Based on a previous investigation, a quantitative study aimed to identify user’ preferences towards four synthetic voices of two different quality levels (classified through the sophistication of the ...synthesizer: low vs. high) is proposed. The voices administered to participants were developed considering two main aspects: the voice quality (high/low) and their gender (male/female). 182 unpaid participants were recruited for the study, divided in four groups according to their age, and therefore classified as adolescents, young adults, middle-aged, and seniors. To collect data regarding each voice, randomly audited by participants, the shortened version of the Virtual Agent Voice Acceptance Questionnaire (VAVAQ) was exploited. Outcomes of the previous study revealed that the voices of high quality, regardless of their gender, received a higher acclaim by all participants examined rather than the corresponding two voices assessed as lower quality. Conversely, findings of the current study suggest that the four new groups of participants involved agreed in showing their strong preference towards the high-quality voice gendered as female compared to all the other considered voices. Regarding the two voices gendered as male, the high-quality one was considered as more original and capable to arouse positive emotional states than the low-quality one. Moreover, the high-quality male voice was judged as more natural than the female low-quality one. Results provide some insights for future directions in the user experience and design field.
RESUMEN El objetivo del trabajo es, desde un enfoque de Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad, identificar los factores predictivos de deserción estudiantil en la carrera de Ingeniería en Ciencias ...Informáticas utilizando el Paquete Estadístico para las Ciencias Sociales. Mediante los métodos histórico lógico y análisis síntesis se identificaron las variables a analizar y posteriormente, utilizando la estadística descriptiva e inferencial, se relacionaron las variables independientes: género, provincia de procedencia, fuente de ingreso, opción en solicitó la carrera, nota de acceso en Matemática y rendimiento académico en Matemática y Programación con la variable dependiente deserción estudiantil. Se utilizó una muestra formada por 485 estudiantes. Se identificaron como variables predictivas: la provincia de procedencia, la fuente de ingreso, la nota de acceso en Matemática y el rendimiento académico. El estudio puede ser replicado en otros contextos e incluir nuevas variables y sus resultados impactan en la ciencia, la tecnología y la sociedad.
We present an educational data analytics case study aimed at the early detection of potential dropout in Computer Engineering studies in Cuba. We have employed institutional data of 456 students and ...performed several experiments for predicting their permanency into three (promotion, repetition, and dropout) or two classes (promoting, not promoting). We have also tested a combination of classification features for training and testing decision trees and neural networks; including information obtained at the time of enrollment, after the first semester and after the first academic year. Our results show a considerable accuracy using all features (96.71%). Using only the features available at the time of enrolment and after the first semester we obtain very positive results (68.86% and 93.85% accuracy respectively) with a high recall of non-promoting students. Thus, it is possible to obtain an early assessment of the risk of dropout that can help defining prevention policies.
This study contributes knowledge on the detection of depression through handwriting/drawing features, to identify quantitative and noninvasive indicators of the disorder for implementing algorithms ...for its automatic detection. For this purpose, an original
approach was adopted to provide a dynamic evaluation of handwriting/drawing performance of healthy participants with no history of any psychiatric disorders (Formula: see text), and patients with a clinical diagnosis of depression (Formula: see text). Both groups were asked to complete seven tasks requiring either the writing or drawing on a paper while five handwriting/drawing features' categories (i.e. pressure on the paper, time, ductus, space among characters, and pen inclination) were recorded by using a digitalized tablet. The collected records were statistically analyzed. Results showed that, except for pressure, all the considered features, successfully discriminate between depressed and nondepressed subjects. In addition, it was observed that depression affects different writing/drawing functionalities. These findings suggest the adoption of writing/drawing tasks in the clinical practice as tools to support the current depression detection methods. This would have important repercussions on reducing the diagnostic times and treatment formulation.
The Role of Language in Building Automatic Models for Depression Detection Raimo, Gennaro; Conson, Massimiliano; Amorese, Terry ...
2022 IEEE Intl Conf on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, Intl Conf on Pervasive Intelligence and Computing, Intl Conf on Cloud and Big Data Computing, Intl Conf on Cyber Science and Technology Congress (DASC/PiCom/CBDCom/CyberSciTech),
2022-Sept.-12
Conference Proceeding
The increase in cases of depression in recent years makes necessary to develop new objective and reliable tools and instruments for the early identification of this condition. In this context, one of ...the most efficacious and efficient approaches seems to be the acoustic analysis of the speech characteristics of depressed patients. The present study analyzes how depressive states affects the spontaneous speech of 68 depressed patients of two different languages (Italian and English), divided into 3 groups (English, Italians with mild/moderate severity and Italians with severe severity). We consider 21 acoustic features, all of them good and usual indicators of emotional states in speech, obtained from 5 acoustic low-level descriptors (LLD, i.e. Fundamental frequency, Jitter, Shimmer, Voice breaks, and Intensity). The main results showed, in a novel way, that fundamental frequency and number of pauses allowed to discriminate between English and Italian patients, while no significant differences were observed regarding the severity degree of the depressive symptoms. The aim of this study, corroborated by the results obtained, is to highlight the need to take into consideration the language variable when developing an automated speech analysis for detecting depressive states.
