Can Artificial intelligence system recognise emotions from human speech

Scientists have created a new artificial intelligence system that can identify a range of emotions – from happiness to disgust – in human speech. For a long time, computers have successfully converted speech into text. However, the emotional component, which is important for conveying meaning, has been neglected.

Neural networks are processors connected with each other and capable of learning, analysis and synthesis. This smart system surpasses traditional algorithms in that the interaction between a person and computer becomes more interactive. Systems in a neural network can learn from their own experiences, and conduct future actions through the data points that are tacked with time. This data enables artificial intelligence in these systems, and creates capabilities to interpret more complex inputs with inferences from its own past experiences and previously stored data.

Researchers at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Russia trained a neural network to recognise eight different emotions: neutral, calm, happy, sad, angry, scared, disgusted, and surprised. In 70 per cent cases the computer identified the emotion correctly, say the researchers.

The researchers have transformed the sound into images – spectrograms – which allowed them to work with sound using themethods applied for image recognition. A deep learning approach was used in the research.