US engineers building 'cocktail party' of talking robot heads

American researchers are building a group of talking 3D-printed robotic heads to help design better audio technology for humans.

Scientists from the Augmented Listening Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have created the 'cocktail party' of realistic heads to research the acoustic properties of the human skull, and better understand how to tune algorithms that improve human hearing. For instance, software used in hearing aids adjusts the sound received at each ear, but in order to do this well, it must realistically assess the difference between the arrival time at each ear and the amplitude of the sound. 

It's important to do this in natural environments – like a cocktail party – where many things may be going on at once. “Simulating realistic scenarios for conversation enhancement often requires hours of recording with human subjects. The entire process can be exhausting for the subjects, and it is extremely hard for a subject to remain perfectly still in between and during recordings, which affects the measured acoustic pressures,” said Austin Lu, a student member of the team. “Acoustic head simulators can overcome both drawbacks. They can be used to create large data sets with continuous recording and are guaranteed to remain still.”

Researchers can precisely adjust the parameters of the experiment, and even set the machines in motion to simulate neck movement. The heads also have highly detailed ears, fitted with microphones to simulate both human hearing and Bluetooth earpieces. There's a loudspeaker that mimics human vocals. “Our acoustic head project is the culmination of the work done by many students with highly varied technical backgrounds,” said Manan Mittal, a graduate researcher with the team. “Projects like this are due to interdisciplinary research that requires engineers to work with designers.”

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