Vemtriloquist

[Alice Faber]

>On Mon, 28 Feb 2000, Breland, Mary Beth wrote:
>
>> A sentence such as, 'A boy bounces a basketball.', would be said
>> ventriloquilly , 'A doy dounces a dasketdall.'  Yet due to the lack of
>> facial muscled movement, the air control, the softening of the attack on the
>> liabels, and the fact that it is used in conversation, a listener believes
>> that is what is being said.(Also partly because the listener really wants to
>> believe the dummy is "talking")
>
>And if the ventriloquist's manipulation of the dummy's lips is good, he
>probably gets a little help from the McGurk effect...  I don't suppose
>anyone knows of McGurk experiments done with dummies.

Well, I don't know from dummies. But I've seen some moderately convincing
McGurk demos done with computer-generated wire-frame faces that look rather
robotic. The effect seems to work, but it's not quite as convincing as with
real video.

Alice Faber