To order pick-up food by using your computer or phone is nothing new. Food delivery companies such as FoodHero and Uber Eats along with many other around the world base their entire company idea around the food order and delivery process. For a company to stand out in such a vast market can sometimes be quite tricky. Sometimes your company needs a niche to stand out in the crowd. This project aims to create such a niche in an order system prototype based on voice-controlled systems and conversation. This prototype allows users to place food orders through only the use of natural speech and a voice assistant. The prototype utilizes products and services from both Amazon and Google to create the order system structure. The ordering system also takes advantage of the serverless architecture that both Amazon and Google provide. The end result of this project is a simple, convenient, and user-friendly prototype

Den digitala utvecklingen får konsekvenser för arbetslivet och dess organisering. I studien undersöks genom fem semistrukturerade intervjuer hur fackligt aktiva orderplockare resonerar kring plocksystemet genom vilket de utför sitt jobb och hur de digitala systemen påverkar maktförhållanden på arbetsplatsen.   Respondenterna arbetar alla inom livsmedelsdistribution på arbetsplatser som arbetar med det digitala plocksystemet pick-by-voice (PbV). Med utgångspunkt i Edwards (1979) tre övergripande kontrollmekanismer styrning, utvärdering och disciplinering samt Kelloggs (2020) sex mekanismer genom vilka algoritmisk kontroll utövas, de så kallade 6R:en, undersöks hur den digitala utvecklingen påverkar möjligheten för arbetsmarknadens parter att utöva kontroll och göra motstånd i arbetsprocessen. Studien finner att PbV innebär att flera arbetsledande funktioner flyttas till det tekniska systemet. Detta innebär en starkare styrning av arbetet genom att systemet begränsar de anställdas handlingsutrymme och en mer omfattande utvärdering och disciplinering genom att varje arbetsmoment loggas på individnivå. Genom realtidsutvärdering sker disciplineringen dels genom självdisciplinering, dels genom belöning för de som rankas högt enligt måltalen och bestraffning för de som inte lever upp till förväntningarna. Här fungerar tillgång till helgarbete, fasta anställningar och rotation som motiverande instrument. Studien finner också att de bemanningsanställda disciplineras hårdare då de pressas genom otryggheten i anställningen. Genom det digitala systemet blir kontrollen främst algoritmisk. Samtidigt förefaller den direkta kontrollen samverka med den algoritmiska kontrollen i utdelandet av både belöningar och bestraffningar utifrån den digitala utvärderingen. Detta motverkar institutionaliserandet av makt i det tekniska systemet och skapar konfliktytor kring det digitala systemet.

Denna studie undersöker vilken inverkan voice picking-systemet har på effektiviteten i orderplockningsprocessen samt hur arbetsmiljön påverkas med Baxter som fallföretag. Under det senaste decenniet har ny informationsteknologi haft stor inverkan på logistikbranschen. En av dessa nya teknologier är voice picking-systemet. I detta arbete behandlas faktorer såsom effektivitet och produktivitet, flaskhalsar, mänskliga fel, uttagningsprinciper, lagerstruktur och rutter, arbetsmiljö samt för- och nackdelar som verksamheter bör ta hänsyn till vid användning av ett voice picking-system. Det visade att systemet är effektivt men även att det finns nackdelar att beakta. Metoden som används är en kvalitativ fallstudie. Under arbetets gång genomfördes en observation och åtta intervjuer med anställda som hade olika arbetsroller på Baxters lagerverksamhet i Lund. Samtlig data analyserades därefter med hjälp av studiens teoretiska ramverk och empiri för att kunna avgöra vilken påverkan voice picking-systemet har. Studiens resultat visar att ett voice picking-system kan bidra till en effektivare orderplockningsprocess. Dock kan det också leda till minskad arbetsmotivation på grund av bristande möjlighet till beslutsfattande och ansvarstagande för medarbetarna. / This study investigates what impact the voice picking-system has on the efficiency of the order picking process and how the work environment is affected with Baxter as a case company. Over the past decade, new information technology has had a major impact on the logistics industry. One of these new technologies is the voice picking-system. In this study will factors such as efficiency and productivity, bottlenecks, human error, picking principles, warehouse structure and routes, working environment and pros and cons that businesses should consider when using a voice picking system be treated. It turned out that the voice picking-system is effective, but that there are also disadvantages to consider. The method used in this survey is a qualitative case study. During the study, one observation and eight interviews were accomplished with employees who had different roles at Baxter's warehouse in Lund. All data was then analyzed using the study's theoretical framework and the empirical evidence to determine the impact of the voice picking system. The study's results show that a voice picking system can contribute to a more efficient order picking process. However, it can also lead to reduced work motivation due to a lack of opportunities for decision-making and responsibility for the employees.

