Patent ID: 6625576
Filing Date: 2003-09-23
Classification: G10L

Abstract:
A method for performing text-to-speech conversion comprising the steps of:analyzing input text and producing therefrom an intermediate representation thereof; and synthesizing speech output based upon said intermediate representation of said input text, wherein said analyzing and producing step is performed on a server within a client/server environment, and wherein said synthesizing step is performed on a client device which is associated with but distinct from said server, wherein said synthesizing step produces said speech output further based upon a set of acoustic units comprised in a dynamic cache memory associated with said client device, the method further comprising the steps of: selecting a subset of acoustic units from an acoustic unit database associated with said server, wherein said subset of acoustic units is selected based on said intermediate representation of said input text and on a determination of which acoustic units will be needed and which acoustic units will not be needed to synthesize the speech output from the intermediate representation of said input text; transmitting one or more of said acoustic units comprised in said Subset across a communications channel from said server to said client device; and storing said one or more of said acoustic units in said dynamic cache memory.