Speed Hearing & Speed Talking
For the specific case of speech, time stretching can be performed using PSOLA.
Time stretching can be used with audio books and recorded lectures. Slowing down may improve comprehension of foreign languages .
While one might expect speeding up to reduce comprehension, Herb Friedman says that "Experiments have shown that the brain works most efficiently if the information rate through the ears--via speech--is the "average" reading rate, which is about 200-300 wpm (words per minute), yet the average rate of speech is in the neighborhood of 100-150 wpm."
Speeding up audio is seen as the equivalent of "speed reading" .
Time stretching is often used to adjust Radio commercials and the audio of Television advertisements to fit exactly into the 30 or 60 seconds available.
Read more about this topic: Audio Timescale-pitch Modification
Famous quotes containing the words speed, hearing and/or talking:
“For myself and my loved ones, I want the heat, which comes at the speed of light. I don’t want to have to hang about for the blast, which idles along at the speed of sound.”
—Martin Amis (b. 1949)
“The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue; and no genius can long or often utter anything which is not invited and gladly entertained by men around him.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What strikes many twin researchers now is not how much identical twins are alike, but rather how different they are, given the same genetic makeup....Multiples don’t walk around in lockstep, talking in unison, thinking identical thoughts. The bond for normal twins, whether they are identical or fraternal, is based on how they, as individuals who are keenly aware of the differences between them, learn to relate to one another.”
—Pamela Patrick Novotny (20th century)