What question did this study set out to answer?

The review aims to bridge the gap between vocal emotion research and speech analysis literature for better speech synthesis.

February 1, 1993

Toward the simulation of emotion in synthetic speech: A review of the literature on human vocal emotion

Key Points

The review aims to bridge the gap between vocal emotion research and speech analysis literature for better speech synthesis.
Literature review on human vocal emotion and its acoustic correlates.
Discussion on voice parameters affected by emotional states including pitch, quality, and timing.
Analysis of current speech synthesizer technology capabilities.
Identified three key voice parameters influenced by emotion: voice quality, utterance timing, and pitch contour.
Highlighted specific emotions that affect these voice parameters in distinct ways.
Suggests potential for utilizing identified parameters to enhance emotional expression in synthetic speech systems.

Abstract

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.

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