Robot-assisted Recognition of Vocal Emotions in Pseudospeech for Cochlear Implanted Adolescents

Recognising vocal emotions in speech is difficult for children with hearing loss and who use a cochlear implant (CI). As regular monitoring could be burdensome, we propose a NAO robot as a test interface. Adolescents with CIs (10-17yr) performed the EmoHI test for recognising vocal emotions in pseudospeech (no linguistic emotion information), once with a computer and once with a NAO. Interfaces are compared via test results and durations, and participants' perception of the interfaces. Test results (sensitivity index, d') were similar (0.36 ± 0.36 vs. 0.37 ± 0.43), but durations were significantly longer on the NAO (4.18 min ± 39 sec vs. 5.13 min ± 51 sec). The computer had a higher perceived usability, but the NAO was rated more enjoyable, engaging and preferable. Overall, the NAO sound quality seems sufficient for conducting the EmoHI test, even with a CI. The higher ratings of enjoyability for NAO may be especially useful in conducting such tests in populations with hearing devices.