可以知道你喜怒哀樂的手機應用大綱

Beyond Verbal Communications Ltd., a voice-recognition software developer here, is rolling out an app promising something Siri can't yet deliver: a readout on how you feel.
語音識別軟件開發商Beyond Verbal Communications Ltd.即將推出一款應用軟件，有望實現Siri尚且無法實現的一個功能：把你的情緒顯示出來。

Called Moodies, it lets a smartphone user speak a few words into the phone's mike to produce, about 20 seconds later, an emotional analysis. Beyond Verbal executives say the app is mostly for self-diagnosis -- and a bit of fun: It pairs a cartoon face with each analysis, and users can share the face on social media.
藉助於這款名爲“Moodies”的應用，智能手機用戶可以朝着手機的麥克風講話，在大約20秒鐘之後生成情緒分析。Beyond Verbal的管理人員說，該應用主要是用於自我診斷，也可以帶來一些小小的樂趣：它給每一次分析配上一張卡通臉孔，用戶可以把臉孔拿到社交媒體上去分享。

But the app is coming out as the company and other developers -- many clustered in Tel Aviv -- push increasingly sophisticated hardware and software they say can determine a person's emotional state through analysis of his or her voice.
在這款應用面世之際，Beyond Verbal和其他一些開發商――很多都扎堆特拉維夫――正在推出一些越來越尖端、據它們說可以通過分析語音確定一個人情緒狀態的硬件和軟件。

These companies say the tools can also detect fraud, screen airline passengers and help a call-center technician better deal with an irate customer. And they can be used to keep tabs on employees or screen job applicants. One developer, Tel Aviv-based Nemesysco Ltd., offers what it calls 'honesty maintenance' software aimed at human-resource executives. The firm says that by analyzing a job applicant's voice at an interview, the program can help identify fibs.
這些公司說，這些工具還可以偵測欺詐、檢查飛機乘客、幫助呼叫中心技術人員更好地對付發飆的顧客。它們可以用來監視員工或篩選求職者。特拉維夫開發商Nemesysco Ltd.推出以人力資源經理爲目標客戶的“誠信維護”軟件。該公司說，這套程序可以通過分析求職者在面試期間的說話聲音來幫助辨別謊言。

That's raising alarm among many voice-analysis experts, who question the accuracy of such on-the-spot interpretations. It's also raising worries among privacy advocates, who say such technology -- especially if it is being rolled out in cheap, easy-to-use smartphone apps -- could be a fresh threat to privacy.
這引起了很多語音分析專家的警惕，他們對這類現場轉譯的準確性提出了質疑。也引起了很多隱私鼓吹者的憂慮，他們說，這類技術有可能成爲一種新的隱私威脅，如果是以便宜好用的智能手機應用的形式推出，威脅就更爲嚴重。

Depending on how the analysis is performed, used and shared, 'there could well be breaches of certain privacy laws,' says Gwendolen Morgan, an associate at Bindmans LLP, a London human-rights law firm.
倫敦人權律師事務所Bindmans LLP合夥人格溫德琳・摩根(Gwendolen Morgan)說，這些分析“很有可能違反了某些隱私法規”，具體要看它們是怎樣運行以及被使用和共享的。

The new wave of technology is based on so-called layered voice analysis, and it's related to the much broader, more established field of 'speech-to-text' sentiment analysis. Verint Systems Inc., Thomson Reuters PLC and Hewlett-Packard Co. and others have long used speech-to-text technology to record phone calls and break them down into so-called text-based sentiment intelligence by flagging the occurrence of keywords or types of words. Call centers use the data to teach employees to keep customers on the phone or monitor employees for training purposes.
這一波新的技術浪潮基於“深層語音分析”(layered voice analysis)，跟更廣泛、更成熟的“語音轉文字”(speech-to-text)情緒分析領域有關。Verint Systems Inc.、湯森路透(Thomson Reuters PLC)、惠普(Hewlett-Packard Co.)等公司曾長期使用語音轉文字技術來記錄通話，並把出現在其中的關鍵詞或某些詞語種類標註出來，從而將通話分解爲“基於文本的情緒情報”。呼叫中心用這些數據教員工如何讓客戶保持通話，或爲了培訓的目的而監測員工。

The new speech-focused tools come as other companies are marketing body-language and facial-recognition sentiment-analysis tools -- including an app for Google Inc.'s Google Glass.
在這些新的語音分析工具面世之際，其他公司也在銷售身體語言和麪部識別類的情緒分析工具，比如一款針對谷歌公司(Google Inc.)“谷歌眼鏡”(Google Glass)的應用。

Voice-recognition and analysis specialists say there is no question that emotions and patterns of speech can be linked. But many say the utility of the analysis can be limited by the extent to which voice samples have been collected -- often requiring years of samples to detect variations caused by emotions.
語音識別與分析專家說，情緒和語音形態可能存在關聯，這一點勿庸置疑。但很多人說，這類分析的實用性可能受制於語音樣本的採集規模，常常需要採集多年的樣本才能偵測到情緒造成的變異。

