Pitch contour

In linguistics, speech synthesis, and music, the pitch contour of a sound is a function or curve that tracks the perceived pitch of the sound over time.

Pitch contour may include multiple sounds utilizing many pitches, and can relate to frequency function at one point in time to the frequency function at a later point.

It is fundamental to the linguistic concept of tone, where the pitch or change in pitch of a speech unit over time affects the semantic meaning of a sound. It also indicates intonation in pitch accent languages.

One of the primary challenges in speech synthesis technology, particularly for Western languages, is to create a natural-sounding pitch contour for the utterance as a whole. Unnatural pitch contours result in synthesis that sounds "lifeless" or "emotionless" to human listeners, a feature that has become a stereotype of speech synthesis in popular culture.

In music, the pitch contour focuses on the relative change in pitch over time of a primary sequence of played notes. The same contour can be transposed without losing its essential relative qualities, such as sudden changes in pitch or a pitch that rises or falls over time.

Mova (camera system)

Mova Contour is a multi-camera high resolution facial capture system originally developed by former Apple Computer engineer Steve Perlman. It records surfaces (specifically of actors' faces) digitally, by using fluorescent makeup and stereo triangulation, allowing for very detailed digitization and manipulation. The system captures images which are then used to generate dense per frame surface reconstructions. It then generates a temporally coherent mesh by tracking an invisible random pattern fluorescent makeup that is applied to the capture surface.

Mova technology was first used in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for building a realistic 3D face model of Brad Pitt. It has subsequently been used in over 15 feature films and games.

References

External links

Contour (linguistics)

In phonetics, contour describes speech sounds which behave as single segments, but which make an internal transition from one quality, place, or manner to another. These sounds may be tones, vowels, or consonants.

Many tone languages have contour tones, which move from one level to another. For example, Mandarin Chinese has four lexical tones. The high tone is level, without contour; the falling tone is a contour from high pitch to low; the rising tone a contour from mid pitch to high, and, when spoken in isolation, the low tone takes on a dipping contour, mid to low and then to high pitch. These are transcribed with series of either diacritics or tone letters, which with proper font support fuse into an iconic shape: [ma˨˩˦].

In the case of vowels, the word diphthong is used instead of 'contour'. These are vowels that glide from one place of articulation to another, as in English boy and bow. These are officially transcribed with a non-syllabic sign under one of the vowel letters: [bɔɪ̯], [baʊ̯], though when there is no chance of confusion, the diacritic is often left off for simplicity.

Blaze

Blaze may refer to:

Places

Music

Fiction

List of Mortal Kombat characters

This is a list of playable characters from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series and the games in which they appear. The series takes place in a fictional universe composed of six realms, which were created by the Elder Gods. The Elder Gods created a fighting tournament called Mortal Kombat to reduce the wars between the realms. The first Mortal Kombat game introduces a tournament in which Earthrealm can be destroyed if it loses once again.

The Earthrealm warriors manage to defeat the champion Goro and tournament host Shang Tsung, but this leads Tsung to search for other ways to destroy Earthrealm. Since then, every game features a new mortal who wishes to conquer the realms, therefore violating the rules of Mortal Kombat. By Mortal Kombat: Deception, most of the main characters had been killed by Shang Tsung and Quan Chi (neither of whom were playable in the game), but by Mortal Kombat: Armageddon all of them return.

Character overview

Appearances in the fighting games in the series:

Blaze Bayley

HIDDEN ERROR: Usage of "Instruments" is not recognized

Blaze Bayley (born Bayley Alexander Cooke, 29 May 1963) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, and lyricist. He was the lead singer of Wolfsbane from 1984 to 1994, and currently from 2010 following reunions in 2007 and 2009. Bayley was also the lead singer for Iron Maiden from 1994 to 1999. Since then, he has embarked on a solo career.

Early life

Bayley was born Bayley Alexander Cooke in Birmingham, England on 29 May 1963.

Career

Wolfsbane (1984–1994, 2007–present)

Bayley started his musical career as the lead vocalist of Wolfsbane, upon their formation in 1984. The first album, Live Fast, Die Fast, was released in 1989.

Prior to this, they had recorded three demos entitled Wolfsbane (1985), Dancin' Dirty (1987) and Wasted but Dangerous (1988). This last one was recorded at Square Dance Studios, Derby, U.K.. They were the supporting act for Iron Maiden's UK division of their No Prayer on the Road tour in 1990. Wolfsbane's second release, an EP titled All Hell's Breaking Loose Down at Little Kathy Wilson's Place, was released the same year. The band's second full studio album Down Fall the Good Guys, was released in 1991, giving them their only UK Chart entry with their single "Ezy" charting at No. 68.