Purpose: This study examined voice onset time (VOT) in children with and without vocal fold nodules (VFN). The purpose of this study was to provide further evidence regarding the need for individualized research and treatment dedicated to the pediatric population. The pediatric population has a distinctly different laryngeal mechanism than adults, as they are still developing. Although the pediatric system is anatomically different from that of a fully mature adult system, treatment for children with VFN is largely based on adult research. This study examined the VOTs of voiceless consonants, as the transition from the voiceless consonant to the subsequent vowel requires significant vocal and articulatory control and coordination. Measures of VOT change throughout the maturation as VOT follows a significant developmental pattern. Children with and without VFN were enlisted in order to examine the effects VFN have on VOT. Hypotheses: We hypothesize that children with VFN would have differences in 1) average VOT values compared to the control group, with no prediction for direction of difference (shorter and longer), and 2) between-word variability of VOT values compared to the control group, with no prediction for direction of difference (more variable and less variable). Methods: Participant data were retrospectively collected and included children between 6 and 12 years old with VFN and age- and sex-matched controls. Participants were recorded producing the six CAPE-V sentences. Four voiceless consonants were selected for VOT analysis. Praat was utilized to manually mark the vocal onset of the stop consonant by the current researcher. A previous researcher identified the vocal offset, and each placement was confirmed by the current researcher. VOT was calculated as the time between the stop consonant burst and the vocal onset of the vowel. Results: There was no significant difference between the VFN and the control groups in average VOT or VOT variability. Within the VFN group, participants who were more dysphonic (lower cepstral peak prominence (CPP) values) had more variable VOT values. Participants in the VFN group had lower CPP values than the control group, suggesting that CPP measures are a reliable indicator of dysphonia. Additionally, within the VFN group, male children had lower CPP values than female children. Conclusion: Although no group difference was found, the within-group analyses indicated that VFNs impacted productions. Children with VFN who were more dysphonic had increased VOT variability. This may suggest that VFN impact a child’s ability to phonate therefore causing more variability within productions. Future research is needed to study the impact dysphonia treatment for children with VFN may have on VOT values. Additionally, a longitudinal study of the impact of VFNs on VOT values during developmental stages may be warranted. / Public Health

I takt med att maskininlärning utvecklats under senare år har skapandet av så kallade deep fakes, falsk media skapad med denna teknik, oftast video eller bilder, blivit lättare. Röstkloner är ett ämne inom talteknologin som kan sägas vara motsvarigheten för deep fakes för röster. Tidigare studier har redovisat nya tekniker för att använda neurala nätverk för att återskapa trovärdiga kloner av människors röster, men få studier har gjorts på de perceptionella faktorerna hos en människas förmåga att avgöra äktheten hos kloner. Vi gjorde därför en studie med en manlig och en kvinnlig röstklon där deltagare som var bekanta med talarnas röster sen tidigare fick avgöra äktheten hos en serie klipp varibland röstkloner var inkluderade. Frekvensomfånget begränsades i klippen i olika utsträckning för att undersöka om det fanns ett samband mellan omfången och deltagarnas förmågor. Resultaten av undersökningen visar att frekvensomfången inte hade någon statistiskt signifikant påverkan och att de avgörande faktorerna istället var prosodi och förekomsten av artefakter i ljudklippen. Däremot fanns det en betydlig skillnad mellan framgången att genomskåda den manliga röstklonen gentemot den kvinnliga, där deltagarna i större utsträckning genomskådade den manliga. / As machine learning has advanced in later years the creation of deep fakes, fake media created using this technology, most often video or images, has become easier. Voice cloning is a subject in speech technology that can be said to be the equivalent of deep fakes for voices. Earlier studies have proposed new techniques to use neural networks to create believable clones of human voices, but few studies have been made concerning the perceptual factors of the human ability to discern the authenticity in voice clones. Therefore we made a study with one male and one female voice clone where participants familiar with the speaker’s voices determined the authenticity of a series of clips wherein voice clones were included. Different frequency ranges were applied in order to analyse if there was a correlation between the frequency ranges and the participants’ abilities. The results of the study show that the frequency range did not make a statistically significant difference and that the determining factors instead were prosody and artefacts in the sound clips. However, there was a significant difference between the success of detecting the male and female voice clone, where the participants more frequently detected the male voice clone.

