Post-Doc Position 'Visual analysis and synthesis of affects'

Description : 
In the communication between men or between men and machines, the expression of mental states, emotional, feelings, intentions or attitudes of the speaker is a source of information that plays an important role in understanding the context of speech. The study of psychological and emotional states provides more evidence of the fundamental role of affects for communication understanding. Affects are expressed by different levels of audio and visual cognitive processes: some expressions cannot be voluntarily controlled (emotions) while others are intentional (attitudes and expressiveness language, choice of vocabulary and grammatical paraphrases). Affects depend on the culture which may lead to mis-interpretations in communication. They should therefore be thought of when learning foreign languages. Similarly, affects should be integrated in automatic translators. Affects are present both in the speech and the body language. We are here particularly interested in finding the v!
isual characteristics of the attitudinal expressions (seduction, irony, irritation, admiration etc.) in three cultures (US, Japan and France).
The postdoctoral fellow will first extract different spatio-temporal descriptors for gestural and facial expressions classification. Existing studies in cognitive sciences will be used to select the correct characteristics for each part of the face and body. If needed new descriptors will be designed. He will also have
to participate to validations through perception tests on panel of native speakers. In a second part, we are interested in generating attitudes by realizing morphing from a neutral expression to a given attitude. This second phase will also include improving our voice transformation technique.

Profile of applicant:
PhD in computer science, cognitive science or applied mathematics. A good experience with image processing
is required and good programming skills in Matlab and/or C/C++. Knowledge of speech processing techniques is definitely a plus.

Duration: 16 months
Job statuts: PostDoctoral researcher, full time
LOCATION : LaBRI, UMR 5800, Université de Bordeaux, Talence, France
DATE: As soon as possible

-details of announcement: http://cpu.labex.u-bordeaux.fr/Jobs/Post-doc_Visual-analysis-and-synthesis-of-affects,Job-140.html

Supervisors/Contact:
Aurélie Bugeau, LaBRI : aurelie.bugeau@labri.fr
Takaaki Shochi, CLLE-ERSSàB, LABRI :Takaaki.Shochi@u-bordeaux3.fr
Jean-Luc Rouas, LaBRI : jean-luc.rouas@labri.fr
Application:

A CV and a motivation letter have to be sent to Aurélie Bugeau, Takaaki Shochi and Jean-Luc Rouas.
Application deadline: July 2014