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Expressive visual text-to-speech as an assistive technology for individuals with autism spectrum conditions

Adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) experience marked difficulties in recognising the emotions of others and responding appropriately. The clinical characteristics of ASC mean that face to face or group interventions may not be appropriate for this clinical group. This article explores the...

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Autores principales: Cassidy, S.A., Stenger, B., Van Dongen, L., Yanagisawa, K., Anderson, R., Wan, V., Baron-Cohen, S., Cipolla, R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Academic Press 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4913554/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27375348
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cviu.2015.08.011
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author Cassidy, S.A.
Stenger, B.
Van Dongen, L.
Yanagisawa, K.
Anderson, R.
Wan, V.
Baron-Cohen, S.
Cipolla, R.
author_facet Cassidy, S.A.
Stenger, B.
Van Dongen, L.
Yanagisawa, K.
Anderson, R.
Wan, V.
Baron-Cohen, S.
Cipolla, R.
author_sort Cassidy, S.A.
collection PubMed
description Adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) experience marked difficulties in recognising the emotions of others and responding appropriately. The clinical characteristics of ASC mean that face to face or group interventions may not be appropriate for this clinical group. This article explores the potential of a new interactive technology, converting text to emotionally expressive speech, to improve emotion processing ability and attention to faces in adults with ASC. We demonstrate a method for generating a near-videorealistic avatar (XpressiveTalk), which can produce a video of a face uttering inputted text, in a large variety of emotional tones. We then demonstrate that general population adults can correctly recognize the emotions portrayed by XpressiveTalk. Adults with ASC are significantly less accurate than controls, but still above chance levels for inferring emotions from XpressiveTalk. Both groups are significantly more accurate when inferring sad emotions from XpressiveTalk compared to the original actress, and rate these expressions as significantly more preferred and realistic. The potential applications for XpressiveTalk as an assistive technology for adults with ASC is discussed.
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spelling pubmed-49135542016-07-01 Expressive visual text-to-speech as an assistive technology for individuals with autism spectrum conditions Cassidy, S.A. Stenger, B. Van Dongen, L. Yanagisawa, K. Anderson, R. Wan, V. Baron-Cohen, S. Cipolla, R. Comput Vis Image Underst Article Adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) experience marked difficulties in recognising the emotions of others and responding appropriately. The clinical characteristics of ASC mean that face to face or group interventions may not be appropriate for this clinical group. This article explores the potential of a new interactive technology, converting text to emotionally expressive speech, to improve emotion processing ability and attention to faces in adults with ASC. We demonstrate a method for generating a near-videorealistic avatar (XpressiveTalk), which can produce a video of a face uttering inputted text, in a large variety of emotional tones. We then demonstrate that general population adults can correctly recognize the emotions portrayed by XpressiveTalk. Adults with ASC are significantly less accurate than controls, but still above chance levels for inferring emotions from XpressiveTalk. Both groups are significantly more accurate when inferring sad emotions from XpressiveTalk compared to the original actress, and rate these expressions as significantly more preferred and realistic. The potential applications for XpressiveTalk as an assistive technology for adults with ASC is discussed. Academic Press 2016-07 /pmc/articles/PMC4913554/ /pubmed/27375348 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cviu.2015.08.011 Text en © 2015 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Cassidy, S.A.
Stenger, B.
Van Dongen, L.
Yanagisawa, K.
Anderson, R.
Wan, V.
Baron-Cohen, S.
Cipolla, R.
Expressive visual text-to-speech as an assistive technology for individuals with autism spectrum conditions
title Expressive visual text-to-speech as an assistive technology for individuals with autism spectrum conditions
title_full Expressive visual text-to-speech as an assistive technology for individuals with autism spectrum conditions
title_fullStr Expressive visual text-to-speech as an assistive technology for individuals with autism spectrum conditions
title_full_unstemmed Expressive visual text-to-speech as an assistive technology for individuals with autism spectrum conditions
title_short Expressive visual text-to-speech as an assistive technology for individuals with autism spectrum conditions
title_sort expressive visual text-to-speech as an assistive technology for individuals with autism spectrum conditions
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4913554/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27375348
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cviu.2015.08.011
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