Adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) experience marked difficulties in recognising the emotions of others and responding appropriately. The clinical characteristics of ASC mean that face to face or group interventions may not be appropriate for this clinical group. This article explores the potential of a new interactive technology, converting text to emotionally expressive speech, to improve emotion processing ability and attention to faces in adults with ASC. We demonstrate a method for generating a near-videorealistic avatar (XpressiveTalk), which can produce a video of a face uttering inputted text, in a large variety of emotional tones. We then demonstrate that general population adults can correctly recognize the emotions portrayed by XpressiveTalk. Adults with ASC are significantly less accurate than controls, but still above chance levels for inferring emotions from XpressiveTalk. Both groups are significantly more accurate when inferring sad emotions from XpressiveTalk compared to the original actress, and rate these expressions as significantly more preferred and realistic. The potential applications for XpressiveTalk as an assistive technology for adults with ASC is discussed.

中文翻译：

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富有表现力的视觉文本转语音作为自闭症谱系患者的辅助技术。

患有自闭症谱系疾病 (ASC) 的成年人在识别他人情绪和做出适当反应方面存在明显困难。ASC 的临床特征意味着面对面或团体干预可能不适合该临床群体。本文探讨了一种新的交互技术的潜力，将文本转换为情感表达的语音，以提高 ASC 成人的情感处理能力和对面部的注意力。我们演示了一种生成近乎视频真实的化身（XpressiveTalk）的方法，该方法可以生成以各种情绪语气说出输入文本的面部视频。然后，我们证明普通成年人能够正确识别 XpressiveTalk 所描绘的情绪。患有 ASC 的成年人的准确度明显低于对照组，但仍高于通过 XpressiveTalk 推断情绪的机会水平。与原始女演员相比，两组人在从 XpressiveTalk 推断悲伤情绪时都明显更准确，并且认为这些表情明显更受欢迎、更真实。讨论了 XpressiveTalk 作为 ASC 成人辅助技术的潜在应用。