UC creates voice-coaching app for gender expression
Exercises provide real-time feedback to help users sound more masculine or feminine
Engineers at the University of Cincinnati have developed a free voice-coaching app to help transgender and gender-diverse people sound more masculine or feminine.
The open-source app TruVox allows people to practice speaking exercises while visualizing the components of speech such as pitch to help them speak in a convincing way that matches their gender expression.
“I think your voice reflects your self-perception — not just for transgender people,” UC Associate Professor Vesna Novak said.
Try the voice-coaching app
The TruVox app features several voice exercises to help people modify their voices to match their gender expression.
Novak studies intelligent technologies to improve human health and wellness in her electrical engineering lab in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. This includes rehabilitation robotics and other assistive technology.
“When we interviewed people before making the app, a few people who weren’t transgender said they didn’t like the sound of their voice,” she said. “They would say, ‘I wish I could make my voice higher or more feminine.’ But people aren’t aware that’s something they can change.”
While some people might pay to hire a speech coach, the app is available at no cost. And since it was created by a Research-1 university, users can trust it’s secure and that neither their voice nor data will be exploited.
This is engineering married to applied psychology.
Vesna Novak, UC College of Engineering and Applied Science
And ensuring privacy was paramount, she said.
“Is my data being harvested for some purpose? Will someone make fun of my voice on the internet? These are legitimate concerns,” Novak said. “People can get demotivated.”
“The acoustic analysis was not the hard part,” Novak said. “This is engineering married to applied psychology.”
Novak started with the understanding that many or even most people cringe at the sound of their own speaking voice and don’t want to hear it played back to them. There’s even a phrase in psychology for this reaction: voice confrontation.
We pick up clues about gender based on several characteristics of voice, including volume and resonance, Novak said.
“Pitch is the one everyone understands,” she said.
The app offers several exercises, including a reading task to introduce users to the app. It tracks the changing pitch of the user’s voice in real time with scrolling purple dots that appear on a hertz scale that measures frequency.
Undergraduate student Mary Wilkens in UC's College of Allied Health Sciences is working on related gender-affirming voice research to explore how speech and voice characteristics influence gender perception.
It’s fun to see the display roll across the screen like a rollercoaster as you manipulate the pitch of your voice higher or lower. The app measures 100 to 300 hertz (cycles per second), the typical frequency range of speaking voices, providing real-time feedback.
A “stair” exercise allows users to try to match their pitch to particular frequencies while repeating phrases such as “drum and bugle corps” or “bigger and better.”
Another exercise helps people practice matching the pitches of actual voices while saying phrases like “bacon and eggs” or “cheese and crackers.”
It’s harder than it looks, but Novak said that’s the point. The human voice is complex and one of our most profound means of interpersonal expression.
Practicing on the app could help people avoid being misgendered by strangers during their daily routine, Novak said. The app also could have practical benefits for people facing real danger from transphobia. Transgender people are four times more likely to be the victims of violent crime than cisgender people (those whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth).
Novak plans to present the app this month at the 26th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. And she plans to add new features to address other gendered aspects of human voice such as volume and resonance.
Featured image at top: UC Associate Professor Vesna Novak developed a new app to help people match their voice to their gender expression. Photo/iStockPhoto
Innovation Lives Here
The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction. Next Lives Here.
Related Stories
UC Day of Giving kicks off with celebration of scholarship gift
April 15, 2021
UC Day of Giving is kicked off with an important scholarship gift for nursing and engineering.
UC’s summer semester offers students short sessions, flexibility
April 12, 2021
Coming into the summertime of 2020, Sumedha Kappagantula was considering ways to make the most her opportunities during what is usually a break from the academic rigor of her traditional school year. As a Biomedical Engineering major in the UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Kappagantula is minoring in Chemistry and Biological Sciences, taking classes through the College of Arts and Sciences. She thought summer semester would be a great time to get ahead in her coursework, and move her degree forward.
Neil Armstrong UC Forward Innovation Award 2021 winners announced
April 13, 2021
Team of three undergraduate students from different disciplines excel in an innovation course at the University of Cincinnati.
UC engineering students recognized for achievement in cooperative education
April 12, 2021
Top students in engineering cooperative education for 2020-21
From Singapore to Cincinnati: UC guides grad to success
June 4, 2021
UC grad talks about how her time in UC's College of Arts and Sciences set her up for success.
UC staff have elected their 2021-23 Staff Senators
June 8, 2021
Join us in congratulating the 2021-23 new Staff Senate members! Elections were held in early May, and new senators will begin their two-year term in July 2021. All UC staff are encouraged to be part of the enthusiasm and excitement for our new senators by attending the Staff Senate online meeting via WebEx, June 30, 9-11 a.m.
FOX News: UC grad walks across America for charity
March 29, 2021
UC College of Arts and Sciences graduate Mark Dudek is walking across the country to raise money for charity.
The making of a successful Faculty & Staff Campaign
May 25, 2021
More than one-third of UC’s nearly 7,000 faculty and staff have already contributed to the 2020-21 Faculty & Staff Campaign, putting the goal of 45% within reach.
Three additional days off for UC employees
July 14, 2021
President Neville G. Pinto announced that UC employees will receive three additional days off in 2021 for going 'above and beyond' during the pandemic. The time away will take place during Winter Season Days.
UC Simulation Center Student Profiles
July 19, 2021
A glimpse into the background of students working at the Sim Center