The WorkingAge European project introduces innovative studies and advanced voice and emotion recognition technologies to assist workers. The aim? To improve the quality of life and wellbeing on the workplace thanks to artificial intelligence, Human Computer Interaction and IoT sensors that verify the cognitive, physiological and environmental conditions and prevent risks.
Milan, October 1st 2020 – In a society in which the working age continues to grow, the WorkingAge project studies the habits of workers aged over 50 in their daily activities to improve the quality of life and the work conditions.
WorkingAge is a European project involving the Polytechnic University of Milan in partnership with PerVoice and that uses advanced AI (Artificial Intelligence) and HCI (Human Computer Interaction) methods for gauging the worker’s emotional, motivational, cognitive and health conditions, by collecting physiological data—including voice recognition, gestures, eye tracking, electroencephalic data, heart rate and skin conductance—and information on the external environmental conditions through IoT sensors. A consortium made up of universities, research institutes and technological companies from Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain works on the project, which is financed by the Horizon 2020 program. Info: https://www.workingage.eu/.
The Polytechnic University of Milan heads the ethical committee of WorkingAge and guarantees the adequate processing of persona data collected from the test participants according to GDPR criteria. Moreover, the ARCSLab laboratory of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Polytechnic University of Milan oversees, through innovative algorithms created in-house, the identification of emotional aspects expressed during voice conversations by analyzing both the acoustic characteristics and the contents of speech.
“The recognition of emotional and motivational states during interactions at work required the use of an automatic speech transcription system that respected privacy (not based on cloud) and could be easily adapted to the specific requirements of the WorkingAge project and to the modules we created. This led us to choose the solution proposed by PerVoice,” declared Licia Sbattella, Director of the ARCSLab Laboratory of the Polytechnic University of Milan. “For us this collaboration marks an important opportunity to technological exchange: whereas we get to use the automatic speech transcription technology created by them, PerVoice will be able to use the technology that automatically recognizes the emotions expressed by the speaker, developed by our laboratory”.
The partnership with the Polytechnic University of Milan strengthens the innovation ecosystem of PerVoice—a company controlled by Almawave, which is part of the AlmavivA Group – consisting of projects and collaborations with important research bodies, universities and technological institutes in Italy and abroad. For PerVoice this innovation translates into ongoing investments in research for boosting its technologies and qualifies the Trento-based company as a premium Italian company on the international scene in the field of automatic speech recognition.
“The collaboration with an Italian university, recognized among the world’s best, consolidates our social commitment for developing inclusive technologies, designed to favor communication and relational aspects among people,” declared Paolo Paravento, the CEO of PerVoice. “We are pleased to put our advanced voice recognition technologies at the disposal of the Polytechnic University of Milan and believe that access to programs such as WorkingAge will provide users with useful tools and resources to enrich their quality of life”.
PerVoice and the Polytechnic University of Milan participate in the WorkingAge project by making available their own technologies – respectively for voice and emotion recognition based on new generation solutions originating entirely in Italy.