Meanwhile, when listening to music, our goal is different: we want to
enjoy it, whatever this means... in this, staring at the CD-player
wouldn't help so much, or even would distract our attention, so we close
our eyes. When there is additional visual information, like in a theater,
then, of course, the situation is different...

               Laszlo Toth
        Hungarian Academy of Sciences         *
  Research Group on Artificial Intelligence   *   "Failure only begins
     e-mail: tothl@inf.u-szeged.hu            *    when you stop trying"
     http://www.inf.u-szeged.hu/~tothl        *