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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Robot. AI
Sec. Human-Robot Interaction
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frobt.2024.1463477
This article is part of the Research Topic AI-Powered Musical and Entertainment Robotics View all 5 articles

Can a human sing with an unseen artificial partner? Coordination dynamics when singing with an unseen human or artificial partner

Provisionally accepted
Rina Nishiyama Rina Nishiyama Tetsushi Nonaka Tetsushi Nonaka *
  • Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study investigated whether a singer’s coordination patterns differ when singing with an unseen human partner versus an unseen artificial partner (VOCALOID 6 voice synthesis software). We used cross-correlation analysis to compare the correlation of the amplitude envelope time series between the partner’s and the participant’s singing voices. We also conducted a Granger causality test to determine whether the past amplitude envelope of the partner helps predict the future amplitude envelope of the participants, or if the reverse is true. We found more pronounced characteristics of anticipatory synchronization and increased similarity in the unfolding dynamics of the amplitude envelopes in the human-partner condition compared to the artificial-partner condition, despite the tempo fluctuations in the human-partner condition. The results suggested that subtle qualities of the human singing voice, possibly stemming from intrinsic dynamics of the human body, may contain information that enables human agents to align their singing behavior dynamics with a human partner.

    Keywords: inter-personal coordination, Anticipatory synchronization, strong anticipation, Self-other integration, togetherness

    Received: 12 Jul 2024; Accepted: 20 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Nishiyama and Nonaka. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tetsushi Nonaka, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.