Exploring expressivity and emotion with artificial voice and speech technologies.
Sandra Pauletto1, Bruce Balentine, Chris Pidcock
1Department of Theatre, Film and Television, University of York , UK.
Logopedics, Phoniatrics, Vocology
|September 13, 2013
Summary
This study explores artificial voice emotion in text-to-speech (TTS) for user interfaces. It developed a chatbot linking TTS and automatic speech recognition (ASR) to investigate speech emotion
Area of Science:
- Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Speech Synthesis and Recognition
Background:
- Investigating emotion in synthesized audio-voice signals is crucial for advanced user interface design.
- Current text-to-speech (TTS) technologies offer opportunities to imbue artificial voices with emotional expression.
Purpose of the Study:
- To formulate a theory of expression for user interface design based on synthesized emotional audio.
- To explore the artistic and psychological implications of artificial speech emotion.
- To develop interdisciplinary tools for artificial voice research.
Main Methods:
- Emotional parameters were defined using markup tags and refined with post-processing techniques.
- Software was created to integrate a TTS synthesizer with an automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine, forming a conversational agent.
- The capabilities of this artificial voice system were explored for various applications.
Main Results:
- A chatbot capable of synthesized speech and auditory recognition was successfully developed.
- The study explored both artistic and psychological dimensions of artificial voice emotion.
- Initial findings suggest an emerging interdisciplinary ontology for artificial voices.
Conclusions:
- The research provides a foundation for understanding and implementing emotional expression in synthesized speech.
- Proposed HCI tools aim to facilitate future collaborative efforts in artificial voice development.
- This work bridges disciplines including AI, HCI, and communication technologies.
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