Metaglossia: The Translation World

Kuala Lumpur, Sep 11 (IANS) A computer is being taught to interpret human emotions based on lip-reading, one which could improve our interaction with these machines and perhaps allow disabled people to use voice synthesizers, more effectively and...

Researchers in Malaysia are teaching a computer to interpret human emotions based on lip patterns in order to improve the way people interact with computers.

The research, which is published in the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing, could also allow disabled people to better use computer-based communications devices, such as voice synthesizers, more effectively.

“In recent years, there has been a growing interest in improving all aspects of interaction between humans and computers, especially in the area of human emotion recognition by observing facial expression,” said the researchers, led by Karthigayan Muthukaruppanof Manipal at the International University in Selangor, Malaysia.

The scientists developed their system using a genetic algorithm that improves with each iteration to match irregular ellipse fitting equations to the shape of a human mouth displaying different emotions. The team used photos of individuals from South-East Asia and Japan to train the computer to recognize the six commonly accepted human emotions — happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, surprise — and neutrality. The algorithm then analyzed the upper and lower lip as two separate ellipses.

The work was based on previous studies that provided an understanding of how emotion can be recreated by manipulating a representation of the human face on a computer screen. The research is currently informing the development of more realistic animated actors, and even the behavior of robots. However, the inverse process in which a computer recognizes the emotion behind a real human face remains a challenge.

It is widely known that many deeper emotions involve more than simple movements of the mouth. For instance, a genuine smile involves the flexing of muscles around the eyes, and eyebrow movements are almost universally essential to the subconscious interpretation

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A computer is being taught to interpret human emotions based on lip-reading, one which could improve our interaction with these machines and perhaps allow disabled people to use voice synthesizers, more effectively and efficiently.
Karthigayan Muthukaruppan of Manipal International University in Selangor, Malaysia, and co-workers have developed a system using a genetic algorithm that gets better and better with each use to match irregular ellipse (lip shapes) fitting equations to the shape of the human mouth displaying different emotions.

They have used photos of individuals from South-East Asia and Japan to train a computer to recognize the six commonly accepted human emotions - happiness, sadness, fear, angry, disgust, surprise - and a neutral expression.

The upper and lower lip is each analyzed as two separate ellipses by the algorithm, the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing reported.

'In recent years, there has been a growing interest in improving all aspects of interaction between humans and computers especially in the area of human emotion recognition by observing facial expression,' the team explained, according to a statement of Manipal University.

Earlier researchers had developed an understanding that allows emotion to be recreated by manipulating a representation of the human face on a computer screen.

The trial of Former England captain John Terry today heard evidence from a lip reading expert who analysed footage of the alleged racist incident during the game in October last year.

The welsh council for the deaf is looking for suitable applicants, are you one ? CV: The Lipreading Teacher’s Role. A qualified lipreading teacher is able to help people who are deaf in many ways. These include helping people to develop lipreading and other communication skills, and helping many who use hearing aids to derive greater benefit from them. In the relaxed and informal setting of a lipreading class, the lipreading teacher also provides a great deal of useful information, for example, about helpful organisations, conversation tactics, and aids for the television and the telephone.

A deaf supporter is giving followers of Germany an insight into their heroes' communication. Julia Probst is providing Twitter users with an alternative way of watching the Germans in action – by using lip-reading.

Bell family: pioneers of lip-reading ?

The Man the American Deaf just love to hate, but his family were pioneers too.

The Bell family studied speech and sound for at least two generations before Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. The inventor's father, Alexander Melville Bell, and grandfather, also named Alexander, were both speech specialists. In 1864, Alexander Melville Bell invented an international alphabet called Visible Speech, which showed deaf people how to shape their lips, tongues and throats when speaking. He and his son later wrote articles and books together about phonetics and Visible Speech.

Find out about Lipreading and how to learn to Lipread. Find out what's good and bad about Lipreading, and how it helps people with hearing loss, deafness.

By Joan Raymond
For years, the conventional wisdom was that babies learned how to talk by listening to their parents.

- it has 8 handshape cues to help lipreading
- it follows the word-sound; it does not follow word-spelling
- it was invented by past Gallaudet University Vice President R. Orin Cornett
- the hand shape shows consonants; the hand position shows vowels
- it is claimed that many parents can become fluent in less a year
- for some reason most Cued Speech users live on the East Coast!
- Cued Speech is found in nearly 70 national languages

FUNDING has been made available to train lip-reading tutors in Wales, in a bid to tackle the social isolation faced by many deaf and hard of hearing people in Wales.The Welsh Government has made...