Contour

Contour may refer to:

Contours may refer to:

Contouring may refer to:

Other uses

See also

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.

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