## In Detail Speech technology has been around for some time now. However, it has only more recently captured the imagination of the general public with the advent of personal assistants on mobile ...devices that you can talk to in your own language. The potential of voice apps is huge as a novel and natural way to use mobile devices. Voice Application Development for Android is a practical, hands-on guide that provides you with a series of clear, step-by-step examples which will help you to build on the basic technologies and create more advanced and more engaging applications. With this book, you will learn how to create useful voice apps that you can deploy on your own Android device in no time at all. This book introduces you to the technologies behind voice application development in a clear and intuitive way. You will learn how to use open source software to develop apps that talk and that recognize your speech. Building on this, you will progress to developing more complex apps that can perform useful tasks, and you will learn how to develop a simple voice-based personal assistant that you can customize to suit your own needs. For more interesting information about the book, visit http://lsi.ugr.es/zoraida/androidspeechbook ## Approach This book will give beginners an introduction to building voice-based applications on Android. It will begin by covering the basic concepts and will build up to creating a voice-based personal assistant. By the end of this book, you should be in a position to create your own voice-based applications on Android from scratch in next to no time. ## Who this book is for Voice Application Development for Android is for all those who are interested in speech technology and for those who, as owners of Android devices, are keen to experiment with developing voice apps for their devices. It will also be useful as a starting point for professionals who are experienced in Android application development but who are not familiar with speech technologies and the development of voice user interfaces. Some background in programming in general, particularly in Java, is assumed.
By providing students with the opportunities to receive a high quality education regardless of their social or cultural background, inclusive education is a new area that goes beyond traditional ...integration approaches. These approaches hope to provide the educative system with the ability to adapt to the diversity of its students. Technologies for Inclusive Education: Beyond Traditional Integration Approaches introduces the basic concepts, current research guidelines and future perspectives on the current state of these approaches. This book aims to make inclusive education a reality in the future by highlighting technological advances in applied e-learning, cognitive learning and education multimedia. Novel approaches to human-computer interaction are essential to make these contents available for every student regardless of their disabilities and learning styles. Contents include: (1) Towards the Use of Dialog Systems to Facilitate Inclusive Education (David Griol Barres, Zoraida Callejas Carrion, Jose M. Molina Lopez, and Araceli Sanchis de Miguel); (2) Experiences Using a Free Tool for Voice Therapy Based on Speech Technologies (William R. Rodriguez, Oscar Saz, and Eduardo Lleida); (3) Eye-Gaze and Facial Expressions as Feedback Signals in Educational Interactions (Kristiina Jokinen and Paivi Majaranta); (4) Embodied Conversational Agents in Interactive Applications for Children with Special Educational Needs (Beatriz Lopez Mencia, David D. Pardo, Alvaro Hernandez Trapote, and Luis A. Hernandez Gomez); (5) Virtual Environments Can Mediate Continuous Learning (Kiran Pala and Suryakanth V. Gangashetty); (6) Education for Inclusion Using Virtual Worlds: An Experience Using OpenSim (Juan Mateu, Maria Jose Lasala, and Xavier Alaman); (7) A Proposal to Model Interaction from the Analysis of Student--Pedagogic Conversational Agent Logs (Diana Perez-Marin and Ismael Pascual-Nieto); (8) On the Use of Speech Technologies to Achieve Inclusive Education for People with Intellectual Disabilities (Ana Perez Perez, Zoraida Callejas Carrion, Ramon Lopez-Cozar Delgado, and David Griol Barres); (9) An Emotional Student Model for Game-Based Learning (Karla Munoz, Paul Mc Kevitt, Tom Lunney, Julieta Noguez, and Luis Neri); (10) Analyzing the Level of Inclusion of Digital Educational Objects in Eskola 2.0 (Ma Luz Guenaga, Iratxe Mentxaka, Susana Romero, and Andoni Eguiluz); (11) School Activities Using Handmade Teaching Materials with Dot Codes (Shigeru Ikuta, Fumio Nemoto, Emi Endo, Satomi Kaiami, Takahide Ezoe); (12) "Evaluator": A Grading Tool for Spanish Learners (Paz Ferrero, Rachel Whittaker, and Javier Alda); (13) New Communication Technologies for Inclusive Education in and outside the Classroom (Ana Iglesias, Belen Ruiz-Mezcua, Juan Francisco Lopez, and Diego Carrero Figueroa); (14) Educational Applications of Clickers in University Teaching (Francisco J. Liebana-Cabanillas, Myriam Martinez-Fiestas, and Francisco Rejon-Guardia); and (15) The Simulator as a University Business School Support Tool: Implementation of Simbrand (Francisco J. Liebana-Cabanillas, Myriam Martinez-Fiestas, and Maria Isabel Viedma-del-Jesus).
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