Patent ID: 6836761
Filing Date: 2004-12-28
Classification: G10L

Abstract:
An apparatus for converting an input voice into an output voice according to a target voice, comprising:a storage section that provisionally stores source data, which is associated to and extracted from the target voice; an analyzing section that analyzes the input voice to extract therefrom a series of input data frames representing the input voice; a producing section that produces a series of target data frames representing the target voice based on the source data, while aligning the target data frames with the input data frames to secure synchronization between the target data frames and the input data frames; and a synthesizing section that synthesizes the output voice according to the target data frames and the input data frames, wherein the producing section includes: a characteristic analyzer that extracts from the input voice a characteristic vector which is characteristic of the input voice, a memory that memorizes recognition phoneme data for use in recognition of phonemes contained in the input voice and target behavior data which is a part of the source data and which represents a behavior of the target voice, an alignment processor that determines a temporal relation between the input data frames and the target data frames according to the characteristic vector, the recognition phoneme data and the target behavior data so as to output alignment data corresponding to the determined temporal relation, and a target decoder that produces the target data frames according to the alignment data, the input data frames, pitch information of the target behavior data, amplitude information of the target behavior data, and spectrum shape information of a target phonemic dictionary.