Pixelated Semantics

A schizotypical inventory

Simulacra (2)

Speaking of fake humans, within a day of the 'fake company' revelation, a 'Japanese acoustics expert' has devised a method to hear what the Mona Lisa's voice 'would have sounded like'. Reuters report:

'Dr Matsumi Suzuki, who generally uses his skills to help with criminal investigations, measured the face and hands of Leonardo da Vinci's famous 16th century portrait to estimate her height and create a model of her skull.

"Once we have that, we can create a voice very similar to that of the person concerned," Suzuki told Reuters in an interview at his Tokyo office last week. "We have recreated the voices of a lot of famous people that were very close to the real thing and have been used in film dubbing."'

How they know the voices are close to 'the real thing' in the absence of benchmark voice recordings (for example from the 16th century, or prior to the 1890s in any case) is not discussed. The story does disclose that

'The scientists brought in an Italian woman to add the necessary intonation to the voice.

"We then had to think about what to have her say," Suzuki said. "We tried having her speak Japanese, but it didn't suit her image."'

Indeed.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 1:51 pm ::