Episodes

  • Chelsea Titus - Linguistics, Quirks, Backstory, Human interaction
    Dec 3 2025

    Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

    Contact: whatdorobotssoundlike@gmail.com Any comments or guest suggestions are welcome.

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    Show notes:

    This month's guest is Chelsea Titus, Principal Conversation Design at Amazon Lab 126 - Emerging Products and Consumer Robotics


    Chelsea's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-titus-cat


    Extra links


    How button boards are changing human-canine communication: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTnVSJ8V4wk

    Immanuel Kant quote: "Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made"



    ***SPECIAL THANKS***


    Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/


    Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    49 mins
  • Vasundhara Gupta - UX Sound design, Customisation vs adaption, Personality in devices
    Sep 13 2025

    Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

    Contact: whatdorobotssoundlike@gmail.com Any comments or guest suggestions are welcome.

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    Show notes:


    This month's guest, Vasundhara Gupta, is a Senior UX Sound Designer at the Amazon Device Design Group.

    N.B. One editorial note: we discuss the delicate art of tiny sounds that is the domain of the UX designer. We mention 3m/s sound (three one thousandths of a second), but realistically we should've been speaking in multiplications of 10, to quote Vasu; "3ms is not a number I play with haha. It’s more like 30!"


    Vasu's website - https://www.vasundharagupta.com/


    Extra links


    Lata Mangeshkar (legendary Bollywood female lead playback singer) https://tidal.com/artist/30815

    Audio UX Sonic branding https://www.auxnyc.com/about

    Article about San Francisco Int'l Airport's quiet spaces project: https://www.airport-technology.com/features/san-francisco-quiet-airport/



    ***SPECIAL THANKS***


    Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/


    Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/


    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    50 mins
  • Paul Bremner - Nuclear decommissioning robots, Affordance vs expectation, IORT
    Jul 21 2025

    Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

    Contact: whatdorobotssoundlike@gmail.com I welcome any comments or guest suggestions.

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    Show notes:


    This month's guest, Paul Bremner, is Associate Professor in Human-Robot Interaction at Bristol Robotics Laboratory


    Paul's publications - https://scholar.google.fr/


    Extra links


    Bristol Robotics Lab - https://www.bristolroboticslab.com/Core-Staff

    Sellafield UK Nuclear site - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield

    Paro seal robot - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJq5PQZHU-I

    Geminoid realistic clone robot - https://robotsguide.com/robots/geminoidhi1




    ***SPECIAL THANKS***


    Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/


    Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    54 mins
  • ChatGPT4o & my friend Matt - Experiment: human robot interview
    May 11 2025

    Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

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    Show notes:


    This month's episode was experimental. With the help of my friend Matt I attempted something I've been thinking about for a while. A human robot interaction - with ChatGPT as the robot.


    Extra links:


    Andrej Karpathy explains the workings of Large Language Models (1hr) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjkBMFhNj_g


    ***SPECIAL THANKS***


    Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/


    Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    35 mins
  • Kenny Young - AURA, Humanoid robots, Jankiness, Singing
    Mar 7 2025

    Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

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    Show notes:


    This month's guest, Kenny Young, is a 9x academy nominated composer and sound designer for games (he got one more since I recorded the intro!!)


    Kenny's website - https://www.audbod.com/


    Kenny on socials: bsky - https://bsky.app/profile/kcmyoung.bsky.social Twitter - https://x.com/kcmyoung


    Extra links


    AURA at the sphere - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfRo2qLMcUw

    "Enshittification" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

    Astrobot game trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unYFdcEjV9k



    ***SPECIAL THANKS***


    Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/


    Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • Prof Kerstin Fischer - Depiction, Expectation, Interaction research with robots
    Jan 23 2025

    Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

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    Show notes:


    This month's guest, Professor Kerstin Fischer from University of Southern Denmark, she is Director of the Human-Robot Interaction Lab Sønderborg and

    Professor (MSO) for Language and Technology Interaction.


    Kerstin's Google Scholar page - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CSf7_Q0AAAAJ&hl=en


    Kerstin's LinkedIn - https://dk.linkedin.com/in/kerstin-fischer-sdu


    Extra links


    Pepper Robot https://us.softbankrobotics.com/pepper


    ***SPECIAL THANKS***


    Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/


    Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    59 mins
  • Evan Ratliff - Shell Game, Voice Agents, AI, Human Robot Interactions
    Dec 20 2024

    Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

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    Show notes:


    This month's guest, Evan Ratliff, is the writer and host of the 2024 smash hit podcast Shell Game. He is also an award winning investigative journalist and author, having written about technology for the past 25 years.


    Shell Game Podcast - https://www.shellgame.co/podcast


    Evan's substack - https://substack.com/@evanratliff


    Evan's website - https://cazart.net/


    Radiolab episode about Shell Game - https://radiolab.org/podcast/shell-game


    Extra links


    Character AI https://character.ai

    Zoom CEO wants AI clones in meetings Article


    ***SPECIAL THANKS***


    Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/


    Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    53 mins
  • Prof Roger Moore - Uncanny Valley, Interaction, Speech, History of Speech Synthesis
    Nov 22 2024

    Interviews on the topic of sound for human-robot interactions. Game audio designer Ali Tocher enjoys long form conversations with a wide range of guests.

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    Show notes:


    This month's guest, Professor Roger Moore, is Professor of Spoken Language Processing at the University of Sheffield. He was head of the UK Govt’s Speech Research Unit from 1985 to 1999 and is also chair of a multi-disciplinary research group called VIHAR - which stands for Vocal Interactivity in-and-between Humans, Animals and Robots.


    University of Sheffield - https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/cs/people/academic/roger-k-moore


    Roger's LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/roger-moore-6671972


    VIHAR - https://vihar.lis-lab.fr/


    Extra links


    Hanson Robotics

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Mwl6p1enA

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qxRsCZwcQ

    MRI of a tongue when singing (trigger warning - slightly gross)

    https://youtu.be/zGi3CrFx1S4?si=uaUzU8Vb5mlzq1dY



    ***SPECIAL THANKS***


    Original Music: Mara Simpson "Ropes" https://marasimpson.bandcamp.com/


    Original Artwork: Ben Pearce https://www.benpearce.com/

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    1 hr and 6 mins