Capture-Time Feedback for Recording Scripted Narration

UIST 2015 — Supplemental Material

Steve Rubin, Floraine Berthouzoz, Gautham J. Mysore, Maneesh Agrawala


We had each of five participants create a narration using a traditional audio recording an editiong tool (Adobe Audition) and using Narration Coach. Here we present the final audio for both versions of their narrations.

Note: this page requires javascript and in some cases, Flash. If the audio samples don't play here, you can find the mp3s in the audio folder of the supplemental material.


“blue”

Script

The color blue has meant a lot of things to a lot of different people. In medieval times, the Virgin Mary's cloak was often painted a celestial, pure, sacred blue. In the early nineteen hundreds, Pablo Picasso created somber blue paintings during a period of depression. The color has been championed by everyone from jazz musician Miles Davis and singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell to the theatrical Blue Man Group. Back in Colonial America, blue meant indecent. Lawmakers established rigid controls over morals and conduct. The so-called "blue laws" were designed "to encourage people to go to church, and to prohibit people from engaging in secular activities," says David Hudson, an author and attorney who teaches about the first amendment at Vanderbilt University. The idea behind blue laws was to make certain activities illegal on Sundays. [Source text]

Audio (click to play)

“mosquitos”

Script

Hours after you eat garlic, your breath can still smell bad, as your body digests compounds in the plant and releases them into your blood. Now scientists say a similar process might explain why people infected with malaria attract more mosquitoes than those not infected. Malaria infected blood releases odors that lure mosquitoes, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine reported in a journal last week. But here's the kicker: The parasite makes these odors in a way similar to the way flowers make their sweet fragrance. "You can basically think of a malaria parasite as a plant in the dark," says molecular microbiologist Audrey Odom, who led the study. The malaria parasite has a special compartment in its single cell that's similar to chloroplasts in plants. But malaria's compartment doesn't photosynthesize light to make sugars. Instead it manufactures building blocks for the parasite's cell. Some of these building blocks are aromatic. They smell sweet to a mosquito, just like a flower does. [Source text]

Audio (click to play)

“ballotselfies”

Script

It started out as a seemingly harmless act: voters posting photos of their completed ballots on the Internet. One wrote in his deceased dog's name for senator because he didn't like any of the candidates, then shared his message of frustration on Facebook. A state legislator, and another a candidate for the state House, also publicly published photos of their ballots. Now they're under investigation by the New Hampshire attorney general's office. The reason? It turns out the act of photographing or sharing a marked ballot is illegal under state law- and in forty three other states. A "ballot selfie" risks a felony charge, and a fine, in New Hampshire, where photographic images of ballots are banned in an attempt to deter vote buying and uphold the sanctity of the secret ballot. The rationale behind the law is that if a vote cannot be proved, it cannot be purchased. [Source text]

Audio (click to play)

“coloradosv”

Script

Colorado is famous for its beer and its beef. But what about its farm drones? In the last several years, Boulder and Denver have become hubs for tech startups, and companies in the state's Front Range are on a tear, patenting new technologies in irrigation, food science and plant genetics. Public scientists are keeping pace, publishing research articles in agricultural science in record numbers. That's prompted local economists to make some bold predictions. "We're poised, if we play our cards right, to become the Silicon Valley for agriculture," says Greg Graff of Colorado State University. But at the first Colorado State University Agricultural Innovation Summit, the Governor didn't start by trumpeting the state's farmers or scientists or entrepreneurs. He started instead by touting the accomplishments of a European country six times smaller than Colorado. [Source text]

Audio (click to play)

“voting”

Script

Australia has near perfect turnout in its elections. How do the Aussies do it? They, like 25 other countries, require people to vote. President Obama wondered aloud Wednesday whether it was time for the United States to consider a similar move. "In Australia and some other countries, there's mandatory voting," Obama said at an economic event in Cleveland. "It would be transformative if everybody voted— that would counteract money more than anything." Of course, this is something that is unlikely to ever happen in this country. In addition to the pushback from conservatives it would face, it also cuts against the grain of the American idea of being free not to do things, including vote. What's more, in these other countries, the enforcement mechanisms run the gamut— from fines to even jail time. In Belgium, if you don't vote, you might not be able to get a public-sector job. In Bolivia, you won't get paid. And in Italy, you might even not be able to get a day care placement for your child. [Source text]

Audio (click to play)