Conversational Engagement Tracked

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/12/rnb_120104.asp?trk=nl>

Technology Review  


Conversational Engagement Tracked

December 1, 2004

It would be useful if a computer could sense ebbs and flows in conversation
in order to automatically adjust remote communications systems. It would be
useful, for instance, if a system automatically switched from a
walkie-talkie-type push-to-talk system to a telephone-like full duplex
audio connection when the participants become highly engaged in a
conversation.

Language is often fairly cryptic, however. The phrase "I am interested in
this conversation", for instance, can signal enjoyment or polite boredom.

Researchers from the University of Rochester and Palo Alto Research Center
are aiming to allow computers to automatically assess peoples' engagement
in a conversation by analyzing the way they speak rather than what they
say. The researchers' system analyzes tone of voice and prosodic style,
which includes changes in strength, pitch and rhythm.

 As voice communication shifts from traditional telephone networks to the
more flexible Internet it is becoming easier to seamlessly shift between
different communication channels. The system could automatically adapt
voice channels on-the-fly. It could also help a user who is engaged in
conversation avoid distractions by deferring loud and new email
announcements and changing instant messaging status to busy.

The researchers' system adds the ability to sense characteristics of
conversational engagement to previous methods of recognizing speech
emotion, taking into consideration changes in emotion over time and the
influence of participants on each other.

The system measures five levels of engagement. The researchers' used
recorded phone conversations to test the system. The system sensed users'
engagement accurately 63 percent of the time, more than triple the 20
percent accuracy that would result from random choices.

The method could be used in practical applications in three to six years,
according to the researchers. The work appeared in the proceedings of the
8th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP) held
October 4 to 8, 2004 on Jeju Island in Korea.


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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
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experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'