Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US6970819?dq=5,838,906
Timestamp: 2016-07-30 01:54:28
Document Index: 481526958

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 201', 'art 201', 'art 202', 'art 205', 'art 208', 'art 203', 'art 206', 'art 209', 'art 103', 'art 103', 'art 103', 'art 103', 'art 208']

Patent US6970819 - Speech synthesis device - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inPatentsThe principal object of this invention is to provide a suitable control method for closing length with respect to phonemes (such as unvoiced plosive consonants) having a closing interval, and as a result an improved rule-based speech synthesis device is provided. A phoneme type judgement part 201 judges...http://www.google.com/patents/US6970819?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6970819 - Speech synthesis deviceAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS6970819 B1Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 09/697,122Publication dateNov 29, 2005Filing dateOct 27, 2000Priority dateMar 17, 2000Fee statusLapsedPublication number09697122, 697122, US 6970819 B1, US 6970819B1, US-B1-6970819, US6970819 B1, US6970819B1InventorsYukio TabeiOriginal AssigneeOki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (8), Referenced by (10), Classifications (13), Legal Events (6) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetSpeech synthesis device
US 6970819 B1Abstract
The principal object of this invention is to provide a suitable control method for closing length with respect to phonemes (such as unvoiced plosive consonants) having a closing interval, and as a result an improved rule-based speech synthesis device is provided. A phoneme type judgement part 201 judges whether the phoneme in question is a vowel or consonant and, in the case of a consonant, judges whether or not it is a consonant that anteriorly has a closing interval. As a result, it operates a vowel length estimation part 202 when it judges that the phoneme is a vowel and operates a consonant length estimation part 205 when it judges that the phoneme is a consonant, and when it has judged that this phoneme anteriorly has a closing interval, it operates a closing length estimation part 208, whereby the respective time lengths are estimated. After that, the estimated time lengths are set by vowel length setting part 203, consonant length setting part 206 and closing length setting part 209, respectively.
That is, if j is the ith data element item, k is the category to which it belongs, and x(jk) is the category quantity thereof (the coefficient associated with the category), then the estimated values y(i) are given by Formula (1). y ( i ) = ∑ j ∑ k � ( jk ) δ ( jk ) where: ( 1 ) δ ( jk ) = 1 (when��data�� i ��corresponds��to��category�� k ��of��item�� j ) = 0 (otherwise) ( 2 ) x(jk) is determined by the method of least square. That is, it is determined by minimizing the squared error between the estimated values y(i) and the actual measured values Y(i). ∑ i { y ( i ) - Y ( i ) } 2 -> minimum ( 3 ) The equation has to be solved by partially differentiating Formula (3) by x(jk). When a computer is used to perform real calculations based on Formula (3), it results in a numerical analysis problem to solve simultaneous equations.
Consequently, the rule-based speech synthesis device of the present invention is a rule-based speech synthesis device that generates arbitrary speech by selecting previously stored speech synthesis units, concatenating these selected speech synthesis units, and controlling the prosodic information, and which is provided with a phoneme duration time setting means that estimates and controls the closing interval length of phonemes having a closing interval separately from the vowel length and the consonant length.
Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the figures.
First Embodiment of Method for Setting the Phoneme Duration Time in the Parameter Generation Part
A first embodiment of a method for setting the phoneme duration time in parameter generation part 103 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2.
Second Embodiment of Method for Setting the Phoneme Duration Time in the Parameter Generation Part
A second embodiment of a method for setting the phoneme duration time in parameter generation part 103 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 3.
Third Embodiment of Method for Setting the Phoneme Duration Time in the Parameter Generation Part
A third embodiment of a method for setting the phoneme duration time in parameter generation part 103 is described in detail with reference to FIG. 4.
Fourth Embodiment of Method for Setting the Phoneme Duration Time in the Parameter Generation Part
A fourth embodiment of a method for setting the phoneme duration time in parameter generation part 103 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 5.
As described above, with the present embodiment, since the closing length is controlled depending on whether or not the preceding phoneme is de-voiced, for example, since /i/ in the syllable /chi/ of /ochikaku/ (“nearby”) is de-voiced, it is possible to control the closing interval length that prefixes the /k/ of the following syllable /ka/ to an appropriate value.
