Patent ID: 6778962
Filing Date: 2004-08-17
Classification: A63F,G10L

Abstract:
A speech synthesis method of creating voice message data corresponding to an input character string, comprising the steps of:using (a) a word dictionary that stores a large number of character strings having at least one character with its accent type, (b) a prosody dictionary that stores typical prosodic model data among prosodic model data representing the prosodic information for the character strings stored in said word dictionary, and (c) a waveform dictionary that stores voice waveform data of a composition unit with a recorded voice; determining the accent type of the input character string; selecting the prosodic model data from said prosody dictionary, based on the input character string and the accent type; transforming the prosodic information of said prosodic model data in accordance with the input character string in response to the character string of the selected prosodic model data not being coincident with the input character string; selecting the waveform data corresponding to each character of the input character string from the waveform dictionary, based on the prosodic model data; connecting the selected waveform data with each other; storing the prosodic model data including the character string, a mora number, the accent type, and syllabic information in said prosody dictionary; creating the syllabic information of an input character string; providing a prosodic model candidate by extracting the prosodic model data having the mora number and accent type coincident to that of the input character string from said prosody dictionary; creating prosodic reconstructed information by comparing the syllabic information of each prosodic model data candidate and the syllabic information of the input character string; and selecting an optimal prosodic model data based on the character string of each prosodic model data candidate and the prosodic reconstructed information thereof.