Behind the Voices at TEDxAmsterdam's blog

7/29/2019 Behind the Voices at TEDxAmsterdam's blog

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/behind-the-voices-at-tedxamsterdams-blog 1/6

PRESS CONTACT US REGISTER LOGIN

HOME ABOUTNEWS

PROGRAM A ARD IDEO PARTNERS 2009 2010 2011 2012

TEDxAms terdam 2012 Aw ard

07 Dec 12 - 14:30

TEDxAmste rdam 2012 - Ros

07 Dec 12 - 14:30

TEDxAmsterdam 2012 Klaas

07 Dec 12 - 14:30

TEDxAmsterdam 2012 David

07 Dec 12 - 14:30

Behind the Voices

Physical telltale signs that expose ‘real’ emotions or underlying secre t motives have

always bee n relied upon to figure out what’s really going on, to tell what someone is

truly fee ling. From there we de cide how to re act or what to think. So what happens

when all you nee d is someone ’s voice?

When a person’s speech can be analyzed to the point where it is c lear that whoever is speaking is

nervous, excited or confident? Or which of those emotions dominates.

And what happens when you subject all the TEDxAmsterdam 2012 speakers to an analysis? What was

Dan Ariely feeling when he told his impromptu joke? Was Tinkebell nervous when she lied about all

those poor animals? And what about Jim Stolze when he walks on-stage and presents those sought-

after awards? Is his confidence peaking?

The Emotional Microscope

Amir Liberman is a pioneer researcher in the field of “forensic voice analysis.” Amir was the first to

identify the three basic sensations in the human voice: excitement (positive), stress (negative) and

uncertainty (cognitive stress), which helped him explore and develop the first computerized emotion

detector. Amir’s company – Nemesysco – supplies emotional lie detection systems to security

companies, businesses and educational institutions. He also analyzed all our speakers. But, it’s not

about the lie. It’s about everything around that. Amir wants to do for psychology what the microscope

did for medicine, he says.

Behind TEDxAmsterdam voices

During TEDxAmsterdam’s main event Amir, Richard van Beetz (his Dutch business partner) and their

project manager Carlos Laguna Palma sat in the audience, tucked away behind computer screens

which they used to generate ‘diamonds of emotion’ for every speaker.

Sounds whimsical, right? It isn’t. The software is based on research and technology. Diamonds are little

crystal shaped computer generated images that split a voice into several characteristics. Amir, Richard

and Carlos recorded, filter and processed all the data coming through the mics.

The theory is that everyone has a voice print. Think of finger print of your vocal cords, of the tones that

come naturally to people, of stress and energy, passion and confidence, when they are in a neutral

Share some X for Xmas...

Catching up with Sustainable Spe...

The top 3 secrets to a powerful ...

Behind the Voices...

Amsterdam by Team Black Sheep...

A TEDx Rock Star: Anwar Dafa-All...

Erik Bronsvoort...

All TEDxAmsterdam 2012 videos...

3 questions for the mothership: ...

The secrets of curating TEDxAmst...



state. Compare this print to one made of someone under pressure, someone being asked a personal

question, someone lying or someone on a TEDxAmsterdam stage, and the data changes.

TEDxAmsterdam speaker diamonds

On November 30, Amir ran the voice analysis software for all speakers. Some are immediately

understandable, some are quite surprising! As Amir Liberman stated: ‘I thi nk i t i s i mpor tant to say that

ther e ar e no good or bad emoti ons, t hi s i s w hy w e cal l i t the “ Di amond ” – i t i s al l v er y pr eci ous, i t j ust

l ooks d i f f er ent f or di f f er ent peopl e...”’

Nevertheless, we have some really interesting observations! First of all, we ran the voice analysis for

two speakers that we all know are terrific speakers: President Barack Obama and former President Bill

Clinton. Are their ‘’Diamonds’’ different from those of other speakers? They are!

Energy

One thing that stands out is that both presidents score very high on ‘’Energy’’ – Clinton scores 78 and

Obama 69. Very few TEDxAmsterdam speakers have that level of energy most score well below 50.

But there are some notable exceptions! Who were the three most energetic speakers of the day?

Valentijn De Hingh scores an impressive 60, Lissa Zeviar is right up there with Obama with 68, and

hey! Who is that with 80, outranking both presidents on energy? Our winner on energy isPIPS:lab. Yes,

we can see why – lighting up the Stadsschouwburg all together!



