Voice Research Unit
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
The letters V R U shaped to resemble an audio wave
Our Mission: Unlocking the secrets of voices
The voice represents the most complex auditory signal produced by human beings. Besides being the commonest medium for conveying linguistic information in everyday communication, voice transports a wealth of information about a speaker; including individual, emotional, social, and physiological aspects.
Some aspects are the result of learned behavior, e.g. revealing regional and social provenance, gender or sexual orientation. Some cues are highly dynamic, such as a speaker's arousal and emotions state. Others are the result of an individual’s anatomy and physiology of their vocal apparatus. These aspects of the voice are less under the speaker’s control, such as age, sex or speaker identity.
More recently, synthetic and artificial voices are rapidly invading our everyday lives, e.g. through service hotlines, public transport, or smart speaker devices. This has also brought questions of synthetic voice design to the forefront of scientific research, alongside prominent ethical concerns around misuse or manipulation (e.g. deepfakes). Through the evolving technology, we are therefore rediscovering an essential element of our humanity: our voices.
Who we are
The Voice Research Unit (VRU) is a Jena-based network that brings together basic and applied voice researchers from highly interdisciplinary fields, including computer science, medicine, neuroscience, psychology, and speech.
What unites us is our fascination for the voice and our drive to understand it from as many angles as possible. For example, we want to better understand
- the different strands of social and physiological information that are brought together into the complex vocal signal,
- how speakers change their voices to accommodate to other speakers and
- how constantly changing individual, contextual and social factors affect the listener’s perception and representation of speakers and their speech.
Further, we study how individuals with voice and hearing problems navigate through everyday challenges, i.e. in the context of various disorders, such as hearing loss, autism spectrum disorder, Parkinson’s disease or cochlear implant users. Using state-of-the-art technology, we strive for effective intervention to improve social inclusion and quality of life.
What we do
Our aim is to bring people from different disciplines together for joint voice research. Therefore, we engage in regular exchange to discuss ongoing research projects and support each other in our interdisciplinary efforts. The Voice Research Unit Jena not only stands for cutting-edge research on voice perception and production. It also offers a number of resources that are open for other voice researchers, including stimulus databases, tests, or software. The VRU welcomes interested researchers across all levels of qualifications and all scientific backgrounds. Our regular, open meetings usually take place in presence in Jena, but can also be accomodated in hybrid or fully online.
Have we caught your interest? - Check out our current projects for more detailed information!
Want to stay updated? - Then check out our news page and our most recent publications.
Are you a voice researcher as well? - Then let’s get in touch! You find the contact details below.
Looking for inspiration, some new stimuli or a voice perception test? - Discover our resources.
Would you like to participate in one of our studies? - Here are our current calls for participants.
Do you want to know more about the voices (and faces) or the VRU? - Here is a list of our members.