Andrew Baron, assistant professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, says information produced by a lot of the commercially focused voice-recognition technology can be 'fuzzy.'
溫哥華英屬哥倫比亞大學(University of British Columbia)心理學助理教授安德魯・巴倫(Andrew Baron)說，很多以商業爲重的語音識別技術所產生的信息都有可能是“失真”的。'We simply don't have the technology today, at the level of cognitive neuroscience, to really know the precise content of a person's thought or emotion,' Mr. Baron says.
巴倫說：“想要真正知道一個人思想或情緒的準確內容，我們今天根本就沒有在認知神經科學的層面掌握這樣的技術。”

Israel has become an epicenter of the new technology largely because of its role as an incubator for security-focused technology. Nemesysco markets to security companies and law-enforcement agencies, as well as insurance companies and other corporate clients.
以色列之所以成爲這類新技術的中心，主要緣於它作爲安全技術孵化器的角色。Nemesysco的目標客戶有安保公司、執法機構，也有保險公司和其他一些企業客戶。

Britain's Department of Work and Pension bought some of Nemesysco's software to help it detect benefit fraud in 2007, but it says it discontinued the contract after three years after inconclusive results.
英國就業及退休保障部(Department for Work and Pension)在2007年購入Nemesysco的一部分軟件，來幫助它偵測騙取福利的行爲。但該部表示，三年過後因爲檢測結果不確定，便中止了合同。

Nemesysco founder Amir Liberman says his firm has come up with 120 vocal parameters that correlate with human emotions. Using algorithms, Mr. Liberman says the technology can pick up 'patterns and abnormalities' and classify them as related to emotional states like stress, excitement and confusion. He says the technology's benefits far outweigh any perceived infringement on personal privacy.
Nemesysco創始人阿米爾・利伯曼(Amir Liberman)說，他的公司已經確定了120個與人類情感相關的語音參數。利伯曼說，通過算法，這項技術可以甄別出一些“特定的模式和異常情況”，進而確認它們是否與緊張、興奮、疑惑等情緒狀態有關。他說，該技術的好處遠遠勝過一些人眼中個人隱私受到的侵犯。

EmoSpeech, a startup based in Puebla, Mexico, and Cambridge, Mass., sells its voice-analysis product to call centers in Mexico. It promises an ability to identify four basic emotional states: happiness, anger, impatience and neutrality. The company is targeting call centers in the U.S., says Chief Executive Miriam Reyes.
總部在墨西哥普埃布拉(Puebla)和美國馬薩諸塞州坎布里奇(Cambridge)的初創公司EmoSpeech向墨西哥的呼叫中心出售其語音分析產品。它承諾能夠辨別出快樂、憤怒、煩躁、中性這四種情緒狀態。EmoSpeech首席執行長米麗婭姆・雷耶斯(Miriam Reyes)說，公司正在面向美國的呼叫中心進行推銷。

Beyond Verbal, the company behind the Moodies smartphone app, says its software analyzes speech components like timing, energy, frequency and spectral content to produce data that can then be run through its algorithms.
推出Moodies應用的Beyond Verbal公司說，該軟件通過分析節奏、能量、頻率和頻譜內容等語音成分來生成數據，然後用自己的算法來進行加工。

Founded in 2012, Beyond Verbal's main business is selling layered-voice-analysis software to companies in the call-center business. The company recently closed a $2.8 million funding round led by prominent Kazakhstan-based angel investor Kenges Rakishev.
Beyond Verbal成立於2012年，主要業務是向做呼叫中心業務的企業出售深層語音分析軟件。最近該公司完成了一輪280萬美元的融資，牽頭的是哈薩克斯坦知名天使投資家肯格斯・拉基謝夫(Kenges Rakishev)。

Dan Emodi, Beyond Verbal's vice president for marketing and strategic accounts, says the software is based on more than three years of research. Based on user feedback, he says, the smartphone app has an accuracy rate of 80%.
Beyond Verbal負責營銷與戰略客戶的副總裁丹・埃默迪(Dan Emodi)說，該軟件基於三年多的研究。他說，從用戶反饋判斷，這款智能手機應用軟件有80%的準確率。

As for any privacy concerns, he says, 'Our responsibility is the people we work with, the partners we choose.' But he does acknowledge there 'is no technological way for us to prevent anyone from taking our product and activating it on somebody else without their knowledge.'
他說，至於隱私方面的憂慮，“我們的負責對象是一起合作的人、我們選擇的合作伙伴”。但他也承認，“從技術上講，我們沒有辦法阻止任何人拿着我們的產品在別人不知情的情況下在他們身上使用它”。