What Do Robots Sound Like?

Hosted by Ali Tocher

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Apr 2026

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About the show

Interviews with professionals and experts discussing audio design for robotics. Ali Tocher is an audio designer working in video games. He also looks at real world applications for sound in hospitals and schools. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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18 recent

April 26, 202654 min

Prof Michael Schutz - Hospitals, Alarms, History of the beep, Triangles

Professor of Music Cognition and Percussion, McMaster UniversityInterviews 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._______Show notes/links:This month's guest is Professor Michael Schutz from McMaster University where he is Professor for Music Cognition and Percussion.Professor Schutz's Ted talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap8geRll6F0Patterson Alarm sounds paper: Alarm_Sounds_for_Medical_Equipment_in_Intensive_Care_Areas_and_Operating_Theatres Alarm examples: https://th.id.au/alarms/IEC alarm specification article: https://puiaudio.com/resource/iec-60601-8-application-guide/Bernie Krause book: The Great Animal Orchestra***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.

April 9, 202646 min

Adam Elman - Voice assistants, Automotive, Utilitarian design

20 year veteran voice designer, Amazon, Microsoft, Ford etcInterviews 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._______Show notes:This month's guest is Adam Elman, a veteran voice designer with 20 years experience working on Amazon Alexa, Ford Sync, Xbox and more.Adam's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vuiadamConversation design list, curated by Adam - https://medium.com/@aelman/list/conversation-design-d03ad47d84b8Adam's "Favourite Sound" example I used was the trumpet stem from: "Carousel Ride" by Rubblebucket ***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.

December 3, 202549 min

Chelsea Titus - Linguistics, Quirks, Backstory, Human interaction

Principal Conversation Design | Amazon Lab 126, Emerging Products and Consumer Robotics - 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._______Show notes:This month's guest is Chelsea Titus, Principal Conversation Design at Amazon Lab 126 - Emerging Products and Consumer RoboticsChelsea's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-titus-catExtra linksHow 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.

September 13, 202549 min

Vasundhara Gupta - UX Sound design, Customisation vs adaption, Personality in devices

Amazon Device Design Group - UX Sound Designer - 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._______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 linksLata Mangeshkar (legendary Bollywood female lead playback singer) https://tidal.com/artist/30815Audio UX Sonic branding https://www.auxnyc.com/aboutArticle 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.

July 21, 202554 min

Paul Bremner - Nuclear decommissioning robots, Affordance vs expectation, IORT

Associate Professor - HRI - Bristol Robotics Lab - 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._______Show notes:This month's guest, Paul Bremner, is Associate Professor in Human-Robot Interaction at Bristol Robotics LaboratoryPaul's publications - https://scholar.google.fr/Extra linksBristol Robotics Lab - https://www.bristolroboticslab.com/Core-StaffSellafield UK Nuclear site - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SellafieldParo seal robot - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJq5PQZHU-IGeminoid 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.

May 11, 202534 min

ChatGPT4o & my friend Matt - Experiment: human robot interview

Human Robot Interview - 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._______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.

March 7, 20251 hr 3 min

Kenny Young - AURA, Humanoid robots, Jankiness, Singing

Composer and sound designer for games - 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._______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/kcmyoungExtra linksAURA at the sphere - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfRo2qLMcUw"Enshittification" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EnshittificationAstrobot 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.

January 23, 202559 min

Prof Kerstin Fischer - Depiction, Expectation, Interaction research with robots

Director of the Human-Robot Interaction Lab Sønderborg - 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._______Show notes:This month's guest, Professor Kerstin Fischer from University of Southern Denmark, she is Director of the Human-Robot Interaction Lab Sønderborg andProfessor (MSO) for Language and Technology Interaction.Kerstin's Google Scholar page - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CSf7_Q0AAAAJ&hl=enKerstin's LinkedIn - https://dk.linkedin.com/in/kerstin-fischer-sduExtra linksPepper 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.

December 20, 202453 min

Evan Ratliff - Shell Game, Voice Agents, AI, Human Robot Interactions

Writer/Host Shell Game Podcast - 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._______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/podcastEvan's substack - https://substack.com/@evanratliffEvan's website - https://cazart.net/Radiolab episode about Shell Game - https://radiolab.org/podcast/shell-gameExtra linksCharacter AI https://character.aiZoom 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.

November 22, 20241 hr 5 min

Prof Roger Moore - Uncanny Valley, Interaction, Speech, History of Speech Synthesis

Professor of Spoken Language Processing at the University of Sheffield - 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._______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-mooreRoger's LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/roger-moore-6671972VIHAR - https://vihar.lis-lab.fr/Extra linksHanson Roboticshttps://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.