ScienceDaily (Nov. 8, 2010) — Researchers from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid's Facultad de Informática have developed a computer program capable of human emotion recognition from automated voice analysis.
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The application analyses the sound measurements of a conversation, output by another purpose-built program. Then, based on the rules described in the new application, it is able to identify the emotions hidden in an expression and determine whether the speaker is sad, happy or nervous. Even if the emotion is unclear, the application is able to specify how close the speaker is to each emotion in percentage terms. The application was presented by Susana Muñoz Hernández at the First International Conference on Fuzzy Computation, held in Madeira, Portugal, in 2009.
The application is based on a new tool called RFuzzy, implemented in the Prolog programming language. Prolog is able to represent and operate with what is known as fuzzy logic. Prolog is used primarily in artificial intelligence and expert systems applications.
RFuzzy is a programming support, which stands out for its ease of use and its expressivity. It is able to represent, handle and reason with subjective concepts like high, low, fast, slow, etc.
Apart from being applied to detect emotions in human conversations, RFuzzy has also been used to enhance robot intelligence. In this particular case, RFuzzy was used to program robots participating in the world robot soccer league (RoboCupSoccer), which has been held since 1996 with the aim of developing robotics and artificial intelligence. The experience was outlined in the book Robot Soccer, Inteh, Croatia, 2010, edited by Vladan Papic.
Being based on fuzzy logic, RFuzzy has important benefits for both conversation analysis and the enhancement of championship soccer robot behaviour. Its logical mechanisms are flexible and it leaves some margin of interpretation to the computer. The computer will then make the decision depending on a series of logical rules that take measurable parameters (volume, speech pitch and rate, position, speed or distance of the robot from the ball, etc.) as a reference.
The details of this research are to be published shortly in the INS- Information Science journal and can be consulted online at Science Direct.
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Facultad de Informática de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Journal Reference:
- Susana Munoz-Hernandez, Víctor Pablos-Ceruelo, Hannes Strass. RFuzzy: Syntax, semantics and implementation details of a simple and expressive fuzzy tool over Prolog. Information Sciences, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.ins.2010.07.033
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Friday, 31 December 2010
Computer program recognizes human emotions from conversation analysis
Kinect Hacked to Control Humanoid Robot: First Steps to Avatar | Fast Company
Another day, another Kinect hack, but this one really gives us a taste of a sci-fi-esque future: Kinect can now directly control the limbs of a humanoid robot. Yup--those Evangelion or Avatar dreams now seem a little more possible.
Taylor Veltrop is a software engineer and robot tinkerer, and his latest impressive feat is to link up a Microsoft Kinect via some custom software and a wireless link to his Kondo KHR-1HV kit robot. Essentially Taylor's code takes the data feed from Kinect's motion and body sensing systems, and works out what position his limbs are in before beaming that data to custom software he's installed in the robot's ROS operating system.
Check out the results below: (Taylor explains his project at the start, and the good stuff happens after 1:20)
Impressive stuff--even while it's only mapped onto the robot's arms for the moment. From the experiment we can see how quickly the mapping between Taylor's gestures and the robot's happen, that the range of motion of the 'bot is smaller than his, and that there could be a better way (using reverse kinematics) to control the robot where the position of the controller's limbs are calculated, rather than the angle of each joint. We can see some of its flaws in the fact that when the 'bot falls, Taylor has to remember to position his arms carefully to pick it up because Kinect is still tracking them.
But make no mistake, this is big stuff: It was crafted quickly by an enthusiast, using relatively inexpensive gear. If bigger robot companies get hold of the tech, it could dispose of the need for sophisticated image-recognition computing or strap-on motion sensing/tracking suits. And that could translate into simpler control over humanoid androids (which are already impressively realistic in some ways). Put a pair of goggles on the controlling human with a video feed from cameras in the robot's eyes, give the 'bot a loudspeaker and the power to walk, and you have a telepresence robot that really walks and talks like you. It's the future you've seen in countless sci-fi movies and shows, hinted at right here with a gaming peripheral.
Related: Kinect Hacked to Play World of Warcraft: Welcome to the Future of Gaming
To read more news on this, and similar stuff, keep up with my updates by following me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.
Pro-WikiLeaks hackers attack Zimbabwe government websites | Naked Security
Hacktivists have struck a blow against the regime in Zimbabwe by attacking a number of government websites in what appears to be a move in support of newspapers who published secret cables in the ongoing WikiLeaks saga.
Grace Mugabe, wife of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, was recently reported to be suing a newspaper for $15 million after it published a WikiLeaks cable that claimed she has benefited from illegal diamond trading.
As news spread amongst the loosely-knit group of Anonymous hackers who support WikiLeaks, websites belonging to the Zimbabwe government and Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party were hit by distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and, in the case of the Finance Ministry, defacements.
The Zimbabwe government's online portal at www.gta.gov.zw and the official ZANU-PF website continue to be offline, and the Finance Ministry's website now displays a message saying it is under maintenance.
A statement published on an Anonymous website offered an explanation for the attacks, which have been dubbed "Operation: Zimbabwe":
We are targeting Mugabe and his regime in the ZanuPF who have outlawed the free press and threaten to sue anyone publishing wikileaks.
Although many people are deeply concerned about corruption in Zimbabwe, I am certain that internet attacks are not the answer.
It seems kind of ironic to me that the hackers who are engaged in actions seemingly intended to be pro-WikiLeaks and in the name of free speech, are using denial-of-service attacks that by their very nature prevent others from communicating.
And don't forget, participating in a DDoS attack is against the law in many countries.
The Sun admits publishing false story | Media | guardian.co.uk
The Sun has owned up to what I guess we in the journalism trade realised the moment we saw it - its splash about the pre-Christmas live episode Coronation Street being targeted by al-Qaeda was false.
On 9 December, it carried this front page story (which still appears on its website, incidentally) claiming that "cops" were "throwing a ring of steel" around the studios in Manchester after being "tipped off" that the show "could be hit by a terror strike."
It had that familiar Daily Star-ish ring of complete nonsense, and so it turns out, as yesterday's page 2 "correction" admits: "Further to our article about increased security at Coronation Street's studios for their live 50th anniversary episode... we would like to make clear that while cast and crew were subject to full body searches, there was no specific threat from Al-Qaeda as we reported. We apologise for the misunderstanding and are happy to set the record straight."
Happy? I doubt that. Note also the above tweet from the Press Complaints Commission. The regulator is, quite rightly, becoming much more publicity-conscious about its work.
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