Although a configuration is employed wherein the de-voicing rules mentioned below are applied to determine the de-voicing of phonemes in the prior de-voicing judgement means 502 of the fourth embodiment, it is also possible—as an alternative embodiment—to employ a configuration wherein the application of de-voicing rules is performed separately beforehand and predetermined de-voicing information is obtained in closing length estimation part 208.
Patent CitationsCited PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS5682501 *Feb 21, 1995Oct 28, 1997International Business Machines CorporationSpeech synthesis systemUS5740320 *May 7, 1997Apr 14, 1998Nippon Telegraph And Telephone CorporationText-to-speech synthesis by concatenation using or modifying clustered phoneme waveforms on basis of cluster parameter centroidsUS5864812 *Nov 30, 1995Jan 26, 1999Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.Speech synthesizing method and apparatus for combining natural speech segments and synthesized speech segmentsUS5940797 *Sep 18, 1997Aug 17, 1999Nippon Telegraph And Telephone CorporationSpeech synthesis method utilizing auxiliary information, medium recorded thereon the method and apparatus utilizing the methodUS6006175 *Feb 6, 1996Dec 21, 1999The Regents Of The University Of CaliforniaMethods and apparatus for non-acoustic speech characterization and recognitionUS6665641 *Nov 12, 1999Dec 16, 2003Scansoft, Inc.Speech synthesis using concatenation of speech waveformsJPH04134499A Title not availableJPS6346498A Title not available* Cited by examinerReferenced byCiting PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS7418385 *Jun 18, 2004Aug 26, 2008Ntt Docomo, Inc.Voice detection deviceUS7480616 *Feb 27, 2003Jan 20, 2009Ntt Docomo, Inc.Information recognition device and information recognition methodUS9135909 *Dec 1, 2011Sep 15, 2015Yamaha CorporationSpeech synthesis information editing apparatusUS20030163306 *Feb 27, 2003Aug 28, 2003Ntt Docomo, Inc.Information recognition device and information recognition methodUS20040225646 *Nov 28, 2003Nov 11, 2004Miki SasakiNumerical expression retrieving deviceUS20050027529 *Jun 18, 2004Feb 3, 2005Ntt Docomo, Inc.Voice detection deviceUS20070151080 *Apr 5, 2006Jul 5, 2007Lu Sheng-NanHingeUS20110166861 *Jul 7, 2011Kabushiki Kaisha ToshibaMethod and apparatus for synthesizing a speech with informationUS20120143600 *Dec 1, 2011Jun 7, 2012Yamaha CorporationSpeech Synthesis information Editing ApparatusCN103854643A *Nov 29, 2012Jun 11, 2014株式会社 东芝Method and apparatus for speech synthesis* Cited by examinerClassifications U.S. Classification704/256, 704/E13.013, 704/258, 704/206, 704/205, 704/257, 704/268, 704/208International ClassificationG10L15/14, G10L13/06, G10L13/08Cooperative ClassificationG10L13/10European ClassificationG10L13/10Legal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionFeb 3, 2006ASAssignmentOwner name: OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY CO., LTD., JAPANFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:TABEI, YUKIO;REEL/FRAME:017159/0128Effective date: 20001016Mar 12, 2009ASAssignmentOwner name: OKI SEMICONDUCTOR CO., LTD., JAPANFree format text: CHANGE OF NAME;ASSIGNOR:OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY CO., LTD.;REEL/FRAME:022408/0397Effective date: 20081001Owner name: OKI SEMICONDUCTOR CO., LTD.,JAPANFree format text: CHANGE OF NAME;ASSIGNOR:OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY CO., LTD.;REEL/FRAME:022408/0397Effective date: 20081001Apr 29, 2009FPAYFee paymentYear of fee payment: 4Jul 12, 2013REMIMaintenance fee reminder mailedNov 29, 2013LAPSLapse for failure to pay maintenance feesJan 21, 2014FPExpired due to failure to pay maintenance feeEffective date: 20131129RotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services