bktheirregular

Apparently there's questions pinging around the internet about why the new iPhone's voice-response system uses a female voice. I've heard explanations ranging from practical to traditional to flat-out chauvanist, but kept waiting for one possible explanation that hasn't popped up yet.

(I'm reconstructing this from memory, so there's a good chance I've got some of it wrong.)

Maybe 20, 30 years ago, the Air Force decided to use voice warnings in the F-16. I remember playing F-16 simulators back in the day, and when I was in a dangerous flight attitude, the voice would call out: "Pull up! Pull up!" It was a female voice, apparently nicknamed "Bitchin' Betty".

The logic I heard back then was that the female voice would cut through sound clutter better than a male voice; easier to distinguish, easier to comprehend, more effective at getting the information to the pilot.

In more recent time, I picked up a game at discount: Crysis. Aside from being the most ridiculously future-proof PC game to be released in the last decade or so (seriously, mainstream computers are only now catching up to its capabilities at full power), it's a game that puts the player into the shoes of a soldier in a powered armor suit. The suit has voice warning call-outs ... which can be selected from the game-options screen in either a male voice or a female voice.

Maybe it was a design choice, but the male voice is deep and rumbling, while the female voice is somewhere between a contralto and an alto. Or something like that.

The promotional videos and such for the game all used the rumbling male voice. When I played, I found that the male voice prompts got lost in the audio clutter. The higher female voice, however, cut through the background noise more clearly.

That was my observation, anyway. Remarkably unscientific, your mileage will probably vary widely, etcetera, etcetera, yada, yada, yada...

* I ran a small utility to doublecheck what the IT guy had changed my email password to, so I can get email from home. The readout left me so speechless that I can't even make the appropriate joke lest my email security be compromised.

* I'm being moved to another office tomorrow to make room for a new hire. Why they do the slot-puzzle shifts instead of putting the new person at the empty desk, I've got no clue.

* My old white sneaks are now worn so smooth it's dangerous for me to walk on the sidewalks in them. Slipped and got a nice contusion on my arm from where I hit a guard rail. If I get a set of Chuck Taylors to replace them, and wear them with my suit and tie, am I officially cosplaying Doctor Who?

Reading marthawells' article on world-building problems, specifically mentioning timekeeping, reminded me of something I'd seen a while back:

The First Atomic Clock Wristwatch

Not, mind you, a watch that adjusts itself from a radio signal transmitted from NIST. No, this is a fully self-contained cesium clock, worn on the wrist.

(While you're there, check out "Project GREAT", an interesting proof of the variability of time.)

Oh, by the way:

If LJ does implode, I took a hint (thanks for the hint, havocthecat!) and created journals on both InsaneJournal and GreatestJournal. Same username. No content in either place yet.

(Wow. Three posts in one day. And I went a full week without one post just last week. What the hey?)