Stress

The presidents also score very low on stress, experienced speakers as they are. Clinton scores 36, and

cool and collected Obama scores 29. Is there any TEDxAmsterdam speaker just as calm? Prepare for

a surprise: Tinkebell was incredibly unstressed at 37, she’s a real president at heart (even more

impressive as we had a lot of backstage stress right before her talk). Now Paul de Blot is indeed one

cool dude. I guess once your 88, you no longer stress about a simple public performance even when

you start later than planned because we couldn’t find Paul when he had to walk on stage! The true star

here is, again, Lissa Zeviar ! Scoring 30 on stress, she is as calm as Obama.

(So you wonder – who was the most stressed? Someone who is very clearly a great master of his

emotions. We made him start his talk three times when the sound system broke down – he stayed

calm, he proceeded as planned, he did not seem that worried but Eus van Someren at one point

scored 70 on stress, and that was completely our fault. Sorry Eus, but you did great!).

Mental effort

There is a very special emotion that is analysed with the voice technology dubbed ‘’mental effort’’.

Basically, the lower you score on that, the better it is. It means that during your talk, you no longer have

to think hard and it all just flows naturally. It shows: our presidents both score a very cool 19 on that

scale. None of our TEDxAmsterdam speakers beat them, but some come really close. Our smartypants

of the days? PIPS:lab again! They score a very impressive 22. Of course they have done this show

many times, that sure does help. Four clever ladies all score under 30: Lissa Zeviar, Tinkebell,

Valentijn De Hingh and Daria van den Bercken. Born for the stage ladies, you all are!



Excitement

Is it good to be excited when you are on stage? Is that excitement something that gets the audience?

Our presidents score 72 and 66, which suggests that the more excited you are when you speak, the

better. Best scores from our TEDxAmsterdam speakers? Marc de Hond with 60, Valentijn de Hingh

with 66, and Lissa Zeviar , who scores 72, just like Clinton.

Confidence

Last but not least – standing on the TEDxAmsterdam stage is a pretty nerve wracking experience. The

presidents both score a whopping 86 on the confidence scale. What about our speakers?

Surprisingly, our ‘’professional speakers’’, people like Rory Sutherland, Kevin Slavin, Dan Ariely and

Paul Zak did not score highest on any of the previous standards. On the confidence scale they all

appear in the highest ranks though, most of them scoring around 75.

Experienced performers PIPS:lab even outrank both presidents on confidence, they score 87. And

Tinkebell, Valentijn and Lissa are all up there as well. But most impressive score from a

TEDxAmsterdam speaker on the confidence scale? She had never travelled outside Kenya, did not even

have a passport when we invited her, it was her first time on a conference stage, her first time in cold

Amsterdam and she was unfazed – there she is, scoring a whopping 74 on confidence, our own Nice

Nalantei Nenghete!



Our other events

Ideas Worth Doing

What is TEDx?

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has

Connect withus

TEDx Amsterdam

About

TweeTwee 11 1

Related articles

Like

' Subscribe by email + RSS

or by popular no

Further reading:

Want to know more about Amir Liberman?

Share and Enjoy:

POSTED BY KELLY VAN DER KWAST ON DEC 20, 2012

Behind the scenes. Behind the voices.

First 12 speakers of TEDxAmsterdam

Weekend of TEDxAmsterdam Talks

In their own words: door-stopping at the TEDxAmsterdam speakers dinner

Behind the scenes: Rehearsals

Kevin Slavin: The History and Future of Luck

Leonard van Munster and the reggae loving robot

Katja Schuurman: Return to Sender – products with a story

Pablos Holman: Hacking our food future

Gary Carter: Some day, S/he will come along

Showing 0 comments

Reactions

Trackback URL http://www.tedxamsterd

69 739

LoginAdd New Comment

Type your comment here.



TEDx Amsterdam

TEDx AmsterdamED

TEDx AmsterdamWomen

TEDxChange @ Amsterdam

TEDxYouth @ Amsterdam

created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a

program of local, self-organized events that bring

people together to share a TED-like experience.

Our event is called TEDx Amsterdam , where x =

independently organized TED event. At our

TEDxAms terdam event, TEDTalks video and live

speakers will combine to spark deep discussion

and connection in a s mall group. The TED

Conference provides general guidance for the

TEDx program, but individual TEDx events,

including ours, are s elf-organized.

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

YouTube

Flickr

Pinterest

News

Program

Award

Video

Partners

2009

2010

2011

2012

Powered by Toscani

This independently organized TEDx event is operated under license from TED.© Stichting TEDxAmsterdam | P.O. Box 75756 | 1070 AT | Amsterdam | The Netherlands

Documents

Behind the Voices at TEDxAmsterdam's blog