Miscommunication between controllers and pilots, potentially resulting from a high pilot cognitive load, has been a causal or contributing factor in a large number of aviation accidents. In this context, failure to communicate can be attributed, among other factors, to an inadequate human-system interface design, the related high cognitive load imposed on the pilot, and poor performance reflected by a higher error rate. To date, voice radio remains in service without any means for managing pilot cognitive load by design (as opposed to training or procedures). Such an oversight is what prompted this dissertation. The goals of this study were (a) to investigate the utility of a voice-to-text transcription (V-T-T) of ATC clearances in managing pilot's cognitive load during controller-pilot communications within the context of a modern flight deck environment, and (b) to validate whether a model of variable relationships which is generated in the domain of learning and instruction would "transfer", and to what extend, to an operational domain. First, within the theoretical framework built for this dissertation, all the pertaining factors were analyzed. Second, by using the process of synthesis, and based on guidelines generated from that theoretical framework, a redundant verbal display of ATC clearances (i.e., a V-T-T) was constructed. Third, the synthesized device was empirically examined. Thirty four pilots participated in the study – seventeen pilots with 100-250 total flight hours and seventeen with > 500 total flight hours. All participants had flown within sixty days prior to attending the study. The experiment was conducted one pilot at a time in 2.5-hour blocks. A 2 Verbal Display Redundancy (no-redundancy and redundancy) X 2 Verbal Input Complexity (low and high) X 2 Level of Expertise (novices and experts) mixed-model design was used for the study with 5 IFR clearances in each Redundancy X Complexity condition. The results showed that the amounts of iii reduction of cognitive load and improvement of performance, when verbal display redundancy was provided, were in the range of about 20%. These results indicated that V-T-T is a device which has a tremendous potential to serve as (a) a pilot memory aid, (b) a way to verify a clearance has been captured correctly without having to make a "Say again" call, and (c) to ultimately improve the margin of safety by reducing the propensity for human error for the majority of pilot populations including those with English as a second language. Fourth, the results from the validation of theoretical models "transfer" showed that although cognitive load remained as a significant predictor of performance, both complexity and redundancy also had unique significant effects on performance. Furthermore, these results indicated that the relationship between these variables was not as "clear-cut" in the operational domain investigated here as the models from the domain of learning and instruction suggested. Until further research is conducted, (a) to investigate how changes in the operational task settings via adding additional coding (e.g., permanent record of clearances which can serve as both a memory aid and a way to verify a clearance is captured correctly) affect performance through mechanisms other than cognitive load; and (b) unless the theoretical models are modified to reflect how changes in the input variables impact the outcome in a variety of ways; a degree of prudence should be exercised when the results from the model "transfer" validation are applied to operational environments similar to the one investigated in this dissertation research.

Self-efficacy is theorized to represent our ability, capability, or capacity to accomplish particular tasks. One’s belief in that ability (self-efficacy belief) has been identified as the greatest predictor of successful performance and is influenced by four primary sources (enactive mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal/social persuasion, physiological and affective states), in addition to personal and contextual influences. However, the development of accurate self-perceptions may be particularly challenging for the collegiate vocalist. In the development of singing technique—where self-assessment is complicated by the corporal nature of the vocal instrument—Bandura’s (1997) sources of self-efficacy provide a framework whereby assessment of ability and capability may become more tangible. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to investigate how collegiate vocal students’ beliefs in their vocal performance abilities may be influenced by the four self-efficacy sources and personal/contextual factors. I distributed the Vocal Performance Self-Efficacy Survey (adapted from Zelenak, 2011) to 46 voice majors at a private university in the western United States. Nine interview participants, who represented diversity of performance beliefs, were subsequently selected from the survey participant pool. Interview participants completed an initial interview based on a priori themes (four sources of self-efficacy); and a follow-up interview, which explored contextual factors (i.e., student/teacher relationship, environment, cognitive self-regulation, practice habits, and gender). In addition, participants documented three experiences—in a voice lesson, practice session, and performance—that fostered or hindered their performance belief. Vocal students in this study described how they progressed in self-belief by moving from a reliance on external assessments of ability to a reliance on self-appraisal as they (a) developed their technique through practice, studio learning, and performance (enactive mastery experience); (b) watched coping and master models (vicarious experience); (c) received feedback (verbal/social persuasion); (d) knew and felt physically when they were singing freely (physiological and affective states); and (e) learned to exercise agency (cognitive self-regulation). A particularly important finding from this study was the common and consistent reliance singers placed on physiological and affective states. Eight of nine interview participants responded that, of all the self-efficacy sources, physiological and affective states most affected their performance belief. Interview data indicate the importance of nurturing vocal students’ performance beliefs through utilizing the four sources of self-efficacy, fostering qualities of persistence and resilience, facilitating cognitive self-regulation, working toward productive student/teacher relationships, and creating safe learning and performance environments.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.