Patent ID: 7386451
Filing Date: 2008-06-10
Classification: G10L

Abstract:
1. A method for optimizing an objective measure, from which naturalness of synthesized speech can be estimated, wherein naturalness is a subjective quality of synthesized speech, the method comprising: generating a set of synthesized utterances; subjectively rating each of the synthesized utterances; calculating a score for each of the synthesized utterances using an objective measure, the objective measure being a function of textual information derived from the utterances; ascertaining a relationship between the scores of the objective measure and subjective ratings of the synthesized utterances; and altering the objective measure in a manner beyond only changing one or more weighting factors in the objective measure to provide a different function of textual information derived from the utterances so as to improve the relationship between the scores of the objective measure and subjective ratings of the synthesized utterances.