Project by Alexander Widman and Sara Hailu
Abstract This study explores the preference between foley and synthesized sound generation in
movies with robots. This is done by presenting the same video clip twice with different audio, one where the sound had been made with foley, and the other with synthesis. The same was done for two different video clips, both taken from older movies with robots in them (Wizard of Oz and Star Wars). After showing the
participants these clips, they chose which they preferred without knowing the precise difference, and then additional qualitative data was gathered. The aim was to find a clear preference between the two sound
generation methods and to then find out why this was. The results show that synthesized sounds were generally more preferred in this application, but that foley sounds were good for certain actions.
Though the results were not definitive, they are indicating that for robot sounds specifically, synthesized sounds are preferred.