Welcome to VoxDB, the Voice Database.
Background: Why are we building a voice database?
Photographs are the primary medium through which most people recognize and connect with culturally significant individuals. Finding pictures of people online is easy, and the personal and pedagogical value of these representations is enormous.
It is also possible, of course, to make these same connections auditorily, by listening to a person's voice. In fact, in the daily activities of blind people, knowing what a voice sounds like is often vastly more important than knowing what a face looks like. Unfortunately, this important means of identifying others and forming connections with them plays at best a secondary role for sighted people. Distracted by the easy availability of visual images, most of us underestimate the tremendous emotional and informational power of listening to the sound of another human being's voice.
The goal of VoxDB is to re-prioritize auditory resources. Wherever an image exists of a culturally significant figure born after the advent of recording technology, VoxDB seeks to provide a clear, universally accessible recording of that person speaking.
We are creating a searchable online database containing short samples of voices of current and historical figures such as scientists, politicians, authors, actors, religious leaders, artists, musicians, and elected officials. It will be an "auditory photo gallery", providing the acoustic equivalent of the thumbnail visual image which is so omnipresent online.
Sample categories - A look at VoxDB's future.
We are at the very beginning stage of this project, gathering voice clips to populate the database as well as standardizing and testing our procedures. The VoxDB collection, at least initially, will naturally reflect the tastes, interests and abilities of those who contribute to it. The following are some of what we have assembled so far, and a hint of what is possible.
We have a Guide For Contributors and a Training page with audio examples.
- The 2008 Democratic and Republican presidential and vice-presidential candidates and debate moderators
- Voice actors and characters from the 1964 animated film Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- ESL faculty at Bowling Green State University
- Additional samples, including some of last year's Nobel laureates
Integrating VoxDB with other sites:
The English as a Second Language faculty at Bowling Green State University has consented to help us test the concept of linking voice clips with photos on a small scale. Although none of these exemplary teachers are famous (just yet), the ESL faculty page at BGSU demonstrates how a photo and voice clip work together to provide a more complete sense of who someone is.