Patent ID: 7031919
Filing Date: 2006-04-18
Classification: G10L

Abstract:
1. A speech synthesizing apparatus comprising: storage means for storing plural items of phoneme data; retrieval means for retrieving phoneme data, in accordance with given retrieval conditions, from the plural items of phoneme data stored in said storage means; first penalty assigning means for assigning a penalty that is based upon an attribute value to each item of phoneme data retrieved by said retrieval means; and selection means for selecting, from the phoneme data retrieved by said retrieval means, and based upon the penalty assigned by said first penalty assigning means, phoneme data to be employed in synthesis of a speech waveform, wherein the attribute values include power and phoneme duration of each item of phoneme data, and said first penalty assigning means assigns a power-related penalty in such a manner that a small penalty is assigned to phoneme data whose power is close to an average value of the power, and assigns a phoneme-duration-related penalty in such a manner that a small penalty is assigned to phoneme data whose phoneme duration is close to an average value of the phoneme duration.