{"id":1009,"date":"2011-09-15T09:57:01","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T13:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2017-08-02T10:11:46","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T14:11:46","slug":"once-more-with-emotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2011\/09\/once-more-with-emotion\/","title":{"rendered":"Once More, with Emotion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"emotion\"<\/a>
\nWhen Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times lost his ability to speak due to cancer, he began a journey to find his own voice by way of computer-generated speech. In a 2010 interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the movie critic demonstrated how a Scottish-based company created a computer program, using recordings of Ebert\u2019s own voice, to speak like him. \u201cYou\u2019ll know it\u2019s a computer,\u201d Ebert told the audience. \u201cBut it will sound like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Johns Hopkins Workshop on Human Language Technology<\/a>, entering its 17th year, gathers experts on language and speech processing each summer to tackle vexing problems such as how to generate personalized-sounding speech. In July and August, roughly 50 international experts came to the Homewood campus to push science forward in several areas, including the generation of \u2028emotional speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe summer workshops have led to a number of significant breakthroughs in our field,\u201d says Sanjeev Khudanpur<\/a>, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and a member of the Whiting School\u2019s Center for Language and Speech Processing<\/a>. The workshops\u2014funded by federal agencies, companies such as Google, and academic institutions\u2014draw renowned researchers, postdocs, graduate students, and carefully selected undergrads. The result: an intense scientific boot camp that produces a year\u2019s worth of work in six weeks.<\/p>\n

The quest to build a \u201chuman speaking box\u201d dates to the 1700s. But it wasn\u2019t until the early 20th century that an actual speech \u2028synthesizer (as opposed to a speech recording) was exhibited at the New York World\u2019s Fair. By the 1990s, hand-held electronic \u2028devices could generate speech, \u2028but voices remained robotic and stilted. \u201cIf we want to have robots that can interact with us, we need speech synthesizers that speak \u2028with emotion, with personality,\u201d says Alan W. Black<\/a>, of Carnegie Mellon University, in his own \u2028lilting Scottish accent.<\/p>\n

During the summer workshop, Black\u2019s 10-member team was tasked with the job of generating emotive computer-speak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Khudanpur describes the need: \u201cIf I\u2019m speeding along the highway, and my monotone GPS says, \u2018Slow down, please. The back door is open\u2019\u2026. I really want it to say, \u2018SLOW DOWN! The BACK door is OPEN!\u2019 Or: \u201cIf I have a robot out on a battlefield, maybe, I want it to be able to say, \u2018DROP YOUR GUN. NOW!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To date, scientists have focused on using standard techniques of voice spectrum (vibrations) to generate speech. Black\u2019s team turned to advances in articulatory features (computerizing how words are formed with the lips, tongue, and mouth) to create more emotive speech. \u201cWe\u2019ve come up with a new way to generate speech using these articulatory features,\u201d Black says.<\/p>\n

The advances, he says, could lead to computer software that can accomplish tasks such as \u2028taking a man\u2019s voice, putting it into a synthesizer, and having it generate a female voice. Or, taking an individual\u2019s voice and having the computer translate it into another language such as German. \u201cIt might still have a slight English accent,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it would sound like you.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, Black says, has huge potential for applications worldwide. For example, if a female American doctor was treating \u2028a female patient in, say, Afghanistan, it would be preferable for the speech synthesizer (with translation) to generate a female voice, equipped with \u2028emotion and intonation. \u201cYou may want compassion; otherwise, you\u2019ll get a disconnect.\u201d<\/p>\n

How close are we? \u201cWe\u2019re just scratching the surface,\u201d Black says. He returns to the example of Ebert, and others such as physicist Stephen Hawking, who also uses a speech synthesizer. Ongoing research should pave the way for computer scientists to build individual voice generators for people without having to rely on hours of that person\u2019s own recorded voice.<\/p>\n

If a speech synthesizer were to sum that up, it might exclaim: \u201cWOW!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speech experts lay groundwork for computers to express emotion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-ideas","issue-fall-2011"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOnce More, with Emotion - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2011\/09\/once-more-with-emotion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Once More, with Emotion - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Speech experts lay groundwork for computers to express emotion.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2011\/09\/once-more-with-emotion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-15T13:57:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-02T14:11:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/emotion.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/once-more-with-emotion\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/once-more-with-emotion\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abby Lattes\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\"},\"headline\":\"Once More, with Emotion\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-15T13:57:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-02T14:11:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/once-more-with-emotion\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":638,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/once-more-with-emotion\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/06\\\/emotion.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Big Ideas\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/once-more-with-emotion\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/once-more-with-emotion\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2011\\\/09\\\/once-more-with-emotion\\\/\",\"name\":\"Once More, with Emotion - 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