Marc Schröder

Bio: Marc Schröder is an academic researcher from RWTH Aachen University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Speech synthesis & Nash equilibrium. The author has an hindex of 31, co-authored 102 publications receiving 4110 citations. Previous affiliations of Marc Schröder include University of Hamburg & Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

The SEMAINE Database: Annotated Multimodal Records of Emotionally Colored Conversations between a Person and a Limited Agent

Abstract: SEMAINE has created a large audiovisual database as a part of an iterative approach to building Sensitive Artificial Listener (SAL) agents that can engage a person in a sustained, emotionally colored conversation. Data used to build the agents came from interactions between users and an "operator” simulating a SAL agent, in different configurations: Solid SAL (designed so that operators displayed an appropriate nonverbal behavior) and Semi-automatic SAL (designed so that users' experience approximated interacting with a machine). We then recorded user interactions with the developed system, Automatic SAL, comparing the most communicatively competent version to versions with reduced nonverbal skills. High quality recording was provided by five high-resolution, high-framerate cameras, and four microphones, recorded synchronously. Recordings total 150 participants, for a total of 959 conversations with individual SAL characters, lasting approximately 5 minutes each. Solid SAL recordings are transcribed and extensively annotated: 6-8 raters per clip traced five affective dimensions and 27 associated categories. Other scenarios are labeled on the same pattern, but less fully. Additional information includes FACS annotation on selected extracts, identification of laughs, nods, and shakes, and measures of user engagement with the automatic system. The material is available through a web-accessible database.

The German Text-to-Speech Synthesis System MARY: A Tool for Research, Development and Teaching

Abstract: This paper introduces the German text-to-speech synthesis system MARY. The system's main features, namely a modular design and an XML-based system-internal data representation, are pointed out, and the properties of the individual modules are briefly presented. An interface allowing the user to access and modify intermediate processing steps without the need for a technical understanding of the system is described, along with examples of how this interface can be put to use in research, development and teaching. The usefulness of the modular and transparent design approach is further illustrated with an early prototype of an interface for emotional speech synthesis.

Emotional speech synthesis: a review.

Abstract: Attempts to add emotion effects to synthesised speech have existed for more than a decade now. Several prototypes and fully operational systems have been built based on different synthesis techniques, and quite a number of smaller studies have been conducted. This paper aims to give an overview of what has been done in this field, pointing out the inherent properties of the various synthesis techniques used, summarising the prosody rules employed, and taking a look at the evaluation paradigms. Finally, an attempt is made to discuss interesting directions for future development.

Search for invisible decays of Higgs bosons in the vector boson fusion and associated ZH production modes

Abstract: A search for invisible decays of Higgs bosons is performed using the vector boson fusion and associated ZH production modes. In the ZH mode, the Z boson is required to decay to a pair of charged leptons or a $b\bar{b}$ quark pair. The searches use the 8 TeV pp collision dataset collected by the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 19.7 inverse femtobarns. Certain channels include data from 7 TeV collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 inverse femtobarns. The searches are sensitive to non-standard-model invisible decays of the recently observed Higgs boson, as well as additional Higgs bosons with similar production modes and large invisible branching fractions. In all channels, the observed data are consistent with the expected standard model backgrounds. Limits are set on the production cross section times invisible branching fraction, as a function of the Higgs boson mass, for the vector boson fusion and ZH production modes. By combining all channels, and assuming standard model Higgs boson cross sections and acceptances, the observed (expected) upper limit on the invisible branching fraction at $m_H$=125 GeV is found to be 0.58 (0.44) at 95% confidence level. We interpret this limit in terms of a Higgs-portal model of dark matter interactions.

Communication of emotions in vocal expression and music performance: different channels, same code?

Abstract: Many authors have speculated about a close relationship between vocal expression of emotions and musical expression of emotions. but evidence bearing on this relationship has unfortunately been lacking. This review of 104 studies of vocal expression and 41 studies of music performance reveals similarities between the 2 channels concerning (a) the accuracy with which discrete emotions were communicated to listeners and (b) the emotion-specific patterns of acoustic cues used to communicate each emotion. The patterns are generally consistent with K. R. Scherer's (1986) theoretical predictions. The results can explain why music is perceived as expressive of emotion, and they are consistent with an evolutionary perspective on vocal expression of emotions. Discussion focuses on theoretical accounts and directions for future research.