Generating expressive speech for storytelling applications

Work on expressive speech synthesis has long focused on the expression of basic emotions. In recent years, however, interest in other expressive styles has been increasing. The research presented in this paper aims at the generation of a storytelling speaking style, which is suitable for storytelling applications and more in general, for applications aimed at children. Based on an analysis of human storytellers' speech, we designed and implemented a set of prosodic rules for converting "neutral" speech, as produced by a text-to-speech system, into storytelling speech. An evaluation of our storytelling speech generation system showed encouraging results

From trust in caregivers' support to exploration : the role of openness to negative affect and self-regulation

Attachment theory assumes that trust in caregivers' support and exploration are closely related. Little research tried to investigate this link, nor focuses on mechanisms that might explain this association. The present studies examined whether trust is related to exploration through a serial indirect effect of openness to negative affect and self-regulation. In Study 1, 212 children, aged 8-13, completed questionnaires assessing trust, openness to negative affect, self-regulation and exploration. The results showed that trust predicted exploration, but only to the extent to which openness to negative affect and self-regulation were involved too. Study 2 refined these findings (n = 59, aged 9-12) using a behavioral measure of openness to negative affect and exploration, and with mother-reported self-regulation. Replicating this serial indirect effect of openness to negative affect and self-regulation with multiple informants and methods, the present studies advance our understanding of how trust might foster exploration in preadolescence

Alertness, movement, and affective behaviour of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) on introduction of a playful interactive product:Can we get your attention?

Background: New technology may stimulate active leisure activities for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD). We conducted a study of an interactive ball that responded to gross body movement, focus of attention, and vocalisations of users with PIMD. The aim was to increase alertness and body movement and elicit more expressions of positive, or fewer of negative affect.Method: Nine participants with PIMD played during 8–10 sessions. The movement was analysed automatically. Alertness and affective behaviour were coded manually. We analysed the last 5 sessions for each participant and compared 15 min of interaction with 15 min of rest.Results: Clearly positive effects were seen for three participants. Effects were seen in the unexpected direction for four participants. No strong effects were found for the remaining three participants.Conclusions: Interactive technologies may provide suitable activities for people with PIMD but individual differences play an important role

Isomer shift and magnetic moment of the long-lived 1/2+^{+} isomer in 3079^{79}_{30}Zn49_{49}: signature of shape coexistence near 78^{78}Ni

Collinear laser spectroscopy has been performed on the $^{79}_{30}$Zn$_{49}$ isotope at ISOLDE-CERN. The existence of a long-lived isomer with a few hundred milliseconds half-life was confirmed, and the nuclear spins and moments of the ground and isomeric states in $^{79}$Zn as well as the isomer shift were measured. From the observed hyperfine structures, spins $I = 9/2$ and $I = 1/2$ are firmly assigned to the ground and isomeric states. The magnetic moment $\mu$ ($^{79}$Zn) = $-$1.1866(10) $\mu_{\rm{N}}$, confirms the spin-parity $9/2^{+}$ with a $\nu g_{9/2}^{-1}$ shell-model configuration, in excellent agreement with the prediction from large scale shell-model theories. The magnetic moment $\mu$ ($^{79m}$Zn) = $-$1.0180(12) $\mu_{\rm{N}}$ supports a positive parity for the isomer, with a wave function dominated by a 2h-1p neutron excitation across the $N = 50$ shell gap. The large isomer shift reveals an increase of the intruder isomer mean square charge radius with respect to that of the ground state: $\delta \langle r^{2}_{c}\rangle^{79,79m}$ = +0.204(6) fm$^{2}$, providing first evidence of shape coexistence.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Accepeted by Phys. Rev. Lett. (2016

Modeling a social brain for interactive agents: integrating mirroring and mentalizing

Kahl S, Kopp S. Modeling a social brain for interactive agents: integrating mirroring and mentalizing. In: Brinkman WP, Broekens J, Heylen DKJ, eds. Intelligent Virtual Agents. Springer; 2015: 77-86