Objectif
The main objective of the ERMIS Project is the development of a prototype system for human computer interaction that can interpret its users' attitude or emotional state, e.g. activation/interest, boredom, and anger, in terms of their speech and/or their facial gestures and expressions. The adopted technologies include linguistic and paralinguistic speech analysis and robust speech recognition, facial expression analysis, interpretation of the user's emotional state using hybrid, neurofussy, techniques, while being in accordance with the MPEG-4 standard. Specific attention is given to the evaluation of the system's ability to improve effectiveness, user friendliness and user satisfaction, while examining and resolving related ethical issues. Real life applications, where users interact with machines, and in particular with call/ information centres and next generation PC interfaces, have been selected to test the performance of the ERMIS system.
Objectives:
Recent developments indicate that emotion analysis is an area that is well placed to develop, while there already exists a substantial body of prior knowledge and an increasingly clear picture of what current techniques can achieve. Based on these results and on the expertise of the Consortium partners, the ERMIS project will conduct a systematic analysis of speech and facial input signals, in separate, as well as in common; the aim is to extract parameters and features which can provide human computer interaction (HCI) systems with the ability to recognise the basic emotional state of their users and interact with them in a more natural and user friendly way. Testbed applications have been selected for testing and evaluating the ERMIS system performance, referring to everyday interaction of users with their PCs and with service or information providing call centres, with successful developments prospecting a large market size.
Work description:
Linguistic and paralinguistic analysis of speech will be investigated systematically, creating a prototype that is able to analyse and respond to its users' commands, taking into account the cues about their emotional state. Analysis of facial expressions, especially in the framework of the MPEG-4 standard, constitutes another input for retrieving cues about the user's emotional state. Facial expression analysis will be applied separately, or combined with emotional speech analysis. The ERMIS system will be able to rely on prior knowledge related to the emotional analysis of speech and/or facial expressions, and to accommodate for the different expressive styles of humans. The continuity of emotion space, the uncertainty involved in the feature estimation process and the required ability of the system to use prior knowledge, while being also capable of adapting its behaviour to its users' characteristics, will be handled by using intelligent hybrid, neurofuzzy, approaches.
A crucial criterion for the success of the project developments has to do with the effectiveness and the improvement of user friendliness achieved by the proposed system when compared with the current state of Human Computer Interaction. User research and testing will be carried out by the project industrial partners and subcontractors, evaluating user acceptance and related ethical issues.
The ERMIS Consortium includes the multidisciplinarity required for tackling the project objectives. It includes big industrial IT and telecommunication partners, well known research centres and universities in the speech analysis, image analysis, psychological and computational emotion analysis fields and in intelligent multimedia systems. The Consortium expertise in the above fields will be used, on the one hand, for achieving its technological goals and developments, and on the other hand, for performing reliable market and exploitation analysis.
Milestones:
The project milestones are:
-User requirements analysis and system specifications
- Facial feature and expression analysis
- An emotional representation space suitable for HCI
- Emotion analysis based on speech and facial cues
- A prototype system that analyses its users' attitude and responds accordingly
- A call centre understanding its users' commands and attitude towards offered services
- Evaluation of the system performance and exploitation
Programme(s)
Programmes de financement pluriannuels qui définissent les priorités de l’UE en matière de recherche et d’innovation.
Programmes de financement pluriannuels qui définissent les priorités de l’UE en matière de recherche et d’innovation.
Thème(s)
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Les appels à propositions sont divisés en thèmes. Un thème définit un sujet ou un domaine spécifique dans le cadre duquel les candidats peuvent soumettre des propositions. La description d’un thème comprend sa portée spécifique et l’impact attendu du projet financé.
Appel à propositions
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Données non disponibles
Procédure par laquelle les candidats sont invités à soumettre des propositions de projet en vue de bénéficier d’un financement de l’UE.
Régime de financement
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Régime de financement (ou «type d’action») à l’intérieur d’un programme présentant des caractéristiques communes. Le régime de financement précise le champ d’application de ce qui est financé, le taux de remboursement, les critères d’évaluation spécifiques pour bénéficier du financement et les formes simplifiées de couverture des coûts, telles que les montants forfaitaires.
Coordinateur
15123 MAROUSSI - ATHENS
Grèce
Les coûts totaux encourus par l’organisation concernée pour participer au projet, y compris les coûts directs et indirects. Ce montant est un sous-ensemble du budget global du projet.