Teaching Computers to Hear Emotions From: IEEE Spectrum ComputerWise Newsletter - 01/04/2013 By; Steven Cherry New research can detect five different emotions with 81 percent accuracy People with Asperger’s syndrome find it difficult to apply the axiom that it’s often not what you say that’s important, but how you say it. The frequent result for them is social isolation. But for most of us, the ability to interpret tonal and gestural cues comes automatically. Now a group of researchers say they have gone a long way toward teaching computers to identify emotion in speech. At the IEEE Workshop on Spoken Language Technology held in December, they described software that can detect six different emotional states with 81 percent accuracy. In the future, computers may help therapists and clinicians to diagnose neurological and psychological disorders. And computers in cars might be programmed to sense and react to road rage. Read the entire article and listen to a podcast (12:51) at: http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/computing/software/teaching-computers-to-hear-emotions/ Links: IEEE Workshop on Spoken Language Technology http://www.slt2012.org/ Podcast mp3 download http://spectrum.ieee.org/ns/techwise/mp3/IEEESpectrum_2012.12.28_12Emotions.mp3