Patent ID: 7739113
Filing Date: 2010-06-15
Classification: G10L

Abstract:
1. A voice synthesizer that uses recorded voices that are pre-recorded to generate a synthesized voice that reads out a text, comprising: a recorded voice storage portion that stores the recorded voices that are pre-recorded; a voice input portion that is input with a reading voice that is a natural voice reading out a text that is to be generated by the synthesized voice; an attribute information input portion that is input with a label string and label information, the label string being a string of labels that are respectively assigned to each phoneme included in the reading voice and that are placed in a time series, and the label information indicating the border position of each phoneme corresponding to each label; a parameter extraction portion that extracts a characteristic parameter that indicates a characteristic of the reading voice based on the label string, the label information, and the reading voice; and a voice synthesis portion that selects at least one of the recorded voices from the recorded voice storage portion in accordance with the characteristic parameter, synthesizes the selected at least one recorded voice, and generates the synthesized voice that reads out the text, wherein the characteristic parameter extracted by the parameter extraction portion includes a prosody parameter that indicates a prosody characteristic of the reading voice, and the voice synthesizer further comprises: a phoneme model storage portion that stores an acoustic model and a prosody model that are generated in advance based on the recorded voices stored in the recorded voice storage portion, the acoustic model modeling an acoustic characteristic of each phoneme included in the recorded voices, and the prosody model modeling a prosody characteristic of each phoneme included in the recorded voices; a text input portion that is input with a text that is to be generated by the synthesized voice; a text analysis portion that analyses the text and obtains language prosody information; and a characteristic estimation portion that estimates an acoustic characteristic of the natural voice reading out the text based on the label string, the label information, the prosody parameter, the language prosody information, and the acoustic model and the prosody model stored in the phoneme model storage portion, and derives an acoustic parameter that indicates the acoustic characteristic.