Emotional cues in knocking sounds
Renzo Vitale, Roberto Bresin · RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen) · 2008
The object of this research is to describe how temporal and dynamic cues in knocking sounds can communicate emotions, just like in expressive musical performances. An experiment has been conducted where several emotions were supposed to be expressed by different performers. Participants were asked to knock on a wooden door according to instructions. Knocking sounds have been recorded both outside and inside the room, and afterwards they were rated in listening tests. Together with acoustic measurements, arm movements during the knocking action were detected through a motion capture system, so that the body behaviour (visual component) could be correlated to the sound evaluation (acoustical component). Based on previous research on arm movements and music performance, ten different emotions were selected for investigation. Results confirm the use of the same strategies in both expressive everyday body gestures and expressive music performance. Listeners were able to perceive emotions to a large extent. Strong similarities between the use of acoustical features in knocking and music performance were found. The intended emotions were generally perceived correctly. Among the relevant acoustical features extracted from the recordings, rhythm and IOI as well as loudness revealed to be strong cues.