Toward the simulation of emotion in synthetic speech: a review of the literature on human vocal emotion.
There has been considerable research into perceptible correlates of emotional state, but a very limited amount of the literature examines the acoustic correlates and other relevant aspects of emotion effects in human speech; in addition, the vocal emotion literature is almost totally separate from the main body of speech analysis literature. A discussion of the literature describing human vocal emotion, and its principal findings, are presented. The voice parameters affected by emotion are found to be of three main types: voice quality, utterance timing, and utterance pitch contour. These parameters are described both in general and in detail for a range of specific emotions. Current speech synthesizer technology is such that many of the parameters of human speech affected by emotion could be manipulated systematically in synthetic speech to produce a simulation of vocal emotion; application of the literature to construction of a system capable of producing synthetic speech with emotion is discussed.
Murray
I R
IR
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, The University, Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Arnott
J L
JL
D003143:Communication Devices for People with Disabilities; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D014831:Voice / Q000502:physiology*